Photo: Merri Cyr

On Erin McKeown’s heartfelt new single, “Proof” the gifted singer/songwriter ticks off a list of things that are true and can be proved rationally: changing seasons, photographs, simple arithmetic and drifting stars. Yet there’s one thing she can’t prove no matter how true it feels: the love she shares with the person she’s singing for. “As I’ve gone along in relationships, I have noticed that there are certain things that we know are true and can be proved rationally: 1 + 1 = 2 is an example. If you cut me, I will bleed is another,” McKeown explains. “I believe in a power greater than myself, but can’t concretely prove that to you. I love the person in this song so much and to such a degree that it cannot be proven by rational means. Sometimes the truest experiences and feelings defy logic, experience, or articulation.”

The pensive style of writing is nothing new for McKeown, a deft wordsmith as comfortable slipping into a pop-rock persona as she is turning out a folk ballad. But while the lyrics took a while to gel at her home studio in Western Massachusetts, recording in Brooklyn last summer took no time at all. In fact, the final product was literally “the first take of the first day of recording,” McKeown exclaims. “The machines were barely warm!”

Erin McKeown’s new album MANIFESTRA is out on January 15. Stream “Proof” below: