Vlad Holiday is a Romanian-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter and musician, who cut his teeth in the NYC lo-fi scene, building an audience on his own terms. Songs like “So Damn Into You,” “Quit Playing Cool,” and “Phonograph” introduced fans and critics to an artist with a distinct point of view — romantic without being overly sentimental, nostalgic without living entirely in the past. Sonically, his work frequently sees him blending his smoky croon with tape hiss, 60s-styled guitars, 90s hiphop beats and 808 sub ass.

Back in 2024, Holiday released his full-length debut My Favorite Drug. The album saw the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist delving into dark subject matter with the songs openly talking about low moments in his mental health, substance abuse, the thin line between sanity and insanity and cynical patterns of familial abuse, all to place an element of love into life’s heaviest topics.

Holiday went on to tour alongside frequent collaborators Cage The Elephant and Declan McKenna. He played at Austin City Limits — and he went on his own headlining tours across North America, the UK and European Union. Adding to a breakthrough year for the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist, he co-wrote tracks on Cage The Elephant’s 2024 effort Neon Pill, including the album’s title track “Neon Pill,” which received a Best Alternative Music Performance Grammy nomination. “Neon Pill,” along with another Holiday co-write “Metaverse” wound up becoming the band’s 11th and 13th Billboard #1 Alternative Airplay radio chart hits.

Since relocating to Nashville, Holiday has made even more of a name for himself as an artist, songwriting and producer. His latest single “By Myself” is his first bit of new material since the release of My Favorite Drug. “By Myself” features dusty trip-hop styled breakbeats, twinkling synth stabs, woozy guitar lines, atmospheric synths and a swaggering groove beneath Holiday’s cool crooning singing about fucking up a relationship — and being a bit proud because his narrator is free from an abusive, dysfunctional person. It’s an odd anthem of self-determination, fueled by heartache.