Eliza Spear

PROTAGONIST, the sophomore album by Eliza Spear, is a fitting one: the story may be hers, but anyone can imagine themselves in the role of the hero when they listen. Where other songwriters might settle for easy cliches, she reaches instead for the sorts of vulnerable truths that can bridge the divide between her and the listener. The album is full of gleaming synthesizers, body-moving drum machine rhythms, and hooks big enough to shout in a stadium.

Fond of presenting her music in unconventional spaces where she can forge more powerful connections with listeners than the typical divide between artist and audience allows, Spear is an avid busker and blogger.

The Protagonist Festival Series, the largest of the many album spin-off ventures, is a monthly festival series across New York that features an eclectic mix of songwriters, poets, comics, and street vendors, all curated to reflect the same themes of truth, growth, and resilience that shape the album. These mini-festivals, marketed through affirmations placed around the city encouraging people to see themselves as protagonists, blend just the right amount of excitement to thrill a traveler while staying rooted in the album's ethos—grief that is vast enough to be set in an arena yet intimate enough to bring people together.