Shannon Curtis

How will empathetic people survive the troubles of this time? How do we rescue our overburdened spirits from overlapping disasters such as rising fascism and climate collapse? And from where can we summon the power to heal ourselves, our communities, and the planet?

These are the animating questions behind Shannon Curtis’s new album Good to Me — her second collection of shimmering ’80s-inspired synthpop in as many years.

Confronted in late 2021 with near-paralyzing anxiety brought about by the increasingly fraught state of the world, Curtis aimed her angst at her journal. Using tools she acquired in 12-step recovery, she set out on a quest for self-healing, with the intention of nurturing her personal sense of peace and agency in a world on fire.

The journal entries became ’80s-inspired synthpop songs, influenced in equal measure by the textural angularity of Kate Bush, the stripped-back propulsion of Yazoo, and the hopeful joy of OMD.

The result is a song journey that took Curtis through a practice of identifying failed coping mechanisms (“From the Inside Out”), coming to terms with radical acceptance (“Be With What Is”), learning to trust her inner truth (“The Silent Sea”), and reconnecting to her serenity and power (“I Am”) — even as the world continued to burn.

The extended Good to Me album project aims to illuminate a path for others to undertake this same journey for themselves — complete with a companion book and scripted podcast coming in 2023.

The title song from Good to Me spent three months in the Listener Top 5 on commercial AAA radio in the Pacific Northwest at the end of 2022.

The Good to Me tour will bring Curtis to Europe and North America in 2023.