On Halloween in 2022, Angelo De Augustine experienced a sudden health crisis while at his home in Los Angeles. The 33-year-old singer-songwriter recalled, “I felt a wave of strange sensations and sensed that something was terribly wrong,” adding, “Then I lost control of my body.” Fortunately, family members were present and quickly transported him to the hospital, where he underwent several grueling tests over the following days. “Unfortunately, I was awake for most of it,” he remarked wryly, “but I don’t remember much, except that I struggled with my hearing, vision, and movement.” Despite extensive evaluations, the medical team could not provide a definitive diagnosis and eventually sent him home, advising, “Return if you become completely deaf or blind.”
Feeling disoriented and partially incapacitated, De Augustine was determined to complete his album, Toil and Trouble, which he had been working on for the past year. “I felt isolated and thought I might not survive this illness,” he confessed. “I was unable to perform even basic tasks, but I had invested so much effort into the album that I didn’t want to leave it unfinished. I aimed to complete it, believing that I might not have much time left.”
This album was intended to be a continuation of his growing musical portfolio. Following his debut album, Spirals of Silence, released in 2014, De Augustine joined Sufjan Stevens’ label, Asthmatic Kitty, for his 2017 release, Swim Inside the Moon. He later collaborated with Stevens on the well-received 2021 album, A Beginner’s Mind. In 2023, his track Time, from the 2019 album Tomb, which features Stevens, gained significant attention when it was featured in Zach Braff’s film A Good Person. Despite achieving over 31 million streams, De Augustine was too unwell to take advantage of the song’s newfound popularity. “I had to completely overhaul my life,” he admitted.
Ultimately, Toil and Trouble was released in 2023. De Augustine reflected, “I likely pushed myself too hard to create that album. I could barely lift anything.” In the three years following his health scare, he has focused on recovery, relearning how to walk, talk, hear, play, and sing. These experiences have shaped his new album, Angel in Plainclothes, which offers profound and ethereal insights into the fleeting nature of life.
Several tracks evoke the nostalgic charm of artists like Nick Drake and early Paul Simon. The enchanting Spirit of the Unknown contemplates the simple pleasures De Augustine feared he might lose forever, featuring lyrics such as, “All my life’s a distant memory / Apples on the tree / The sun over the sea / Another melody.” The lead single, Mirror Mirror, describes his struggle with self-perception, serving as a metaphor for his feelings during that challenging period. “I felt like a ghost,” he shared softly during a phone call from his studio, aptly named A Secret Place. “You observe everyone else living their lives, and it feels as if you don’t exist.”
Recently, he has come across emerging research that may shed light on his previous health issues. “I’m no doctor, but new studies are revealing more about how the central nervous system affects our bodily functions,” he explained. “Chronic stress and fear can exceed the allostatic load—the nervous system’s ability to self-regulate. In trying to protect itself, the brain can manifest various symptoms throughout the body. I felt as though my entire system was shutting down.” When reflecting on the sources of his anxiety, he noted, “The music industry can be incredibly stressful, simply trying to survive in it. However, I never felt like I wasn’t meant for this—it’s all I know how to do.”
De Augustine grew up in a musical household, although his father, a drummer, left when he was five, leaving his mother, Wendy Fraser—a professional singer known for her work on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack— to raise him alone. Initially, he aspired to be a professional soccer player, but injuries curtailed that dream, leading him to embrace music instead. “Music provided me with an outlet for expression that many people lack,” he stated. “I didn’t take lessons or learn other artists’ songs; I just began writing my own, which perhaps makes them unique.”
During his recovery, he moved back in with his mother, admitting, “I couldn’t even prepare meals for myself.” His journey since then has been one of fits and starts: “Progress has been a mix of stopping and starting, improving and regressing.” A significant breakthrough came when he joined a local spa. “I discovered that being in water alleviated my symptoms,” he said, realizing just how stressed he had been.
An essential part of his recovery involved enrolling in a daily regimen of physical and mental exercises, which initiated a “slow but upward trend.” He explained, “It helped me retrain the areas of my brain where connections had been disrupted. For a long time, playing guitar and singing felt foreign, but gradually, it began to return.” Once he regained his abilities, he started writing new songs, beginning with Empty Shell, which opens the new album with the poignant question, “Where do you run when your life’s on the line?”
Whenever he felt up to it, De Augustine began recording. While he had previously handled all aspects of his albums solo, his health necessitated collaboration with others this time. He enlisted the help of Kevin Morby’s strings arranger, Oliver Hill; harpist Leng Bian; and Thomas Bartlett (also known as Doveman), who contributed piano. His mother also provided percussion for the album.
Musician and producer Jonathan Wilson played drums and offered his expansive studio in Topanga Canyon for the track The Cure, which De Augustine described as drawing parallels between illness and addiction, an “outside force that can exert significant influence over you.” Wilson has since become a close friend. “I often visited his studio during my rehabilitation,” De Augustine noted. “I was searching for nearby natural settings to aid my healing.”
The album’s ethereal quality has been well-received, marking a significant step forward in De Augustine’s artistic journey as he continues to navigate the complexities of both his music and personal recovery.
