SONG PREMIERE: Emory Duncan Examines the Complexity of Honest Love and Self-destruction with Soulful Folk Tune “Semicircles”

Originally from Houston, Emory Duncan now lives and writes from a log cabin tucked beneath the Redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, crafting pastoral Americana as dreamy, foggy, and serene as the setting he inhabits. He released his debut EP For Someone I Don’t Know in 2024 followed by a string of singles.

“Songwriting is kind of my way of getting in touch with my subconscious, and allowing myself the space to feel all the intrusive emotions we typically like to shut out,” Duncan shares. He writes to pry open and process the buried parts of the psyche that polite society prefers to repress. Emerging along the edges of nostalgia—like a dream your eyes can’t quite recall into focus—his songs are for outcasts, romantics, and anyone who’s ever felt too much but couldn’t find the words.

Later this year, Duncan plans to release his EP Semicircles and Half Written Songs, which was produced by Jamie Mefford (Gregory Alan Isakov, Nathaniel Rateliff). In the meantime, Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of the standout track and second single “Semicircles.” With Duncan’s soft, soulful vocals taking center stage as they float over a rich tapestry of violin, piano, and slide guitar, the song finds its protagonist examining the power of real love to pull us out of self-sabotaging cycles. Between the beauty of the lyrics, vocals, and gorgeous instrumentals, the song captures Duncan’s penchant for crafting warm folk music with no shortage of emotional depth.

Duncan shares his insight on the inspiration behind the tune:

“Semicircles” is about the rhythms we find ourselves in, the patterns we fall into and define us, and the cold realization, in hindsight, that the agency to change was ours all along. We become victims of our choices, stuck in our little loops despite our awareness of them. Semicircles, at its core, is a lack of self-control. And it’s reconciling regret and emotional distance with a love that’s powerful and real. That’s the tragedy: honest love is no match for self-destruction, even though they both exist in a messy complexity of internal struggle.

LISTEN: