New Music: Hey Look Listen – Country of Fear

Country of Fear is the first single from Dystopian Days, the new album from Hey Look Listen, which is out next month.

Hey Look Listen – Detroit-based musician Gwen Katherine finds common ground between the dreamier textures of shoegaze and the comparatively hard tones of indie rock on Country of Fear. It’s an apt musical miscellany for recording the mix of some hope and much despair that typifies America for many right now, allowing Katherine a way to document the sudden move away from democracy that the world is seeing unfold on a daily basis.

“I wanted to write a song about my uneasy relationship with my country and the attitude of a lot of people who live there,” states Katherine. “The arrogance of the U.S. has never sat right with me, especially as it becomes more and more apparent that the arrogance is undeserved.”

“Critical thinking is discouraged, and fear seems to permeate all our actions and beliefs. As our institutions are dismantled and with fascism on the rise, these feelings seem even more relevant.

She continues, placing the song within the overall concept of Dystopian Days, “[The track] serves as an introduction to an album centered around anxiety of the future, panic attacks, social, economic, and ecological collapse and the struggle to find meaning amongst the insanity.”

Dystopian Days is out on the 17th of April. Country of Fear, and Hey Look Listen’s September 2025 album, Now is the Time, can be heard on Bandcamp and Spotify. For updates on Dystopian Days, head to Instagram.