Orion Sun will celebrate her debut Hold Space For Me at Johnny Brenda’s in April

Philadelphia’s Orion Sun will release her long-in-the-works full-length debut Hold Space for Me on March 27th via Mom + Pop Records. The New Jersey-raised, Philly-based singer, songwriter, and producer captured the scene’s attention and imagination over the past couple years with warm and inviting tracks and dreamlike mixtapes. When she was named an NPR Slingshot Artist to Watch in 2019, I wrote “With elements of electronic music, hip-hop, jazz and pop at play in her compositions, Orion Sun comes close to rendering the idea of genre irrelevant: these are simply beautiful songs that carry listeners with them wherever they go.”

Announcing Hold Space for Me on Instagram, Orion Sun wrote about creating music as a means of overcoming personal struggles, and called the album “a documentation of my healing process.”

“facing head first the traumas of my past, friendships i thought would last forever; but didn’t, silly streams of consciousness, and finding love in the midst of it all. its a representation of me being the most comfortable with who i am and my emotions and how they make me feel without rejecting them because of fear it would make me a weak person. everyday i am learning how to love myself and give me the care i need cause survival mode is over for now. i can breathe. my family can breathe. i can live wholeheartedly again. its such a privilege to not only survive but live.”

With the album’s announcement comes a new single, “Coffee for Dinner,” a followup to the previously-released “Ne Me Quitte Pas (Don’t Leave Me).” Swift beats and clean guitar comingle, lighting the way for Orion Sun’s voice singing about memory, insecurity, and struggle — “working two jobs till I finally got a whip,” “giving up so easy,” and the indelible refrain, “often, often, I think about it often.”

In a press release, Orion Sun said she wanted to use the instrumentation of the song to establish a sense of claustrophobia, followed by “my voice just kinda breaking through the noise. That’s kind of how that song resonates within me. I had to just break through all of the noise, all of the societal pressures of what I should be doing at this age, just what should be happening to me or like the what-ifs.”

Watch the Josh Sondock and Sam Cutler-Kreutz-directed “Coffee For Dinner” music video below and pre-order Hold Space for Me here. Orion Sun’s U.S. tour brings her to Johnny Brenda’s on Saturday, April 25th, and tickets go on sale this Friday. More information can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar.

Tour Dates
4/22 Boston, MA @ Great Scott
4/23 New York, NY @ Elsewhere-Zone One
4/24 Washington, DC @ DC9
4/25 Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
4/29 Toronto, ON @ The Drake
5/01 Chicago, IL @Schuba’s
5/02 Madison, WI @ U of WI – Der Rathskeller
5/03 Minneapolis, MN @ 7th Street Entry
5/07 Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
5/08 Vancouver, BC @ The Fox Cabaret
5/09 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
5/11 San Francisco, CA @ Café Du Nord
5/13 Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan