For Angie Pastor, letting go means starting fresh.

“I Hope You Know” is my favorite thing I’ve made in my 23 years.

Today is a very emotional day for me. I’m so happy for myself and yet sad because the release of this album means that this chapter of my life is truly over.

So many of us put albums out to the point that when you come across another release on your feed, it doesn't necessarily feel like a huge deal for you as a consumer unless you're a massive fan. But I want you to take a sec to understand what it means for each of us. Small artists. We spend months, sometimes years making an album. We wake up and fall asleep thinking about it. We put our heart into each song we write, sometimes we cry after and sometimes we cry during. We spend hours and hours in the studio. Sometimes we cry there too. And we hope that our engineers don't judge us too much. We listen to our own music in every phase of production. We grow tired of it and we hate it and then we listen a few days later and love it again. We beg our friends and family to listen to our shitty demos and give us feedback. We learn how to make an album as we make an album. We think about throwing it away and never putting it out. Sometimes we don't. But then sometimes we do. And it's a big freaking deal.

This album started by accident. It was supposed to just be a single or 2 but I had just gone through the hardest breakup of my life. So songs were just pouring out. At the beginning of college, I started using songwriting to say things to people I loved. Most of the time it was like "surprise I’m in love with you" but in song form and then i'd boldly text them the demo and throw my phone under my bed and run out the door.

The first song on this album was one of those: 4 years ago when I started falling for someone, I texted them the demo to “I Think You Know” and then threw my phone under my bed and ran away. He received it well.

The last song on the album is saying goodbye but also I love you. It was made to say - “This, like all breakups, is probably supposed to be the complete end of our journey together. That's how everyone else does it. But I believe soulmates come in all forms. I believe we have a handful of them. I believe you're one of mine. I think we had one type of relationship and it wasn't the one we were meant to have in the long run. As young people often do. But I hope someday we can start over with a new type of relationship. Because I love your soul. And I hope you know.”

I didn't send it to him this time. I knew he wouldn't want to receive it. And that's why a lot of this album is about the process of letting go. About grieving someone. About learning to accept an ending even when you don't want to. About becoming someone new once a chapter is over.