i give my friends flowers shares new LP

Jacob Klein has been making records since he was ten years old, growing up between his father’s hi-fi audio shop and his mother’s garden, two environments that taught him to pay attention to both sound and feeling. That background has followed him through years of songwriting, recording and production, eventually becoming i give my friends flowers, the project he created alongside friends and collaborators. Moving between indie soul, lo-fi folk, dream pop and alternative hiphop, the music is atmospheric and melodic but its most steadfast quality is its humanity.

Jacob’s relationship with music began early and developed quickly; by high school, he was already touring and opening for Mac Miller, Selena Gomez and Maroon 5. He later studied at Duquesne and Belmont, while apprenticing in songwriting and recording alongside figures including Jules Shear, Ronnie Spector and Larry Crane. A decade spent producing and engineering gave him an understanding of how recordings can be shaped but eventually that attention turned towards his own sonic vision.

Starting out making recordings with friends, his output has since bloomed into a developing creative world of music, visuals, performances, immersive works and one-of-one merchandise. The project first landed publicly in 2023 with the independently released EP Now, Forever, before Jacob began moving towards something considerably more expansive. That endeavour eventually became DOGSTAR 1, a brand new twelve-song record informed by some of the most turbulent and difficult years of his life.

It’s an album about loss, change, distance and the decision to keep choosing love even when the world around you shifts entirely. The circumstances behind it started with Hurricane Helene, which devastated Asheville and the surrounding region in the fall of 2024, destroying homes, businesses and ecosystems in a community Jacob had only recently begun to call home. In the aftermath, while helping with mutual aid and checking in on neighbours and friends, he was forced to confront a deeper sense of devastation that had been building for years.

The origins of that experience reached back through the pandemic, when Jacob cared for his grandfather and the loss of numerous friends to the drug epidemic in Pennsylvania. After moving to Asheville in search of a fresh start, he discovered that his young dog had a terminal illness and left his newly acquired job to spend her final months with her. Her death was followed by the collapse of the relationship around which he’d built his life for a decade. Music became a way of processing what remained and an initial EP made with his brother and close friends offered a shared exhale but when his brother moved away, Jacob began searching for a more solitary creative path.

What began as an attempt to document a difficult year transformed into DOGSTAR 1, a kaleidoscopic and highly immersive LP that incorporates an Allen Ginsberg poem, sampled wedding vows, mellotron strings and memories that feel deliberately displaced. Named after Sirius, the Dog Star, the album explores the experience of losing people through death, distance and change, with its central metaphor framing a sort of tangent universe or time loop where everything appears almost identical yet nothing is quite where it should be.

“EVERY MOMENT SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL DIES” opens the release with drifting instrumental textures before the snap of drums injects a breezy groove and Jacob’s smooth vocal leads glide in to spin mellow melodic lines above. Catchy and dreamy, it’s a mesmeric slice of lo-fi indie pop that flows with engaging rhythm, immersive arrangement and alluring vocal layers. “pollen” follows with soulful vocals which float above woozy instrumental tones to cast a delicate scene which builds with the rustle of crisp percussion to form a slick alternative pop jam that’s memorable and highly original.

“cloud-hidden, chamomile” forms with intricate acoustic guitar notes, warm bass tones and airy piano touch as Jacob’s hushed vocals stitch tender melodic threads into an intimate sonic fabric. Tracks like “sara’s not a name for dogs” lean further into his folk stylings with a soothing soundscape of soft guitar elements and graceful vocal flutters carried by the laid back taps of percussion while “ASHES” slips into a more alternative R&B-focused sound that rolls with gentle beats, enveloping instrumentation and layers of processed vocals.

With “Wolf Heart,” Jacob’s emotive songwriting shines in a heartfelt setting that blends lo-fi folk, indie pop and hip hop to craft a highly affecting musical moment. The album’s new lead single titled “VOICES” brings moving vocal performance, shimmering guitar tones and the steady shuffle of drums to present a transportive sound that’s intoxicating, subtly invigorating and highly affecting all at once.

Closing the album with “better days,” emotionally-charged vocals hover above an elegant fusion of quiet piano tones, droning instrumental textures and soft percussive touches, swelling with hazy distorted aesthetic to deliver an enveloping and truly captivating finale to the sensational new album from i give my friends flowers. Ultimately, DOGSTAR 1 is less a record about finding home than it is about understanding that home cannot remain exactly where you left it. Between loss and renewal, memory and transformation, Jacob Klein creates a world where the answer is not to stop changing but to keep choosing love anyway.

Listen to DOGSTAR 1 below