Not Your Friend

liv.s’ sophomore full-length album produced by Hudson Valley-based producer and multi-instrumentalist, Annamarie Rosanio

Listen to “Not Your Friend” here

Behind the Album

liv., an alt-rockin, honky-tonkin New York-based artist, unveils her second full-length record, Not Your Friend, set to release throughout 2024. This record was produced by Annamarie Rosanio, a New York-based multi-faceted instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer. With a sentimental determination to capture the essence of realizing one’s self-worth in a relationship that just isn’t right, liv. and Rosanio embark on a musical journey to work through the boundaries that follow a “situationship.”

Hailing from New York’s Hudson Valley, liv.’s debut EP Life Vest EP appeared in 2020, while she collaborated with the Montreal-based band Squeeze Mason for a few songs. In 2022, liv. teamed up with Florida-based Van Plating– an Indie Americana artist and producer– to release her first full-length record, Young, Dumb, and in Love. 

Not Your Friend sprouted after liv. experienced a heartbreak right before the release of Young, Dumb, and in Love. In hopes of working through her emotions, liv. and Rosanio teamed up and began working on a single track. It was an instantaneous chemistry and as a result, liv. approached Rosanio with the idea of extending their recordings into an EP, and then an album. For nearly a year and a half, liv. and Rosanio worked intimately to create the record you’ll hear this year.  

Throughout the album's inception, liv. and Rosanio’s influences naturally emerged, resulting in an album that authentically reflects self-preservation, nostalgia, anger, and sadness. Not Your Friend mixes elements of indie-rock, pop, and Americana, channeling sounds likened to Holly Humberstone, Bon Iver, Fiona Apple, Lucy Dacus, and Maggie Rogers. liv.'s artistic growth is very evident in both her writing and vocals, while Rosanio’s production prowess and instrumental expertise combine to create a punchy collection of originals and covers. 

Digging into the power of putting one’s self first and communicating said priorities, liv.’s upcoming album dives even deeper into the raw vulnerability rooted in her emotional escapades. Each element, from the lyrics to the composition, delicately divulges another layer of the complexities in an unrequited love. 

Not Your Friend collects songs that will make you want to belt along while driving down a highway,-- like “Why Yet” or “Breakfast Date (Sunnyside Eggs Version).” Some songs will make you want to sit in your car and cry– like “comfort creature” and “breakfast date (pancakes version).” In keeping with her angsty nature, liv. also features songs that angrily question someone’s intentions– like “Just Your Friend (Right?)” and “Give Me One Reason.” She bends genres on “All You Were Ever Good At” and even bares her heart and soul on a cover of “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).” 

There are haunting boscage sounds, alternative pop sounds, nostalgic sounds, sounds to giggle with, and sounds to cry to. This record will have you on your feet and possibly on the phone with your therapist. Avoiding tough conversations, confessing feelings, denying and over-divulging emotions, being angry, coming to terms: it’s all there.

Listening to Not Your Friend will twist up something similar in anyone it brushes with. It will take you from the moment your heart realizes it needs more to the moment you look back and smile at the unexplored “What If” factors.