Aynsley Saxe Releases New Uplifting Single “Never Seen Stars Like These Before”
Singer-songwriter Aynsley Saxe ushers in the New Year with the release of her radiant new single, “Never Seen Stars Like These Before,” an uplifting and awe-filled song that celebrates joy, trust, and the wonder of new beginnings. The track was produced with Christian Turner at Mill Town Sound in Milton, Ontario, and was purposely kept sparse, allowing the emotional core of the song to shine through. Featuring electric and acoustic guitar, vocals, and keyboard, the minimalist production highlights Saxe’s sincerity and sense of intimacy.
“This song exploded out of me like a burst of stars,” says Saxe. “I wrote it in about half an hour and recorded it in the studio two days later. Some songs linger for months or even years—this one literally burst out of me. The writing process carried the same sense of surprise and delight that lives in the song itself.”
At the heart of the track are lyrics that capture the feeling of falling into a love that feels expansive, grounding, and emotionally safe. The song opens with a moment of quiet awe and vulnerability:
“He says ‘you’ve never seen stars like these before’ / And somehow I can’t speak”
From there, Saxe weaves celestial imagery into an intimate portrait of trust and surrender. Lines like “I just wanna stretch myself across his sky” and “I just wanna leap into his arms and fly” express the exhilaration of opening oneself fully to another person.
The chorus reinforces the song’s emotional center, returning again and again to a sense of safety found within connection:
“I’ve never felt safer in the dark / Like I do with him.”
As the song unfolds, movement and freedom take shape through vivid images—running like wild horses, catching the closest moon beam, and bending time and space to create “our own galaxy.” These moments reflect a love that feels both grounding and limitless, tender yet expansive.
“Never Seen Stars Like These Before” is accompanied by a visually evocative music video that blends real-life footage with fantastical imagery. Symbolic scenes—such as a horse galloping through water and a mermaid sleeping in star-filled trees—mirror the song’s themes of wonder and transcendence. Portions of the video were captured using a Super 8–style app on Saxe’s phone while she stood waist-deep in the Atlantic Ocean, an unplanned moment that ultimately embodied the song’s sense of joy and spontaneity.
The single is the fourth release from Saxe’s forthcoming sophomore album, A Thousand Stars, which traces a journey through the peaks and valleys of romantic love. Following the heartache of earlier release “For Keeps,” this song marks a tonal shift, lifting listeners into a brighter, more hopeful chapter.
“It felt right to release this song as a surprise on New Year’s Day,” Saxe explains. “The song represents fresh starts and joyful possibilities, and there’s no better time to celebrate that feeling than the beginning of a new year.”
First off, care to introduce yourself to our readers?
Thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself! I’m an Ontario-based pop-folk singer-songwriter and I’ve been told I have a knack for taking listeners on emotional rollercoasters. I sing, play piano and sometimes pick up the guitar when writing music. I’m releasing my second album A Thousand Stars this year (2026) which is a journey through the heights and crashes of romantic love. After releasing my first album Take Me As I Am in 2013 I wanted to create a stripped-down, acoustic-sounding intimate album. Needless to say I can’t wait to release this album as I’ve been waiting over a decade to do so!
You just dropped your single “Never Seen Stars Like This Before.” What can you tell us about the release?
“Never Seen Stars Like These Before,”is an uplifting and awe-filled song that celebrates joy, trust, and new love. Writing this song surprised me – it was written very quickly in about half an hour. I realized almost as soon as I wrote it that I wanted it on the album. Because of its energy and uplifting message I thought it would balance out some of the more reflective and desolate songs on the album.
Writing “Never Seen Stars Like These Before” was like harnessing a burst of positive energy and then afterwards I realized it would be a great lift on the album. I’ve learned that when a song wants to be born I should just get out of its way because otherwise it wakes me up at night and won’t leave me alone (“Beautiful Tomorrow” did that in 2019). I also wanted to record it quickly because I wanted to capitalize on the energy that I felt when writing the song and I had no feeling (like I do with many other songs) that it needed revisions or that it wasn’t quite completed.
How did the rapid turnaround—writing it and then recording it just two days later—affect your vocal performance? Did it help preserve that initial “surprise and delight”?
With every song I record I get more courageous and confident in the recording studio and I allow myself to take more chances. Because this was a track I recorded late in the recording process for the album, I had a “whatever happens, happens” attitude which helped me relax in the studio. I had no worries about it not being recorded the way I wanted because if it wasn’t I would just leave it off the album. With some of my earlier tracks I felt more pressure to “nail it” quickly and that can sometimes tense up my vocal cords which doesn’t help my singing. “Never Seen Stars Like These Before” embodies a lot of positive energy and I wanted to capture that quality in my voice. I’m grateful for every song I get to record but some songs are lighter than others and when singing I try to recall the feeling I had when I wrote the song. I was excited about bringing that uplifting energy to the album and so that feeling was in me when recording the vocals and it was helpful that I had just written the song so the feeling was very easy to embody.
What was the collaborative process like with Christian Turner at Mill Town Sound? How did you both decide which elements (like the keyboard or electric guitar) were essential and which would be “noise”?
Christian and I have recorded quite a few songs together so we have developed a good understanding of how we both work and have kind of honed our production process together. I’ll come into the studio with an idea about which instruments will be featured on a particular song and he will weigh in with his opinion after hearing the song that I sketch out to him by singing and playing keyboard. Once we figure out if the song will be piano or acoustic guitar-driven I will whip off the keyboard part and/or he will record the acoustic guitar part and then bass guitar. At times we will add electric guitar if the song feels like it will be enhanced by it and that happens before or after the vocals have been recorded.
Once in a while we will add a synth sound or some backup vocals but my focus for this album has always been a stripped-down sounding album with an intimate feel so keeping it sparse but full sounding was important to me. Making the choice about whether to add certain instruments is part of the art of producing and sometimes you don’t know if a certain instrument adds to the song or distracts from the feeling of it until you’ve recorded it. For me it’s like a very fun and creative jigsaw puzzle hearing it all come together and deciding what to add or subtract.
This single marks a tonal shift from the heartache of “For Keeps.” As the fourth release from your sophomore album, where does this song sit in the overall “story arc” of A Thousand Stars?
A Thousand Stars is a journey through the peaks and valleys of romantic love and I’m excited to underline the heights again (like I did with “Next Level Love”), with “Never Seen Stars Like These Before”. It feels like I’m throwing listeners a rope and a reprieve after the sorrow of “For Keeps”. I think in general it’s nice to have balance when listening to music and so with this album I wanted to make sure I’m not taking listeners too far into the depths of heartache without giving them a breather. Love is full of a whole spectrum of emotions and this song is one of the last tracks on the album, delivering a gift of hope and new beginnings after a bit of a ride through some of the more emotionally challenging songs that came before.
You released this as a surprise on New Year’s Day. Why was it important for you to align the “new beginning” of the calendar year with this specific chapter of your musical journey?
“Never Seen Stars Like These Before” feels like awe inspired happiness and excited anticipation. Because it was written and recorded so quickly I felt like it wanted to burst like fireworks into the new year and it felt like it had a lot of energy behind it to be released quickly. When I think about what day represents hope and new beginnings nothing comes to mind quite like New Years Day and so it felt like that day was well suited to release this song. I also pay attention to my gut instinct and it was all green lights to release this one as a single on New Years Day. The music video also came together almost as quickly as the recording and felt like it had energy behind it as well to be created quickly. The single cover had already been photographed a year prior, but it didn’t quite fit with the song I had initially intended it for. That’s when I realized it was supposed to be used for this song. Another happy surprise.