Throw on the bat signal, and Sailor Down will throw up her hands.
The North Shore project of Chloe Deeley turns its back on codependence in the new single “Bat Signal,” the first taste of Deeley’s forthcoming record Lookout Park, out June 9 via Relief Map Records.
“‘Bat Signal’ is a collage of thoughts and images,” says Deeley. “I had written the outro several years ago, when it was an entirely different song. At the time, I was feeling obsessed with and dependent on one person, and the waiting around was happening in the present tense. The melody in the verses was completely different too, it was sentimental and fingerpicked. I revisited the song more recently and had a different perspective on that situation, so I rewrote the verses while keeping some of the same imagery — the bat signals, the missing person. It turned into a song about self-reliance.”
“I used to wait for your bat signals / Cut through the fog,” she sings on the second verse, stuck on standby for the paltry reward of a friend’s fleeting attention. As the song’s delicate bedroom pop unfurls, Deeley gazes away from the signal-free sky and towards a reality where she’s nobody’s strung-along second choice.
“I’m taking a break from falling down / I’m gonna learn how to follow myself around,” she croons with conviction. Consider it Deeley’s own kind of signal — one that proudly proclaims “we’re done here.”
Tune in below, and pre-order Lookout Park here.