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about the band
Public Transit’s upcoming record, The Sound of Bells is an experimental alternative folk project that employs the tools of alternative music (historically the musical language of disenchanted gen-Xers and millennials) to tell a story of breaking out of disillusionment and experiencing an enchanted, almost child-like, life. Its first single, Joy to Know released May 29th, 2026.
Public Transit is an indie folk collective whose core contributors include songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Noah Dirig, vocalist Aimee Dirig (both based out of Wilmore, Kentucky), and violinist Jubilee Chen of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Public Transit emerged in 2022 as a solo project of Noah Dirig. With a few cheap microphones, a budget-model guitar, and a laptop, Dirig began to craft ornate folk tunes in a tiny one-bedroom in Columbus, Ohio. Borrowing some old violin recordings from his friend, Jubilee Chen, he released his first single, Weights Too Heavy, in October 2022.
2023 saw the release of Public Transit's first EP, Still in Regal Glory. A minimalistic collection of Advent tunes, this release was the first to prominently feature Dirig's wife, Aimee, as a full-fledged member of the group.
2025's Hover demonstrated an artistic leap forward for the group. Teaming up again with Chen, the track represented a clashing of Chen's classical training and Dirig's alt rock background. The song, filtered through the strictures of these seemingly opposing schools of thought, became something quite unlike anything else in their respective discographies.
After the release of Hover, Dirig asked Chen to be more involved with the Public Transit project. Reforming from a mostly-solo effort to a collective, Public Transit entered a new era demarcated by the release of their EP, Willow Tree.
