Skin to Skin

Love, loss, and finding his voice: How Stephen Dawes turned life’s chaos into Skin to Skin

Love conquers all. It may sound like a cliché, but for singer-songwriter Stephen Dawes, it’s a truth forged through some of the most uncertain years of his life. After moving to Los Angeles to pursue music, navigating fractured friendships, industry setbacks, and crushing isolation, Dawes found the one thing he never expected: a love that grounded him.

    That emotional journey forms the heart of Skin to Skin, his 10-track album released June 26. Rather than celebrating the fleeting romances often associated with Hollywood, the fiery midnight trysts that burn out over time, the record explores something far more enduring. A quiet, transformative love that steadies you when everything else feels uncertain.

    “I feel like the main thing is that love will find you,” Dawes told Visual Tales. “I don’t know if I believed that before writing this album. It’s a phrase people say over and over again, but I really do believe it now. That’s what the core of this album is about.”

Written and produced by Dawes alongside Jason Suwito, Dan Gleyzer, Rollo, Micah Gordon, Hannah Hill, Phil Good, Nate Cyphert, Zak Blumer, Ari Blumer, and Conor Blake, Skin to Skin defines this New York City native’s artistic identity.

    Blending handcrafted alternative pop with loose, beat-driven production and shimmering Stratocaster riffs, Dawes has long gravitated toward introspective songwriting. Music entered his life through piano lessons at age 4 before expanding into jazz and production throughout school. But it became clear that music could be more than an extracurricular activity after he released an acoustic cover of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” while in college. The track has since amassed more than 200 million Spotify streams and over 50 million YouTube views.

    Despite that early success, Dawes eventually found himself creatively disconnected after years of collaborative sessions and label expectations. Burned out and searching for inspiration, he began producing much of Skin to Skin himself, rediscovering the joy that first drew him to making music.

    “When I started making these songs, I started producing again and working on them alone,” he said. “Everything became a lot more intimate. It was more work, but over the course of the year, it reignited my passion for making music. That was the most important thing.”

    Working independently also pushed Dawes to embrace a simple philosophy: write what you know.

    Where his earlier songs often drew inspiration from television, books, and imagined characters, Skin to Skin chronicles his own coming of age, leaving college, moving to Los Angeles, watching friendships evolve under the pressures of the music industry, and unexpectedly falling in love.

    “I think before this I hadn’t really been through enough real love,” Dawes said. “Writing about your own life is easier because the experiences are yours, but it’s also scarier because you’re sharing something that’s actually happened.”

    The album opens in emotional freefall, wrestling with loneliness, rejection and uncertainty after parting ways with his record label. On the opening track, “Reputation,” he sings, “Everybody is watching while we are breaking / There is no air in my lungs / You are my lifeline,” capturing the suffocating vulnerability that defines the album’s first act.

    But midway through the record, everything shifts.

    “I was writing a lot about isolation,” he recalled. “Then I met my girlfriend and wrote ‘Symptoms,’ and suddenly the feeling I couldn’t stop writing about became being in love, and feeling loved. That’s really what this album is about.”

    For Dawes, that love isn’t glamorous. It’s found in ordinary moments, and that’s precisely what makes it extraordinary. It’s the comfort of being fully yourself, knowing someone will still choose to stay.

    “It’s the kind of love where you can be your most genuine self,” he said. “I’m a really goofy person, and being with someone where I don’t feel like I have to hide any part of myself, that’s the love that pulled me back down to earth.”

    That vulnerability is perhaps best captured on “Optimist,” where Dawes sings, “She could never know how much I needed her love.” The lyric reflects the fear that often accompanies finally receiving the very thing you’ve spent years searching for. When happiness arrives, so does the anxiety of losing it.

    “When you’re so desperate for something, and it finally comes to you, you’re terrified you’re going to mess it up,” he said. “It’s hard to completely trust someone with your emotions.”

    Even after writing such deeply personal songs, sharing them with collaborators was even more intimidating.

    “When you really respect someone’s opinion, it’s scary to hand them a song you love,” he admitted. “You want honesty, but you also don’t want them to tell you they don’t like it.”

    Throughout the album’s creation, Dawes often returned to a piece of advice from producer Jack Antonoff, who once told students during a Zoom session not to worry about revisiting the same emotions if they kept lingering. What seemed like an offhand comment became a creative mantra.

    “If you’re still emotionally involved with a memory, then you should keep writing about it,” Dawes said. “Otherwise, you’re just forcing yourself into writer’s block.”

    That philosophy shaped not only Skin to Skin but Dawes’ evolution as an independent artist. Free from outside expectations, he found the confidence to redefine his music, visual identity, and live performances on his own terms.

    “Being independent was scary,” he said. “But it also let me completely change the music I wanted to make. I finally feel like I know who I am as an artist, the music, the visuals, even the live show I want to put on.”

    To this day, touring still brings nerves, but Dawes hopes audiences leave his shows remembering more than just the songs.

    “I want to be known as someone who puts on a really good live show,” he said. “The vocals, the feeling you get when you’re there, that’s what I want people to remember.”

    Looking back, the disappointments that once felt career-defining now seem like necessary stepping stones toward discovering both his artistic voice and personal happiness. His advice to young musicians reflects that perspective.

    “Just keep writing,” he said. “Things can feel so huge when they’re happening, but a year later you realize some of the hardest moments ended up changing your life for the better.”

    Skin to Skin is about more than romance. It’s the story of Dawes learning to live authentically and allowing himself to embrace the love he’d spent years chasing. Rather than portraying love as an all-consuming blaze, the album reveals something far more enduring. It’s found in the intimacy of a kiss on the neck that leaves a lingering smile, in the steady hand that catches you when you lose your balance, and in the quiet reassurance that you’re no longer facing life alone.