Held Returns After Seven Years With New EP 'Star Falling'

Auckland musician Daniel Phounsavan has announced that his solo project Held will release a new EP titled Star Falling, alongside a lead single, "Standby," out now. It's Held's first new release since a self-titled EP in 2019 — a seven-year gap. The news was first reported by Stereogum on September 11.

What was announced

The new EP is called Star Falling, and its lead single "Standby" is available to stream now. Held's output has never been prolific: Phounsavan started the project solo in 2015, put out a demo tape in 2016, released a self-titled EP in 2019, and then went quiet on new recordings until now.

Heavy shoegaze, ahead of the curve

Stereogum frames the release against a current wave of heavy shoegaze acts drawing on the vocabulary of Deftones and Hum, some of which have grown to considerable size in the underground scene.

The report notes that Held predates this surge of interest by a wide margin — the project started in 2015, well before this particular sound became a scene-wide reference point. Seen on a timeline, Star Falling is a project that existed before the trend and is now returning in the middle of it.