Ahead of general release tomorrow, Brooklyn alt-rocker America Jayne is treating LOUD WOMEN readers to an exclusive premiere of her awesome new single, ‘Scaredy Cat’.

This is instantly satisfying guitar-heavy punkrock with golden sprinkles of Americana in the powerhouse vocals and gang harmonies. Exactly the sort of sound one might expect from an artist raised in “a small town in Connecticut with more cows per square mile than people”, now making music at the pounding heart of the Brooklyn queer DIY scene.

America Jayne is also known as singer-songwriter Erica Pierce. We caught up with her for a quick interview …

Erica! We love the new single ‘Scaredy Cat’. What’s the story behind it?
At its core, Scaredy Cat is about childhood trauma. The song explores the irrational, but often debilitating fears we have as children and how these materialize into our adulthood. The song begins with childhood anxiety towards ghosts, moves to a teenage fear of sex, and rounds out with the current discomfort that I never quite got over these worries. Fun fact, this song was inspired by my previous release, Open Casket. In Open Casket I discuss wanting the person I was seeing at the time to be vulnerable, and to do so I began by telling him about my childhood fears. 

What was it like recording the track?
Recording ‘Scaredy Cat‘ was an absolute blast. You will not meet a bigger hype man for my producer, co-writer, and band, so any time I get to spend with them is always amazing. As soon as we started writing it we knew it was going to be, for lack of better word, a BANGER. We knew we wanted it to be rock-centric and grow with each passing moment. Every step of adding layers in the studio made our vision more clear – and it was so fun to be a part of. 

Are there specific production choices/musical choices that you’re really proud of?
While I can’t take credit for it (my producer, Ronnie DiSimmone, is amazing!) – I am pretty partial to the vocal layering on the bridge of the song. The song builds up to an absolutely insane moment of cacophonous vocal stacks on the final “it’s not my fault”. Big shout out to Tiger Darrow and Rachel Bochner for screaming to the heavens on the backing vocals. 

What were some of your biggest musical influences?
I absolutely love the current state of music and draw a lot of inspiration from my peers. In the past my music has been compared to Soccer Mommy, Julien Baker, and Beach Bunny. However, I think my favorite description ever came from my producer who said my music is like if Paramore and Phoebe Bridgers had a baby. 

I love indie-rock, bubble grunge, and classic pop-punk and I think “Scaredy Cat” is a perfect example of blending said genres. 

Erica is joined on this latest single by producer Ronnie DiSimone (Daisy The Great, Del Water Gap, Annika Bennett, Halima, Jukebox the Ghost) and features an all-star cast of Rachel Bochner on backing vocals, Nick Cianci (Del Water Gap, Samia) on guitar, Ned Steves (Samia) on bass, and Aidan Shepherd on drums. 

Stay tuned for Erica’s debut EP Homecoming, due out June 2022. 

Find America Jayne on
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