TRACES, the atmospheric genre-bending project of LA-native Tim Dehnert, has unveiled his newest song “idbh.” off his upcoming Heart of Gold EP. Reveling in a variety of synths and drum machine bass drops, “idbh.” thunders away between Dehnert’s lush crooning. Anthemic in its harsh introspections, the song is one of many on the EP that the young 20-year-old singer has molded out of his struggles with identity after the move to Los Angeles. Even the song’s title, an acronym for “I don’t belong here,” emphasizes its vivid melancholic textures–with every surge pulsing energy Dehnert’s become that much more frantic. “idbh.” fulfills Traces’ alt-r&b tastes and the rest of the EP promises to showcase the many other tones of hip-hop, blues, and soul that the singer/songwriter has in his repertoire.

“When ‘idbh.’ was written, I knew it was going to be the centerpiece for the EP. If someone wants to know what I do as an artist, this song has every piece. The song itself was about these random panic attacks and social anxiety I started experiencing when I moved to LA,” Dehnert said of the song. “I had been an extrovert all my life until it switched abruptly. I couldn’t engage with certain groups of people and always assumed the worst of them. I was trying to find support and encouragement from people but all the anxiety and mistrust wouldn’t allow me to get close.”

[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”#FF78FF” class=”fistclass” size=”15″]”I’m very excited to release my first project, Heart of Gold. The concept is centered around the phrase ‘desperate for a heart of gold.’ I was stuck in a terrifying low point in my life emotionally and all I wanted was to be fine but I couldn’t seem to get there. I had a preconceived idea of what I was supposed to learn from whatever low point I was in but I couldn’t attain it,” Dehnert said about the EP. “Each song talks about a different area of learning and confusion for me ranging from basic emotions like pride, fear, and loneliness to my conflicts with religion and spirituality, having aversions to people, and realizing the only way to find light sometimes is to walk through the darkness a while.”[/perfectpullquote]