Salt Lake City-based Indie Singer-Songwriter Josaleigh Pollett debuted for Audio Antihero on October 28th, 2025 with “Radio Player,” an electronics-infused and Poltergeist-inspired new single. Here, Josaleigh is reunited with long-time collaborator Jordan Watko (Crowd Shy) for the first time since Jordan’s relocation to Japan, making this their first recorded output since 2023’s highly acclaimed “In the Garden, By the Weeds,” which NPR Music’s Bob Boilen featured on All Songs Considered.
Despite the distance between them, the pair opted to make their first cross-continent collaboration more ambitious and exploratory than what came before. Initially finding acclaim in 2020 with their ‘No Woman Is the Sea’ album, before going on to share bills with St. Vincent, Torres, Deep Sea Diver, DeVotchKa, Mini Trees, Hibou, and Kilby Block Party, “Radio Player” sees their sound continue to evolve. This new slow-burning single merges analogue atmospherics, Indie Rock drive, and Pop melodies to create something that feels haunting, claustrophobic, and cathartic.
Speaking on their return, Josaleigh comments:
“Radio Player is a song about memory and fear, loosely based on seeing the movie Poltergeist at too young an age. It is a journey through the hallways of childhood that we leave a light on within. A pink light flickers on and beckons the listener through, releasing them changed and covered in ectoplasm five minutes later.
In true independent DIY fashion and similar to 2023’s In The Garden, By The Weeds, this new song is recorded mostly at home between my Salt Lake City make-shift home studio, and Jordan’s apartment in Japan. The difference this time is that we’re bringing in more collaborations and new instrumentation. In addition to mixing and mastering, Nashville’s Andrew Goldring helped with production and played some instruments on Radio Player, as well as being a part of the live band that played Kilby Block Party earlier this year. Radio Player really got its feet under it in a live band setting, and we tried to bring more of that to our production without losing the electronic-based production that Jordan is so fluent in.
This is the first song we made together since Jordan moved to Japan in 2024, and instead of letting distance dampen our collaboration, we really tried to lean into the chaos and confusion of creating from different ends of different days while an ocean apart. I think a lot of that anxiety and newness mixed with the dedication of friendship drives this new music.”
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“Radio Player is both patient and expansive, initially playing with cryptic and atmospheric soundcraft before filling out the mix with coruscating synth arpeggios. Although its presentation and instrumentation are largely electronic, the track retains plenty of crackling vitality, both in its quiet acoustic detour and in the grand, sweeping finale. By the track’s end, the listener is swept away in a dazzling cascade of glittering synth pop melodies. Meanwhile, Pollett’s vocal performance is similarly passionate, rising above the crescendoing synths and drums as their lyrics come out in a fervent rush.” – Under the Radar Magazine
“Josaleigh Pollett is a singer and songwriter from Salt Lake City, Utah, who just released an impressive album called In The Garden, By The Weeds. Their song “Empty Things” features contributions from a member of fellow Utah band Little Moon, who won this year’s Tiny Desk Contest.” – NPR Music (All Songs Considered)
“There’s haunted, and then there’s haunted. Josaleigh Pollett’s new single ‘Radio Player’ flickers alive, glowing like a cursed TV set at 3am.” – God Is In the TV
“…they’re upping the ante now. “Radio Player,” their new single, is a crackling five-minute upward climb, Pollett turns in a career-best vocal performance over quivering synths.” – The Alternative
“Josaleigh Pollett is a master at creating atmosphere, and In the Garden, By the Weeds creates an entire world to get swept away in. In the Garden takes what Pollett did so wonderfully back in 2020 with No Woman is the Sea and refines it into something sharp toothed, tender and true to their brand of heart-wrenching songwriting.” – SLUG Magazine
“Radio Player captures the anxious, restless feeling of a vintage horror flick, with a yearning for safety and comfort amid a distorted experience.” – Swim Into the Sound
“What Low (a band Pollett cites as an influence) did to slowcore and 90s indie rock in their last few albums feels analogous to what Pollett and Watko seek to do with the indie folk and more modern kinds of indie rock on their newest album.” – Rosy Overdrive
“It’s glitchy and skittering in its production at times, anchored by organic moments of beauty and bombast, and full of unabashedly earnest and personal lyricism that the gravity of which lingers with you well after the shimmering and jittery final moment has come to an end. An album full of surprises both in sound, and in the depth of its writing, In The Garden is a huge statement from a tremendous young talent.” – Atwood Magazine (Albums of the Year)
Josaleigh Pollett Interviews & Features:
B-Sides & Badlands / Moths & Giraffes (Oct ’25 / Jan ’25) / Spare Notes / PopMatters / KRCL / SLUG Magazine / I Enjoy Music / Wilbur & Moore / Start-Track / I Have That on Vinyl / Archive Recordings Sessions / Van Sessions / Joyzine / Atwood Magazine
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