Searows shares his camera roll from a busy year on tour

The Opener is The FADER’s short-form profile series of casual conversations with exciting new artists.

Searows makes the kind of timeless indie folk that you wanna put on when it's raining and you're in the mood to get in your feelings. Not because the songs, guitar-plucked and hushed, are so particularly moody, but because the Portland-raised singer writes with an unexplainable, emotive clarity. His 2023 breakout track, "House Song," masterfully unravels as a metaphor that compares himself to the structures of a home. "I keep you clean, you surrounded me," he sings, "And my windows are breaking."

Nearly three years later, Searows is gearing up to release his sophomore album, Death in the Business of Whaling, expected on January 23. Per a press release, the record was written over the course of several years, from 2023, and marks his first time creating music outside of his bedroom, in a studio in Washington. The change of environment imbued new energy into the music, as evidenced by the fuller band sound that courses behind his latest single "Photograph of a Cyclone," a breakup song with a gentle fury. In the fall of 2025, he had the opportunity to test out the new tracks while on tour with Tamino, a trip that took him through sold-out rooms in Norway, Denmark, Germany, and the U.K.

Ahead, see pictures from his time on the road, and read about the Kate Bush song he wants to cover and the film that got him obsessed with queer cinema.

The first show I ever went to was Owl City in 2010. It was my birthday present that year since I was quite obsessed with Owl City, but I honestly don’t remember very much of it besides my dad putting me on his shoulders so I could see.

Probably "Dearly Missed." It’s very fun to play, partially because it’s such a challenge. And it’s also simultaneously my least favorite because it’s such a challenge and I can’t really hit 20% of the notes.

I honestly don’t have much in terms of gear but I've used my Strymon BigSky reverb pedal for every show I've played since I got it. It just has a very special sound to it and its in so many of my recordings as well, so it feels very attached to the songs.

I've always wanted to cover "Hello Earth" by Kate Bush. It's such an epic and perfect song and feels almost impossible to do it justice, but maybe I'll try someday.

I think the last movie I watched was Sorority Boys (2002). Genuinely obsessed with this movie. Several problematic moments but not nearly as many as you might think there would be in a cross dressing slapstick comedy from 2002. Beautiful queer cinema 9.5/10.

“Don’t need a napkin when you got your Levi’s on.” A man who worked at a mart somewhere in the country in Oregon told me that when I asked for a napkin. I actually dont think everyone should live by that but I feel like he was onto something.

The headline show in London in the middle of the Tamino tour was really fun. I wasn’t nervous at all before the show (which is rare) so I didn’t prepare very well and I wrote down the wrong capo placements and tunings for like every song, but still a very fun show.

I bought myself this beautiful little leather bag at an antique mall in Amsterdam. I thought it was 50 euros but it was actually 8.50 euros. I was ready to give them everything I had.

I feel like I ask that for most creative ideas. Not even because they’re super crazy, I just don’t know how anything works and what I’m allowed to do.

(This is actually just a meme I made myself with a picture of my own cat that I put over a meme of a deer hitting its head on a tree.)