Sadie Dupuis, frontperson of Speedy Ortiz, is reviving her solo project Sad13 with a new mixtape titled 1331, and she’s released the first three tracks ahead of the July 10 release via Exploding in Sound. The songs offer a sharper, outward-looking perspective shaped by personal upheaval and a lengthy recovery period—giving the project immediate relevance for fans tracking artists’ post-pandemic creative shifts.
Listeners can hear the mixtape’s opening selections — “I Am Now Completely Invisible,” “Art Institute,” and “Watermelon Manicure” — which set a brisk tone for the record’s short-form songwriting approach.
How the project began
Dupuis wrote most of the material around two years ago during a fraught spell she calls a small breakdown. After the intense self-examination of Speedy Ortiz’s 2023 album and the personal inventory on Sad13’s 2020 release, she adopted a new constraint: composing a song a day limited to roughly one minute. What started as a pressure-relief exercise gradually expanded beyond private catharsis, and the lyrics began to reflect the rhythms and struggles of her community in Philadelphia.
The title 1331 nods to symmetry and reflection: Dupuis frames it as a collision of youthful moodiness and the clearer thinking of her thirties — a pairing that appears throughout the tape’s themes and tones.
Playing nearly everything herself
True to her DIY instincts, Dupuis records most parts herself. The sessions feature multiple guitar types (electric, baritone, acoustic), plus organ, bass and programmed drums, producing a compact but varied sonic palette. That hands-on approach gives the mixtape a direct, intimate sound even when arrangements feel expansive.
Recording, however, was interrupted by a serious bicycle accident in June 2024 that shattered Dupuis’ elbow and required reconstructive surgery and long rehabilitation. The injury reduced her ability to work in long stretches, so she tracked in short bursts over an extended period — a limitation that she says widened her influences and altered the final arrangements.
Those constraints appear to have helped rather than hindered the record’s character: the songs move quickly, often trading sprawling introspection for sharp vignettes and bruised humor.
Why this release matters now
For followers of indie rock and of Dupuis’ broader catalog, 1331 marks more than another side project: it’s an update on how an established artist translates personal recovery and civic observation into songwriting. The mixtape’s brevity and immediacy also fit current listening habits, making it likely to land on curated playlists and editorial feeds.
Dupuis’ willingness to document vulnerability while spotlighting community experiences gives the release cultural weight beyond the typical solo record. It’s a concise document of an artist in transition — physically, emotionally and artistically.
Tracklist
- I Am Now Completely Invisible
- Art Institute
- Watermelon Manicure
- Six Ways
- Pretty Little Lifers
- People’s Loser
- Locust Releaser
- Friend of the P
- Sorry for Your Entertainment
- Kissing
- Mean, Vindictive, Arrogant
- Hopeful But Not Optimistic
- Third Rodeo
Release date: July 10 via Exploding in Sound. Fans who followed Dupuis’ previous interviews about turning trauma into music will find 1331 a direct continuation of that conversation—this time filtered through shorter forms and a wider set of concerns.
Expect the mixtape to appear across streaming services and to prompt conversations about how constrained songwriting methods and physical setbacks can reshape an artist’s output.
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