Bella White Says New Album “A Sign in the Weather” Reflects a 'Quieter Emotional Time' in Her Life (Exclusive)

Chris BarillaFri, June 5, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC

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Bella WhiteCredit: Tamara Flemming -

Bella White's new album, A Sign in the Weather, reflects themes of heartbreak, personal growth and finding strength in solitude

The project explores genre fluidity and features a softer vocal approach compared to her previous work

White hopes the album empowers listeners to embrace vulnerability and find validation in life's transitions

Bella White is singing about the signs that have befallen her.

The Canadian-American songwriter, 25, tells PEOPLE in conversation at The Basement East in Nashville that she wasn't looking to craft a concept album by any means when she began writing the songs that would ultimately become her new album, A Sign in the Weather. Instead, she intently honed in on heartbreak, new beginnings and learning how to sit with herself in the aftermath of it all.

"I guess I was just going through a kind of quieter emotional time," White admits. "It felt like I was having a lot of big transitions in my life, but taking them pretty softly."

Before the idea for an album directly came to her, White recognized cohesion between the songs she was making in that season of life. "There was just a gentle energy while I was writing the songs and starting to live in the worlds of them," she says. "It felt just more like a representation of where I was at."

For the "Not to Blame" creator, this profound period of change in her life was earmarked by the end of a relationship, relocating to a new city and starting another romance. These experiences ultimately, quietly, shaped the emotional atmosphere of the record.

Bella WhiteCredit: Tamara Flemming

"I ended a relationship as I was starting to write all the songs," White notes. "Then I moved cities and I just got into a new relationship."

A Sign in the Weather was not built around life's dramatic moments, as White instead chased the little things in her composition. "All of my big feelings are made up of a million little feelings," she explains. "There was a lot of little transitional feelings. I was yearning for something."

Beyond its emotional content, one constant in the new project is a sense of searching. This is perhaps most evident by White's exploration of genre, and quickness to dispel anything that puts her in a creative corner.

"For this album, I just really didn't want it to necessarily have to be one thing," the artist says of being constricted to preconceived notions that she is only a country or bluegrass artist. "It felt like I was just sort of going for it being free and trying not to live in a box of any kind."

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In tandem, she pushed herself towards a much softer vocal approach than prior efforts. "I definitely consciously pulled back," she says. "I was like, 'I'm going to just try and remember the softer side of my music.' "

At its core, solitude, and the strength that exists within it, are themes that keep recurring across the project's 11 tracks.

Bella White's 'A Sign In The Weather'Credit: Tamara Flemming

"I embraced it as I resisted it," White recalls. "I was afraid to make all of these kinds of changes in my life," telling herself, " 'Okay, I've got to get comfortable with myself and got to be alone a little bit.' "

On the topic of growth and change, while reflecting on her new song "Better," White realized one lyric felt like a direct response to the themes she'd explored earlier in her career.

"Twenty-four years it took for me to see that things can change and that does not mean they have to leave," she recites, recalling the song's lyric. "I was like, 'Oh, cool. Maybe that's growth. Maybe I grew.' "

Ultimately, A Sign in the Weather excels at snapshotting the grey areas of life, and that's exactly where White intended for it to lay. "I completely believe in signs," she says. "I find such security and validation in looking for those things, and I do feel like nature is often very telling."

"I hope that people feel validated by it or understood," she adds of what she hopes listeners take away from the record. "I want people to feel empowered by it and feel empowered to be vulnerable with others and themselves."

A Sign in the Weather is out on all major streaming services, via Rounder Records, now.

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