Biita Houdei Releases Debut Single “Life Inside the Hourglass”

“Life Inside the Hourglass” is out now. The debut single from Biita Houdei began as a quick sketch with Haley Heynderickx, who then stepped into a lead production role for the first time. Written in 20 minutes on a cold, rainy Portland day, the song arrived so naturally that Houdei barely registers having written it. “I just sat down, and it just happened,” she says.

Heynderickx pushed the project forward, offering to produce after Houdei shared over 20 demos, some nearly a decade old. From that batch, the two curated a narrative arc, pulling “Life Inside the Hourglass” into focus. Sahil Ansari contributed light percussion. The arrangement stays close to the original demo: guitar, vocals, flute, a big reverb plate. No ornament.

Houdei used to release music as LéPonds. The new name, Biita, means “unique” in Farsi, a direct link to her Persian heritage. Raised in rural Missouri and now shifting between LA and a cabin in Woodstock, she has a nomadic instinct that threads through the song’s meditation on time, regret, and letting go. There is a hard edge to the nostalgia, a kind of clarity that comes in your mid-30s when certain faces and places resurface without warning.

The track’s intimacy carries into its video, shot alone in a dark studio with a single light on her face as expressions slide from elation to tears. Basin Rock is releasing the single in Europe. Two more tracks are on the way, the next one already described bluntly as “the banger of all bangers.”