Creativity Is Stronger Than Destruction
- Josh Kitchen
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
Automatic on Their Stunning New Album Is It Now?
By: Josh Kitchen / September 25, 2025
“The world spins around us / Life is sand in our hands / And love is a story we couldn’t find,” guest vocalist Diana Quandour sings on the closing track of Automatic’s new album Is It Now?. Behind her, pulsing synths and relentless drums mimic the furious sounds of a cityscape—refusing to surrender to anything but the luminous life coursing through the song. The lyrics might suggest hopelessness, but they yield to a sonic resilience that defines the record’s finale. “And the fire doesn’t go out / It continues to burn day and night,” Quandour insists, reminding us that endurance is its own form of defiance.
That resilience runs through Is It Now?, Automatic’s stunning third album. Since bursting onto the scene five years ago, the trio—Izzy Glaudini (vocals, synth), Halle Saxon (bass, vocals), and Lola Dompé (drums, vocals)—have become mainstays in the synth and dance world, crafting vibey, loop-driven tracks that make you feel effortlessly cool when you listen to them. On Is It Now?, they’ve delivered their most fully realized work yet: eleven tracks that make you move even as they urge you to reflect on the world around you.
Izzy describes the record as a “dark lullaby”: “Despite the horrible shit constantly happening, life can still be mysterious and beautiful. I wanted to lean into a sense of dreaminess, and to have the verses feel like a dark lullaby.” It’s an apt description. Automatic’s soundscapes are haunting and hypnotic—“mq9” evokes the mechanical drone of bombing raids, while “Smog Summer” recalls fiery infernos and the devastating LA wildfires earlier this year.
The album’s most powerful statement comes in its closer, “Terminal (طرفي),” where guest vocalist Diana Quandour sings entirely in Arabic—a poignant act of solidarity that calls attention to the genocide in Palestine. It’s here that Automatic’s vision for Is It Now? feels complete: they refuse to give in to despair, holding on to joy in resistance. As Izzy puts it, “The world’s already depressing as it is—you’ve got to find the joy, because you can’t let them take everything.” It’s a brave step forward for a band already solidifying their place in modern alternative synth music.
When I caught up with Automatic, we talked about how making art is an act of freedom and defiance, the beauty of collaboration, the art that inspires them—and how, in their own words, they’re “just luring people in with our sweet grooves so we can talk about some dark stuff.”
Izzy, you described this record as sort of a "dark lullaby," and when I listen to it, I get that feeling, but it also makes me want to move and sort of shake out those feelings. You even said, "The world’s already depressing as it is, you’ve got to find the joy, because you can’t let them take everything." Can you talk more about those feelings that may feel at odds with each other?
Izzy:
It’s really easy to become consumed by the political nightmare unfolding in the US. It can kill your hope, creativity, and belief in human nature. It's important to not let the actions of evil little rich men abuse your creativity or your lust for life. Making music is such a gift, because you can take the darkest feelings of your psyche and make something interesting or beautiful. You can reclaim how you experience trauma and heartache.
Halle:
I feel like that "dark lullaby" idea kind of touches on the melancholy vibe we have. Some of the songs are maybe a little sweeter, warmer than our last record, but we're still kind of critical of what's going on in the world, so it gives us this kind of angst that maybe also gets portrayed.
Lola:
Maybe we're just luring people in with our sweet grooves so we can talk about some dark stuff.
When I hear this music in some of these tracks, like "Smog Summer" and "mq9," the music is so forward-thinking and almost sci-fi sounding at times. But when you read and listen to the lyrics, there’s some heavy stuff here.
Lola:
That’s music that I respond to a lot—melancholy stuff that you can choose what level of depth you want to dive into. On the surface, it's a fun song, or you can go deeper and kind of get a little more emo and listen to the lyrics.
Halle:
I think it's important to us to say something, just because we're living in such crazy times. We didn’t want to just ignore the world—we wanted to express how we feel about things.
The song that closes the album, "Terminal (طرفي)"— is really incredible. Not only is it musically stunning with the incredible guest vocals from Diana Quandour, the subject matter is really heavy. It’s impossible for the listener not to think about the genocide in Palestine when you listen to it. I feel like music that can get people thinking about the world and the politics that govern it while at the same time, the fact that it just sounds so great is the sign of a great work of art. It seems like a lot of Is It Now? is about finding love, beauty, and hope in a world that is actively burning down.
Izzy:
Anyone with a shred of empathy feels horrified by the actions of this administration, and the history of this country. It's important to not drown in helplessness or become anesthetized. Making music, or art of any kind, gives you back a sense of power. And that creativity is stronger than destruction.
