Willa Ford Releases Her First New Album In Over 20 Years 'amanda'
(BT PR) Pop artist and multi-talented creative Willa Ford has released her long-awaited sophomore album, amanda. The project marks her first full-length body of work in more than two decades, following her notable 2001 debut Willa Was Here. Alongside amanda, Willa has shared a new music video for the track "Disassociate".
amanda (its title taken from her birth name) is both a bold rebirth and a brave reclaiming of a dream nearly destroyed. After joining a longtime friend for a series of informal songwriting sessions in 2023, the Northern California-based artist quickly reconnected with her long-dormant musical passion, tapping into the formidable talent previously shown in co-writing songs like her Top 40 breakout hit "I Wanna Be Bad." But as she delved deeper into the creative process, Ford suffered her first bout with a type of seizure known as PNES-a phenomenon later found to be triggered by unresolved trauma closely tied to her past experience in music. While working through that trauma and learning to cope with her condition, she dove back into music with an even fiercer sense of purpose, soon arriving at the sublime catharsis of amanda: a triumphant return delivering equal parts pure pop pleasure and daring self-revelation.
One of the most revealing tracks on amanda, "Disassociate" offers an up-close and unflinching look at Ford's experience with PNES (i.e., psychogenic nonepileptic seizures). "Through working with neuroscientists and neuro-psychs we learned that my brain had blocked out certain traumatic events, and that those events were interconnected with music-so it makes sense that I wanted to stay away from music for so many years," she says. Propelled by pulse-pounding rhythms and incandescent synth, "Disassociate" viscerally details the sensation of her seizures while channeling an unstoppable determination to keep moving forward (from the second verse: "Out-of-body vertigo/Like a fire without a warning/Can't fight a demon you don't know/You got to see the hurt you're holding"). "The more I learn about what happened to me, the better my chances are of no longer having the seizures," she explains.
Additional highlights on amanda include "Love4Life," a euphoric ode to her husband, former Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Ryan Nece, "Burn Burn," which transforms her inner monologue into a glorious anthem of self-salvation and "Carousel," which fully showcases the immense depth of Ford's sonic vocabulary and musical imagination, inspired by her love for the symphonic pop of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys.
"When I first started writing these songs, I didn't know what I was writing for," says Ford. "But if I hadn't unlocked certain things through my music, I don't know if the seizures would have started-and it's because of the seizures that so much has finally come to light. It feels remarkable to get to this place after all these years, and to be putting out a record that's been incredibly healing for me."
Willa will be performing at two upcoming special live events in California including "Song with Strings" at Two Faced Gallery in West Hollywood on March 5th, and Aviator Nation Dreamland in Malibu on March 8th. Stream the album here and watch the new video below:
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