Finding yourself isn’t easy. It could take weeks, months, and what could even feel like a lifetime. For singer/songwriter Lowen, it took traveling the world over the span of a year alongside her wife and dog, with nothing but their backpacks and a baby Taylor guitar.

On her journey of self-discovery, Lowen — who previously released music as Emily Kopp — realized how she wanted to pursue art but maintain balance in her life. Through that growth, she stepped away from creating under her namesake and developed the moniker Lowen to start fresh. “Everything had changed — from my perspective, to how I write, and within my own personal growth and development,” she tells us. While the two pseudonyms are all encompassing, Lowen is quite the opposite of a persona. “There’s not much separation between Lowen the artist, and Emily the person who grocery shops, and takes out the trash, and wakes up at 4 a.m. with anxiety. Lowen is the vessel through which I funnel my art,” she explains.

Regarding her debut EP, Only In My Dreams, Lowen shared the process behind writing something so intimate, “I was journaling a lot out of necessity. When there’s no intention of sharing the things that go on in our mind, it feels safe writing it all down. I love looking back on the streams of consciousness that I write because it allows me to reflect on those feelings and navigate what was/is going on emotionally. A part of finding yourself is facing your fears head on and learning to overcome them.”

The EP’s first single “Morning, Mourning,” is a powerful introduction and stunning example of how a personal, tragic experience can stay with us long after we’ve healed. The song explores the moments of meeting and falling in love with her wife entangled with the feelings of outgrowing her first love of eight years and then facing the grief of his untimely death shortly thereafter. “When it comes to ‘Morning, Mourning,’ all of those concepts and ideas about feeling guilty, feeling ashamed, feeling conflicted between mourning and allowing myself space and permission to fall deeply in love again simultaneously, were already written,” she explains.

On Only In My Dreams, Lowen’s soulful yet gritty vocals are spotlighted throughout its six tracks including “Morning, Mourning,” the dreamy title track “Only In My Dreams,” and the powerful “Pretending Happy.” Each song, while cohesively telling a story, came about differently. “The flow of collecting and saying yes to the seeds of ideas (lyrics, melody, progressions) usually starts the same — typically at inconvenient times like in the shower or in the middle of the night with me racing to grab my phone to jot something or sing something into it,” says Lowen. “It’s definitely not a linear process…When I sit down to write the song itself (either alone or with co-writers), those streams of consciousness or nuggets of ideas get refined, and pieced together, slowly but surely, like a puzzle.”

In creating this body of work, Lowen hopes listeners take away a powerful message knowing that the woman behind the music is speaking honestly and must take the road less traveled to get to where she is now. She expands, “While I hope that my story and songs not only make others feel seen and less alone in their feelings, it’s also really important to me that people feel empowered and autonomous in their own lives when it comes to looking inward, and making decisions that are true to them — even if those decisions are unconventional.” Not many artists share something as personal as Only In My Dreams for their first release, but for Lowen it was the only way to properly introduce herself to the world. “I choose to see every second of the day as a gift. We wake up with our hearts still beating, and that’s a trippy, miraculous, wonderful thing,” she boasts. “Rather than harp on the ‘what ifs,’ I consciously try to slow down, and focus on my breath as often as possible. I would rather spend time thanking the universe for another moment of my breath, then waste a precious moment of my breath living in fear.”

Last month, Lowen performed at Arlene’s Grocery in New York to a full crowd, enamored by the artist on stage before them and blown away by her powerhouse vocals. “The nerves are high but the excitement is even higher. I’m beyond pumped to be showing what my live show looks like, and what these songs sound like.”