Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith shares “Feel Heard” the final single before her new album GUSH out August 22nd

Today, influential electronic artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith releases “Feel Heard,” the final single ahead of her forthcoming album GUSH. The song follows “Stare Into Me,” “Urges, “Drip,” “Gush,” “What’s Between Us,” and Into Your Eyes” which will all appear on the new effort centered around tactile connection, personified objects, and what Kaitlyn calls “the third thing”—the intimate energy created when two things meet. 

“Feel Heard” offers a counterpoint to a world preoccupied with noise perpetuated by social media and the endless scroll. Kaitlyn revels in what it means to be seen and understood in an ever-chaotic 2025. The song elicits physical movement, continuing the danceable energy heard on “Urges” and another spellbinding chorus. The accompanying video highlights the kinetic sound with a POV motocross video shot by Jackie Barry.

Kaitlyn shares:

In an era defined by noise

Defined by who can be the loudest 

In a culture obsessed with being seen, Feel Heard is about the unseen 

“My favorite sound is when you feel heard.” 

 Inspired by the principle “seek to understand before seeking to be understood,” 

Feel Heard flips the cultural obsession with being seen, shifting the spotlight toward witnessing others.

“I wanted to write something that doesn’t try to be loud — that instead gives attention to what wants to be heard… what’s getting louder simply because it’s been ignored for too long. 

This song is about a turning point — the realization that if everything is speaking at once, fighting to be understood… then who is actually listening?”

In a recent interview with FLAUNT, Kaitlyn elaborated on the sensory experiences that helped inspire her new album. Another recurring motif is her fascination with physical objects—not merely as tools, but as emotionally resonant beings. This manifests lyrically and sonically, where objects become muses for her and metaphors for deeper emotional states. In turn, the songs are deep, textured, and nuanced but held together with a pop and dance ethos that makes them feel present, immediate, and physical. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s new album, GUSH, is due August 22nd via Nettwerk.

WATCH & SHARE “FEEL HEARD” HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0msF6pVQL5A

Kaitlyn is excited to bring her new music to the stage at multiple summer festival appearances, including the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland and the We Out Here Festival in Wimborne, UK. Later this year, she’ll appear at the Pitchfork Music Festival London alongside Marie Davidson and RIP MAGIC, the digital arts and music festival, MIRA 2025, in Spain alongside Floating Points, Erika de Cesar, Oneohtrix Point Never, and LINECHECK in Milan, Italy.  

Find the dates below, and for more information, visit: https://kaitlynaureliasmith.com/

ABOUT KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH:

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is a classically trained American composer, performer, and producer from the Pacific Northwest. Her music is a form of auditory interpretation powered by curiosity and her toolkit of modular, analog, and rare synthesizers (including her signature Buchla), orchestral textures, and voice. Since her first self-release in 2012 (Tides), she has explored the endless possibilities of electronic instruments and the relationship between sound, shape, color, body movement, and expression. On her forthcoming full-length, GUSH, Kaitlyn sets her sights on aesthetics, focusing on the heightened awareness of and presence in the world, where every interaction, whether with people, objects, or nature—has the potential to become a moment of connection and personification. 

In her own words:

Gush – is about those “Look at this” moments…

shared between people…

It is about flirtation with objects and the environment…

It is about sensuality and personification…

It is about synesthesia and surrendering to those moments when the senses melt together…

It is about “ the third thing” that is created when 2 things come together…

It is about the way the human form is in service of…

It is about experiencing the genius of everything…                  –KAS

Kaitlyn finds wild, rippling inspiration in tactile moments, partly due to her abiding appreciation of aesthetics (a philosophical approach to the principles of beauty) and, in part, to her synesthesia. “Where some people mix things like color and taste, I get physical urges in correlation to sound,” she says. On GUSH, Smith conveys that experience in a newly direct density and intensity, finding flirtatious meaning in dimensions and structures, emotional resonance in the personification of well-loved objects. By focusing on the metaphysical aura that surrounds that attraction rather than the thing itself, GUSH finds a hypnagogic caress in the profundity of any given second.

Throughout her career, Kaitlyn has been celebrated for embracing her urges, whether towards experimental production, Buchla synth mastery, or exploring the intersection of sound, voice, body, and form. She’s performed alongside artists like Hot Chip, Glass Beams, RY X, Caribou, and Four Tet, and composed original works for Apple, BBC Orchestra, Adult Swim, MoMA, Red Bull, and others. Kaitlyn’s song “Stratus” was also synced in the 2023 film Priscilla Motion Picture Soundtrack.