PROTAGONIST Album Release Show - Eliza Spear

I wrote Protagonist in a ten-person communal living house in Brooklyn. My nine roommates and I shared everything—except this album. For months, I kept it to myself. It was just Stephen and I, obsessing over every detail of phrasing, metaphor, sound, and emotion. The first time I ever sang "Lighthouse" live was in Central Park. I started without an audience but finished with about ten runners, walkers, museum-goers, and even poodles who had stopped to hear me sing, "I'm the protagonist." They told me afterward that the song empowered them to see themselves that way.

The first time I performed "Find Someone Else" was at the Prospect Park farmers market. I introduced it by saying, "This is a song from the moon and me, to you." Some of the people I met that day later came to my gigs, singing back the lyrics Stephen and I had crafted in my tiny attic room. When I started writing Protagonist, I was consumed with telling my story through someone else's eyes. By the time I finished the album, I was writing about who I was through my own lens.

Through busking around New York, I’ve performed this album for so many of you, sharing my experiences in the hope that by the last line of the last song, you’ll have found your own story reflected in mine. In my opinion, the best art does this, and I’ve met incredible artists who do this effortlessly in the parks, street corners, and train stations of New York.

On November 15th, I’m bringing together some of the finest art I’ve encountered in this city, and our dream is that you'll find your story in ours.

I can't wait to see you, Protagonist.

-ES

Host or Publisher Eliza Spear