Gigi Perez will never forget the first self-produced song that she wanted to share with the world. “Please Be Rude,” which she finished last year, was far from her first bedroom demo, but the strummed, slightly lilting meditation on intimate relationship moments felt different to Perez — “like I had cracked the code on my taste,” as she puts it.

In just five short years, the New Jersey-born, Florida-raised singer-songwriter had already experienced the highs and lows of the music industry: A viral moment in early 2021, when the grief-stricken “Celene,” about her older sister who had died the year before, landed Perez an Interscope Records deal. Yet her 2023 debut EP arrived to little fanfare, and Interscope released her from her deal later that year. When Perez sent “Please Be Rude” to her

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