Blondshell (Sabrina Teitelbaum) is set to release her eagerly awaited sophomore album, If You Asked For a Picture, this Friday, May 2nd (via Partisan Records) and today she has shared the final pre-release track, “Event of a Fire.” It’s Blondshell at her most cinematic, both sonically and emotionally, offering a slow-burning epic that starts in a hush and ends in a howl. Written in the haze of tour-life burnout and sparked by a real 4 a.m. hotel fire evacuation outside Boston, the song begins with a lone guitar arpeggio, intimate and unguarded, before piercing vocal harmonies flicker in and the whole thing ignites.
“It’s not really ‘what if I’m burnt out from touring,’” Teitelbaum says. “It’s like, ‘what if I’m burnt out from just existing?” That existential fatigue builds into one of the most anthemic moments on the album, all crashing drums and towering distortion, as she threads together body image, family tension, and the psychic weight of just trying to hold it together. It’s a confessional torch song for the end of your rope. Listen to “Event of a Fire” HERE. The song’s video stars up-and-coming French actress Ghjuvanna Benedetti and was directed by Emilé Moutaud. The video takes us into the day of a diving team and the internal burnout of one of the divers. It captures the moment when the ordinary aspects of her life clash with the weight of what she’s feeling inside. Read her feature with Rolling Stone on the new single and more.
WATCH VIDEO FOR “EVENT OF A FIRE”
Single follows the metaphorical beating heart of the album “23’s A Baby,” the stripped-back introspection of “Two Times” and the album’s crushingly catchy “T&A” which Blondshell played on Jimmy Kimmel Live! – watch the performance HERE.
If You Asked For A Picture sees Teitelbaum once again teaming up with producer Yves Rothman to craft a collection as potent and emotionally charged as her acclaimed 2023 debut. The upcoming album brims with an urgency, ambition, and devastating potency hinted at on Blondshell’s 2023 self-titled debut, the specificity, self-examination, and nonchalant humor of which turned her into one of the most lauded new artists in recent memory. Pre-order If You Asked For A Picture HERE.
LISTEN/WATCH IF YOU ASKED FOR A PICTURE’S CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED SINGLES:
“23’S A BABY,” “TWO TIMES,” “T&A” & “WHAT’S FAIR”
Blondshell will celebrate the release of If You Asked For A Picture with a sold out underplay on Friday, May 2 at Los Angeles’s Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, complete with freebies including stick & poke tattoos, a photo booth, and more.
On May 28 Blondshell will hit the road for her world-wide headline run. The tour includes sold-out shows at The 9:30 Club in DC, Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY, and Electric Brixton in London. It also makes stops across North America in cities including Seattle, Chicago, Washington, DC, and more. Blondshell will then head overseas for a string of UK and EU dates in September. Blondshell will receive support from Jahnah Camille, Meg Elsier and Daffo across each leg of the US leg. All dates are below and for more information, please visit https://www.blondshellmusic.com/tour.
If You Asked For A Picture’s title borrows its title from a 1986 poem by the cherished American writer Mary Oliver, titled “Dogfish.” In it, Oliver grapples with the idea of telling one’s own story: how much to share, how much to keep for oneself — all questions Teitelbaum asked herself while writing the forthcoming LP. “There’s a part of the poem that says: ‘I don’t need to tell you everything I’ve been through. It’s just another story of somebody trying to survive,’” Teitelbaum says. “Something I love about songs is that you’re showing a snapshot of a person or a relationship, and showing a glimpse into a story can be just as important as trying to capture the entire thing. Sometimes it’s even truer to the entire picture than if you tried to write everything down.”
