When Priscilla Ahn had her first child in 2015, motherhood became the main focus-even in her flourishing music career. She decided to briefly detour from the path she'd been travelling on as a singer/songwriter to make something that her newborn could enjoy: 2016's La La La, a sweet, gentle album for children. And after that she decided to take some time off to enjoy just being a parent.

But when a second pregnancy arrived for Ahn and her husband, the actor Michael Weston, a different kind of inspiration hit: I suddenly was like, 'Oh my god, I want to do music again!' Ahn laughs. I don't know, maybe there was something a bit weightier about having two children now, and I felt the need to reclaim my old identity in some way.

Back at her parents' house in Pennsylvania for Christmas, Ahn soon found herself writing a song in the middle of the night. That song ended up being I Can't Hide, a Springsteenian ballad about combing the memories of your childhood, which sits in the middle of Ahn's latest EP, Waiting. It's a release that really started to come together in the period after her second child was born, with Ahn taking advantage of situations that previously would have shut the creative process down: It was late nights, and my son wasn't falling asleep, so instead of rocking him for an hour, I would just let him crawl around on the floor, she explains. I had a little guitar with me, and I just started playing.

Ahn started writing in new places and modes, recalibrating how she had been approaching music. The bridge of the new song Foolish Love, for instance, was written while on a walk in Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles with her son, who was sitting a carrier on her chest. I always used kids as an excuse for why I never have time to write, she says. But in this case, he was, like, my writing buddy.

The result of this work is an EP that serves as a full survey of Ahn's styles and career. Working with three different producers, the music reaches back to the hypnotic jazz-folk of Ahn's 2008 debut, A Good Day, and its enduring hit Dream, connecting it to the increasingly electronic and dreamy pop of 2014's This Is Where We Are, and steeping it all into an entirely new realm as well.

Gus Seyffert, known for his work with artists such as Michael Kiwanuka and Jenny Lewis, produced I Can't Hide and Never Come Back, and Wendy Wang, multi-instrumentalist in the group The Bird and the Bee, did the EP's title track, Waiting, and Self Control, a Frank Ocean cover. (The EP also features two other covers-of Benji Hughes' You Make the World a Better Place and Daniel Johnston's True Love Will Find You in the End.) Ethan Gruska, fresh off co-producing Phoebe Bridgers' Punisher, produced Foolish Love.

We were fools in love thinking love would be enough / To hold us strong until the end, Ahn croons softly on that last track, over finger-plucked guitar and orchestra strings that are nothing short of cinematic.

My earlier songs from my first albums were all about searching for home and this idea of where do I belong-do I belong? Ahn says. And then after I got married, a lot of the songs were about finding love and enjoying love. This feeling of finally having a home.

These days, Ahn swirls around all these thoughts and more, going back to her upbringing by an American father and a Korean mother-she adopted her mother's maiden name for her music-and her whirlwind career to date, which has found her in a range of various roles and projects. In the span of 13 years, she's gone from landing a record contract with Blue Note Records in her early twenties to writing original music for a Studio Ghibli film (When Marnie Was There), as well as collaborating with acts like Sia and Tiesto, and touring with legends like Willie Nelson. Just this past year, she contributed backing vocals to a Nelson duet with Karen O of the David Bowie/Queen song Under Pressure.

For the first time ever I want to focus a little bit more on my career instead of waiting for things to come to me, Ahn considers. It's all part of planting the seeds.

A regular presence in the soundtrack world, including with a spot providing backing vocals for the Oscar-winning La La Land, Ahn is constantly being tapped for new ways to use her talents; this past year she even contributed remixes of her music to the meditation app Calm. And if the pandemic recovery allows it, she hopes to tour again soon, particularly in Asia, where she has a devoted following. In short, Ahn is open to whatever the world has to offer her as she starts this second wind of her life.

I feel like I've been able to face my youth and childhood and things that I might've turned my back on a little, Ahn says. And now I'm at this place where I can turn around and look back without fear.