"Trying to make something beautiful as a way to think through a problem, I wrote this song to consider the many forms state violence takes and the subtly pervasive habit of denying someone else’s personhood," Cohen says of the new single. "We're told that police, prisons, and the military are necessary to ensure peace, but like many people, I've come to see that it’s actually the opposite. I definitely struggled to find what I thought were the right words to say, something that might be hard for some of us to hear. This is my best attempt for now - my version of an abolitionist pop song.”

Paint a Room marks Cohen's first album in five years, after producing the likes of Weyes Blood, Kurt Vile, Marina Allen, Sam Evian, Itasca, Rose City Band, Cass McCombs.

Enlisting help from longtime touring bandmates Davin Givhan (bass), Josh da Costa (drums), and Jay Israelson (keyboards), he built demos in a dusty garage of a suburban Altadena rental and tried something new—he took the songs on tour with that crew, yielding total control by letting them fill in or flourish their own parts as they saw fit.