The astrological phenomenon known as Saturn Return dictates that you will experience a period of great upheaval and renewal as you approach your 29th year (i.e., the time it takes for Saturn to orbit back to the same spot in the sky as when you were born). Toronto singer-songwriter STACEY can certainly attest to this phenomenon. After releasing two EPs of ethereal, piano-based ballads sporadically in the 2010s, she decided to ditch her 9-to-5 job and move to LA to make music her full-time pursuit. And with that change of scenery came an entirely new approach. On her first proper album, Saturn Return, STACEY time-travels back to the 1967-’77 golden age of AM radio pop, displacing the stark, black-and-white presentation of her past work with a kaleidoscopic swirl of orchestration, cosmic country, dreamy harps, and Fleetwood Mac grooves. “I feel like my inner 13-year-old is alive again,” she tells Apple Music. “I didn’t grow up in a musical household, so I feel like I missed out on this amazing classic era of music that I’ve just totally fallen in love with. Music has obviously shifted into more of a digital space, so I wanted to go for more organic-sounding pop songs. I long for less clickbaity music for my day!” Here, STACEY charts Saturn Return’s interstellar course, track by track. Hello “I wanted to have a little warbly ramp-up for the record as an introduction. And I wanted bookends for the album, so this is actually a reverse piece of the last track. I was just like, ‘The Beatles reversed things—let’s do that!’” Far Away “I wrote this in Toronto before I moved, so I think I was really romanticizing LA at the time. I felt this was a really good introduction to what I want to do on this record. I remember saying to Derek [Hoffman], my producer, that I wanted a Beach Boys drum shuffle and Beach Boys harmonies, so that’s where we started. He also added in the chimes in the intro, and I just love those chimes! Every time I heard them, they just summoned hot-air balloons into my mind, and so that’s why I take a hot-air balloon trip in the music video for this one.” D.M.T. “I was in Toronto for a short period of time, I bumped into some friends, and the evening ensued! I was feeling very existential. I wrote the song with Babygirl, who are an awesome band from Toronto, and we actually finished it in LA. We were sitting outside at the place that they were staying—there was a grapefruit tree and a grapefruit fell and a butterfly flew by at the same time, and we were like, ‘Perfect!’ So, that’s why there are lyrics in the second verse about grapefruit butterflies. It was so hilariously serendipitous and perfect for the song. I wanted a ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ vibe.” The Songwriter “This is also based on a true story. I bumped into this person, and we had a fumbly interaction. And I realized afterwards that I knew who he was because he’s a big songwriter. So, I just extrapolated the situation. I had a bit of a crush on this person, so I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be funny if we were writing a cute song about each other,’ and they’re both saying, ‘Oh, that person got away,’ because it’s a missed-connection kind of thing.” One Woman “This was written in 2019 with Brandon Wolfe Scott, who’s in Yukon Blonde, and he also produced it. I was just feeling the weight of the world and feeling like everything was burning down and I was in Trump’s America and the Amazon was on fire, and there were a lot of societal injustices happening. Some days, you’re doing your activism, you’re donating, and you’re trying to be involved on social media. And some days, you just feel defeated and like it’s not enough, and that’s a really sad feeling. That’s where this song came from.” Strange (But I Like It) “This is an LA song, for sure. I’m in the land of the creatives and the weirdos, and it’s a lot. But it’s super-fun and I feel at home!” Kissed a Friend “I love this song so much because I think it’s like the realest I got. We recorded it maybe a week after I wrote it. It’s one live take on a Wurli. I recorded with Brandon at home, and I felt really comfortable, and I got a great take, and I was so excited about it. Brandon is so great with vocal arrangements, and so we got all those 10cc vibes for the harmonies. And then I got my friend Jackie to play harp on the outro, and then Luna Li cut a bunch of strings and bass, and I was just floored. She had done a bunch of takes for me to choose from, but we put them all in and they sounded crazy and orchestral together.” Good Feeling “I think I put this song here because there’s a lot of worry and sadness in ‘Kissed a Friend,’ and then ‘Good Feeling’ is kind of like a ‘f**k it!’ song. I just wanted to have some contrast there and make sure that I wasn’t keeping people in one place for too long of a time on the record. I wanted this one to have a modern [Fleetwood Mac’s] ‘Dreams’ kind of groove, and have it be a fun pop song, but not be too cheesy.” There Will Always Be Lovers “I wrote this one with Babygirl as well, and we were sort of loosely inspired by a John-and-Yoko Bed-In for Peace kind of vibe. But we thought, ‘Let’s not do that, because staying in a bed in a hotel in 2021 isn’t a protest!’ That was where we started, but as time has gone on, I think the song is not so much about lovers in a romantic sense, but more in terms of lovers versus haters. I think of lovers as people that care about each other and care about social justice issues, and haters are like Trump people. I think of it as a positive song—in the fight against all the sadness of the world, at least we’ll have each other.” Saturn Return “I felt like this was such a Saturn Return song, so that’s why I named it that. It felt like it really captured the movements of a Saturn Return—like, ‘I’m wandering, I’m sad. But, oh wait, there’s a moment of hope. No, it’s chaotic! What’s going to happen?!’”