Passenger's Wandering Heart

It's no small thing to command the attention of billions of people with nothing but the sound of your voice and an acoustic guitar. Ask Mike Rosenberg, aka Passenger, whose song "Let Her Go" became a legit worldwide phenomenon after its release in 2012. The accompanying video has been viewed more an a billion times in the last four years—only a handful of artists have achieved the same milestone. The song snowballed in slow motion, no instant smash, and wormed its way into ears and hearts one play at a time. Which is a perfect representation of Passenger's career at large: even, steady, with eyes fixed on a traveling horizon. Rosenberg's thoughtful approach to writing and workhorse performing schedule (he recently busked in Washington Square Park because, why not?) have inured him to his new-found ubiquity. Some guy even once asked him why he plays so many Passenger covers. His new record, Young As The Morning, Old As The Sea, is his eighth, and though it doesn't drop until September, he joins us in the studio to play some of the new songs live.