BECK ZEGANS ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM "ENGRAVING OF ARMOR" + SHARES "I WANT YOU" VIDEO
Posted on March 24th, 2026
Ridgewood, Queens-based artist Beck Zegans (f/k/a Goo)is set to release her new album Engraving Of Armor on May 22nd via Exploding In Sound Records. She’s also shared the lead single “I Want You,” a song about dating in New York and how the past poisons the present, which simmers during the verses before bursting into something far noisier in its bold, expressive chorus. Watch the accompanying video, featuring visuals by Madrid, now.
“‘I Want You’ is all swept up in this insidious urge to bolt when things start getting too good. We're all just bits of trash blowing in the wind down Myrtle Avenue, trying to go anywhere but here,” Zegans explains. “We filmed at Union Pool, Cassette, Baby’s All Right, The Space at Irondale. It doesn't have a plot exactly but the loose concept was ‘what if the backstages of all the venues were secretly connected?’ I've worked at 3/4 of the venues we shot at, so it's also a nod to audio engineer life; going from one venue to the next every night.”
Co-produced with bandmates Alex MacKay (Cutouts, Nation Of Language) and Julian Fader (Remember Sports, Ava Luna)–and featuring Palehound’s El Kempner, whose band Zegans has been a part of in recent years, on two tracks–Engraving Of Armor is available to pre-order.
On Engraving Of Armor, Zegans explores the strange architecture of an emotional fortress through a series of songs that flash between fiery rock, experimental folk, and psychedelia. The album centers on themes of emotional defense and desire, and sings to the invisible shields we build around ourselves, the weight they carry, and those fragile moments when it all starts to unravel. These nine immersive tracks move between confrontation and contemplation, grounded by cyclical, meditative drums, bursts of heavy guitars, and the occasional warm pulse of analogue synths. At its heart, Engraving Of Armor digs into what it means to wear emotional armor. Zegans seeks the answer to this question through songs that touch upon longing, ambivalence, and avoidance, as well as the complicated exhilaration of falling in love–of both wanting deeply, and resisting that want at the same time.
Much of the record’s sound can be traced back to the years surrounding its creation. In lockdown, Zegans found herself gravitating toward heavier, more confrontational music, and that tonal shift reshaped her songwriting. Where earlier material sometimes leant on metaphor or distance, these songs aim for clarity and are armed with bluntness. “I got angrier during the pandemic and was listening to a lot of angrier music,” she says of this time. “I think that inspired me to not hide behind metaphors too much. I tried to be pretty frank.” The change is audible not only lyrically but in the texture of the music. Throughout, guitars push harder and harder against the rhythmic spine as the songs meet their subjects directly, each arrangement dripping with desire, hesitation, and escapism.
The creation of Engraving Of Armor also marked a major evolution in Zegans’ recording process. Rather than arriving in the studio with fully arranged songs, she built them piece by piece through collaboration with bassist and synth player MacKay and drummer Fader. Each track began as a home demo of guitar, vocal, and a drum loop; writing to loops for the first time opened up a different rhythmic approach for Zegans, and it gives the songs a steady pulse that would later influence each musician’s performance. From there, she would bring the demos to MacKay, and the two would continue writing and recording layers at MacKay’s home studio in Ridgewood, Queens. Next, Fader would track drums and additional instruments, record vocals, and continue sculpting the songs’ sonic landscape at his Honey Jar studio. The collaborators approached each song as its own universe, gradually expanding and refining each over the course of a year. For Zegans, the method was both educational and liberating; by building each piece incrementally, the trio could pull apart the arrangements, play with the elements, reshape structures, and let the songs evolve organically. Zegans, MacKay, and Fader anchor the recordings, while Kempner appears on “Riddle” and “Woods,” adding signature flashes of expressive lead guitar.
Musically, Engraving Of Armor sits in conversation with a wide range of influences, and is equally comfortable leaning into the textural experimentation of Autolux and Sonic Youth, the intimate songwriting of Nick Drake, or the modern urgency of Fontaines D.C. A sense of place also played a subtle but notable role in shaping the record. Zegans has lived in Ridgewood for seven years, surrounded by a dense ecosystem of musicians and venues. Her environment seeped into the songs, with some tracks exploring a particular form of urban self-numbing–the way a city like New York can offer endless distractions from the things people want and fear most. As she puts it in one lyric: “It’s New York / in rivers of beautiful trash we’re all hiding from the things we want too bad.” Despite the ambivalence embedded in that line, the album isn’t a rejection of the city. If anything, Engraving Of Armor reflects its sprawling magic, and the strange tenderness that comes from loving something that can also overwhelm you.