In the studio, Teitelbaum found herself confident and at home like never before, trusting her instincts as she developed an almost telekinetic shorthand with producer Yves Rothman. The result is a record of astounding sonic range – including sky-scraping ballads and colossal hooks that soar over waves of distortion, mixing layered textures and harmonic flourishes, or making unexpected hairpin turns between them. Primary among her production touchstones were unexpected curveballs like Queens of the Stone Age’s Rated R and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Californication. Teitelbaum reveled in appropriating those hyper-masculine aesthetics for her uncompromising examinations of young womanhood, playing with performances of gender in rock. “It’s empowering for me to use sonic references that feel reserved for men,” she explains.
In the time since Blondshell, the image of Teitelbaum’s life has changed considerably. As the accolades accrued she spent more time on the road than at home. This rootlessness naturally impacted Teitelbaum’s relationships with others and with herself. “When you travel a lot, you see different possibilities for who you can be,” Teitelbaum says. “So there were a lot more questions coming up. What do I want my life to look like? Maybe it’s just the nature of being two years older, but I’m more comfortable with nuance now, and I’m more comfortable with gray areas.” There’s an open-endedness to where If You Asked For A Picture lands: it’s a no-skips, triumphant sophomore record that captures the unresolved process of figuring out who you are, too wise to suggest that it has a definitive answer. Read the full bio for If You Asked For A Picture here.
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
5/2/25 – Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever (Album Release show) – Los Angeles, CA # SOLD OUT
5/6/25 – Amoeba Hollywood – Los Angeles, CA – FREE stripped-down show
5/28/25 – Belly Up Tavern – San Diego, CA ^
5/30/25 – The Fonda Theatre – Los Angeles, CA ^ SOLD OUT
5/31/25 – August Hall – San Francisco, CA ^
6/2/25 – Wonder Ballroom – Portland, OR ^
6/3/25 – The Showbox – Seattle, WA ^
6/6/25 – Soundwell – Salt Lake City, UT ^
6/8/25 – Gothic Theatre – Denver, CO (Venue Upgrade) ^
6/11/25 – Fine Line – Minneapolis, MN * SOLD OUT
6/13/25 – Metro – Chicago, IL * SOLD OUT
6/14/25 – Skully’s Music Diner – Columbus, OH *
6/16/25 – Phoenix Concert Theater – Toronto, ON * (Venue Upgrade)
6/17/25 – Theatre Fairmount – Montreal, QC *
6/19/25 – Royale – Boston, MA % (Venue Upgrade)
6/20/25 – Brooklyn Steel – New York, NY % (Venue Upgrade) SOLD OUT
6/21/25 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA %
6/24/25 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC % SOLD OUT
6/26/25 – Orange Peel – Asheville, NC %
6/27/25 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA %
6/28/25 – Basement East – Nashville, TN % SOLD OUT
9/28/25 – New York, NY – All Things Go Festival @ Forest Hills Stadium
# support from Draag
^ support from Jahnah Camille
* support from Meg Elsier
% support from Daffo
EU/UK TOUR DATES
7/5/25 – London, UK @ Finsbury Park @
7/10/25 – Madrid, ES @ MadCool Festival
7/12/25 – Trancin, SK @ Pohoda Festival
7/13/25 – Vienna, AT @ Wiener Stadthalle &
9/2/25 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory + (Venue Upgrade)
9/4/25 – Manchester, UK @ New Century +
9/6/25 – Glasgow, UK @ QMU + (Venue Upgrade)
9/7/25 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club +
9/8/25 – Bristol, UK @ SWX +
9/10/25 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk +
9/11/25 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton + (2nd Night Added)
9/12/25 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton + SOLD OUT
9/14/25 – Lille, FR @ L’Aéronef#
9/15/25 – Paris, FR @ Le Trabendo #
9/17/25 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique #
9/18/25 – Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso Tolhuistuin #
9/20/25 – Hamburg, DE @ Reeperbahn Festival
9/21/25 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA #
9/23/25 – Berlin, DE @ Hole44 #
9/25/25 – Cologne, DE @ Helios37 #
@ with Fontaines DC
& with Queens of the Stone Age
+ support from Westside Cowboy
# support from Francis of Delirium
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