Stefan Tschumi

Brooklyn-based singer Sam Koechlin (aka Sam Himself) is back with new music.

The Switzerland native on Monday shared a new song called "Cry," a haunting track which serves as a preview of his upcoming debut album, expected to arrive next year. The new single follows his Slow Drugs EP, which arrived back in May.

Koechlin was supposed to perform a European tour earlier this year, but after only one show, the trek was canceled because of the ongoing health crisis. With only the limited equipment he brought on the road with him, he began working on new material for the album, including "Cry," which has a very The War on Drugs-vibe to it.

“I was driving across Switzerland before dawn ... I’d been up for a long time, the tour had just been canceled and, according to the news, I wouldn’t be able to fly back to New York anytime soon," he recalls. "Then my phone rang and at the end of that call, the relationship I was in had ended, too. In a matter of hours, my life as I’d known it was over."

He continues: "For all the dread and confusion of that moment, I also felt ridiculous for licking my own wounds while the world around me looked like it was ending. That's the dissonant state I tried to capture with ‘Cry’: it's a farewell letter to my old life in New York and a relationship ended by the pandemic, but also a caustic reminder to myself not to wallow in self-pity amid a global catastrophe."

Hear "Cry" in the lyric video below.