I have the absolute delight of introducing you to Sydney Spraker, a new voice in the alt-rock music sphere. At just 26, this editor/singer/songwriter triple-threat is throwing her hat in the ring in a serious way with debut track “Go On, Keep On” produced by Jonathan Sambrick of Thornwall Studios.

Out today, November 3rd, “Go On, Keep On” confronts a struggle that most of us face every day — how to move through pain when all you have is what you’re most afraid of: yourself. We can be our own worst enemy or, as Spraker writes in this song, our own last hope. What do we do when we have to follow through and face our own shadow? But facing what scares us most seems to be Sydney Spraker’s mission statement as an artist. Sonically, Sambrick’s guitar riffs take me right back to my own teenage bedroom, blasting the alternative hits of my childhood (Paramore’s “Decode”, for example) through the earbuds of my clunky iPod Classic. This song has all the sonic notes of the early aughts while weaving in the lyrical self-awareness of the 21st century.

As a mostly visual person, I’d also be remiss not to acknowledge the cover art for this single, designed by Spraker’s father — a red and black image of a girl in an ominous doorway could be the cover of a dystopian coming-of-age novel. The visual feels fitting, as that’s the kind of world we are living in now. I think it’s exactly what Spraker’s song is meant to soundtrack: a new generation of young people trying to figure out who the hell they really are. Sydney Spraker is telling us to look inward, and to look no further than ourselves if we want to feel known.

Listen to ‘Go On, Keep On’ on Spotify or Apple Music.