Halle:
Yeah, I think that’s the challenge of our times, because we’re just so inundated with negativity. I don’t think it’s a requirement to make a political statement to put art into the world, but it was cathartic for us, and I think it can be cathartic for people. I think people are searching for something to unify them, and art is really good at doing that.
Then there's a song like "Smog Summer"—I feel like anybody who lives in LA and lived here during the beginning of the year with all the fires is going to hear that song and be like, this sounds like someone trying to make sense out of what happened.
Lola:
I definitely equated it with LA. I equate it with utopia here. LA has that vibe. I love multiple meanings for songs. But I felt like it was more of a virtual reality—like we're all in VR, so you don't have real emotion anymore. You can’t feel an emotion, go see the movies, or swim in the ocean. And that relates to COVID and the way we were all trapped.
It feels like a lot of music these days, even if it's not intentional, you can sometimes hear like, “Oh, that’s a post-COVID track.” And I feel like "Smog Summer" is like that—we all had to live through some shit to get to a song like that.
Halle:
Totally. And that kind of adds to your point about how everything is political, because no matter what, you’re a citizen in this world, and we’re all experiencing this together. Your perspective is informed by that.
Lola:
Pop music is a reaction to feeling anxiety in today’s political climate.
Which is why it’s so exciting when I hear music like this. There’s a lot of togetherness in this music. It makes me want to dance and go to a club and see you play it live. And at the same time, you’re talking about this stuff—it elevates the music listening experience.
Lola:
I’m glad you say that, because that was a goal of ours—to get people dancing more and a little more hopeful. Our past albums were a little like, “Okay, what do we do with this darkness?”
You're even using sounds and the sonics of the recording process to mimic real shit going on. Like "mq9"—the drums on that song are unreal. I read that they were meant to sound like drone bombs. I know you recorded everything live. Was that a conscious decision?
Halle:
I feel like we weren’t overthinking, but we tried to do that subtly. I think it was the synths that sounded like drone bombing. And Izzy said she did try to do that on purpose. But the drums sound very militaristic in "mq9," and it fits with the vibe—it’s about the military industrial complex and oil and all that. So yeah, it was conscious. But we don’t know this stuff when the songs are first arriving. The songs just evolve.
Lola:
It’s almost like an unspoken thing most of the time.
Halle:
Yeah, totally unspoken. We’re just jamming, and the song boils up. Then different decisions are made over the course of life, and it filters in.
"Life happening" feels like a big part of this album, because I read that you guys tried to record it yourselves, and then, like it usually does, life happened. Then Loren Humphrey came in, and things kind of changed. That seems like it was a happy accident. Can you talk about that process?
Lola:
Yeah, it’s always going to be a happy accident working with someone new, because you don’t really know what’s going to happen. But the main takeaway with Lauren was that he was really into recording everything live together, which we weren’t super confident about. He pushed us in that direction, and I think it gives each song a nice feel. I’m happy we did that.
Talk to me about getting Diana Quandour on Terminal (طرفي). How did that happen?
Halle:
She was a friend of a friend of Izzy’s. I think they met at a party and started talking about music. She has her own music, and I can’t remember when the idea started to have a guest vocalist. But another fun thing about this record was working with other people—crediting them, bringing them up instead of ghostwriting. That was special—these other artists we got to bring in for little things.
Lola:
It just makes you feel more a part of the community.
Halle:
Collaboration and working with people is usually beneficial for art and music scenes. When people work together instead of cutting each other down, cooler things happen.
What's some art you’ve been moved by recently?
Halle:
I’m reading Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky. It’s a selection of interviews and seminars from Noam Chomsky. It was transcribed, so it feels more like talking.
Lola:
I’ve just been a nature person lately - I just got back from Alaska. I’m trying to get into audiobooks. I listened to Miranda July’s memoir All Fours— it was so good and she reads it. Very entertaining and clever.
Izzy:
I saw Eddington recently and loved it. I think it’s a really dark, cynical critique of how tech-men have unraveled the fabric of society and poisoned our perception of reality. I’m reading a biography on Muammar Gaddafi. My friend and I were trying to find one that didn’t seem like it was written by the CIA as Western propaganda - but it’s really hard to get to the truth when unbiased journalism really isn’t a thing anymore (was it ever haha?). ALSO I have recently gotten into Percy Shelley. I like his poetry, and he was quite a rebel.
Automatic are on tour NOW with Sextile and play the Novo in Los Angeles on October 11.
Follow Automatic here.
