Westerman - About Leaving

Q4 W40 New Music 2025

Westerman – About Leaving

Westerman released “About Leaving” today, the second single from A Jackal’s Wedding dropping November 7th via Partisan Records. Will Westerman wrote the track across London, America, and Greece, piecing together lyrics in fleeting moments. Producer Marta Salogni, known for work with Björk, The xx, and Sampha, recorded the album over five weeks on the Greek island of Hydra.

“About Leaving” builds on piano chords, with Westerman’s vocals carrying the melody. He describes writing it in a state of perpetual motion, having the chorus in mind but completing the lyrics in different locations over time. The song explores transience and displacement, examining the concept of leaving from multiple angles: loss, opportunity, excitement and fear.

Westerman was reading The Rime of the Ancient Mariner repeatedly while writing. He pictured someone on the sea without control or direction, but unlike in the poem, finding excitement in the uncertainty rather than dread. That image runs through the song’s imagery.

Bráulio Amado directed the video for “About Leaving”. It follows last month’s “Adriatic”, which took a more experimental, synth-heavy direction. A Jackal’s Wedding is Westerman’s third album after An Inbuilt Fault in 2023.

Partisan Records and In Sheep’s Clothing HiFi are hosting listening parties for the whole album before release in Dublin, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Milan, and London between November 4th and 6th. Westerman tours extensively through spring 2026, supporting Nation of Language on West Coast dates in October before his headline run.