Renny Conti Shares New Single "Leaving The Zoo"

Renny Conti has released "Leaving The Zoo," a new single from his upcoming album Split Second, out September 25 via Mom + Pop. The track is the latest preview of the record, following previously shared songs "Mona Lisa" and "Impossible Truth," and it is streaming now on all major platforms.

The song started, according to Conti, as a meditation on a single month in which he lost a loved one, ended a relationship, and decided to leave New York to move back West. It grew into something broader: an attempt to imagine what it feels like to stand on the edge of life and death. Murky verses give way to volcanic guitar breaks, Conti's vocals thinning to a near-whisper as strings and distortion layer over each other until they overtake everything else. It is one of ten tracks on Split Second, and it sits at number three in the running order.

What Is on Split Second and Who Produced It

Split Second was co-produced by Renny Conti and Adrian Olsen in Los Angeles. Olsen has worked with artists including Mdou Moctar and Hiss Golden Messenger, and his production credits tend to favor warm, layered textures. That sensibility fits what Conti describes as the album's sonic approach: acoustic guitars and plainspoken vocals pushed outward by orchestration and, at moments, waves of distortion that nod to the metal and punk bands he played in as a teenager.

Conti grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the son of working actor parents. Music became his way into community during chaotic teenage years; he and his older brother played together before Conti eventually moved into solo work while studying film in college. He self-released a string of homemade albums through his early twenties before recording his self-titled debut in 2023, which collected older material and was finally released in 2025. That record earned him coverage in Paste, The Line of Best Fit, VICE, and Clash, and led to a deal with Mom + Pop.

The new album is his first made with the awareness that a larger audience would hear it. Surrounded by painter friends in New York, he says he was drawn to a more considered, workmanlike approach. The record documents the years of instability that followed his 2023 debut session: a major breakup, the death of a family member, losing his apartment, and a period of couch-surfing and subletting through 2024 before things stabilized. Several songs, he has said, also address the death of his older brother and what it means to carry on alone with the music they once made together. "I'd be a completely different person were it not for us making music together when we were young," Conti said in the press materials for the album. "It was almost a passing of the torch."

The full tracklist for Split Second is: "Split Second," "Mona Lisa," "Leaving the Zoo," "Impossible Truth," "San Francisco, 2005," "Water's Edge," "Some Smoke," "All the Same," "Desert Cold," and "Longing." Preorders are open now.

When Renny Conti Plays Los Angeles and North American Tour Dates

Conti is currently on a European run that includes End of the Road Festival (September 3 to 6), Manchester Psych Fest (September 5), Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds (September 8), The Louisiana in Bristol (September 9), The Lexington in London (September 10), and shows in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and France through September 16.

The North American leg runs through October. Full dates:, October 9, Schubas, Chicago, IL, October 13, Sunset Tavern, Seattle, WA, October 14, Polaris Hall, Portland, OR, October 16, Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco, CA, October 17, The Echo, Los Angeles, CA, October 23, Baby's All Right, Brooklyn, NY, October 24, Silk City, Philadelphia, PA, October 25, Songbyrd, Washington, DC

Tickets are on sale now. Prior to the album release, Conti has also performed with Jay Som, Samia, and Hamilton Leithauser, and played sets at Pitchfork Paris and Pitchfork London, according to the press materials.

What Independent Artists Can Take From This Campaign

Conti spent years self-releasing before his self-titled record landed him a label deal. The timeline here is worth noting: record a debut in 2023, release it in 2025, use the press from that release to build toward a proper label album later the same year. He did not wait for permission to put out work, and that catalog of self-released material gave him a clear artistic identity before the industry conversation started. If you are sitting on recordings, the path Conti took suggests that putting them out and letting people hear what you are building is more useful than waiting for the right moment. [Submit your own releases to Something Dope For The People](/submit) and let the community hear where you are in the process.