New Constellations: 2026

This FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

When Harlee Case and Josh Smith formed their synth-pop project, New Constellations, it was both a brand-new venture and a musical reunion. 

Growing up in the same Oregon town, the two friends met through music, and even got together as teenagers to record a song in Josh’s bedroom—a casual after-school endeavor foreshadowing their future creative partnership. Having gone their separate ways as young adults, exploring different cities as well as alternate music scenes and styles, it was Case’s internet appeal for band members that eventually brought the two back together in their twenties. 

Smith answered Case’s call, New Constellations was born, and the artists have spent the second phase of their friendship writing and releasing a stream of shimmery, goosebump-sparking singles that culminated with the drop of their 13-track debut album, It Comes in Waves. 

The album arrives a half-decade after the release of “Hot Blooded,” a single that found a fan in Pedro Pascal, whose Instagram video helped the song take off and delivered the Case and Smith the motivation and momentum they needed to finish the record. 

Co-written between Portland and Los Angeles, It Comes in Waves is a product of trust forged from lifelong friendship, a testament to Smith’s production, and a vehicle for Case’s voice. The title serves as a reference to the cyclical nature of emotions — the push and pull of life’s highs and lows. 

The duo came by WFUV’s Studio A over the summer to perform a few songs from the new album. Along with their “Hot Blooded” hit, they performed “Dandelion" — a track written in the aftermath of a breakup that sees Case toying with the concept of reconciliation— and “I Disappear,” the product of a largely stream-of-consciousness writing process.

I also asked about Case and Smith’s recording reunion and embracing the temporary nature of human emo. They explained the sonic worlds they explored — from church music to screamo — before discovering New Constellations’ present sound.

[Recorded: 8/19/26. Engineered by Jim O'Hara, Nadia Garriga, and Holden Buckley. Produced by Meghan Suma. Videographers: Alena Godas, Dylan Duong, Gina Slavin and Danny Cifelli.]