When the sun is set, the day's work is done, the kids have gone to bed, and the waning rays of light are hinting that your own sleep is not far off, you know it's time to relax. Pour that glass of wine, kick the boots off, recline, and notch the stereo's gain down a little bit. If there's any time for that ethereal, dreamy, soundscape music, it's then. Yes, I have been known to spin some Sigur Ros and Tangerine Dream at times just like that. And if I get real ambitious, I just listen to all of the live concerts recorded at the latest Moogfest.
Somewhere inside I find a particular attraction to a style of music that relies less on complexity, and a little more on simple crescendos and resolution. Youth Lagoon, a one man studio band hailing from Boise, adds its own brand of the genre into pop culture's coffers. Trevor Powers first posted a song as Youth Lagoon in May, and since then, it's gone "viral," as they say (at least on some scale).
Not long after, Powers found himself with a 2 record deal with Fat Possum, and the sudden need to figure out how to take his show from the basement to the road. Youth Lagoon: proof that you can have indie success in a short amount of time thanks to basement studios, loops, and an internet connection. A pinch of talent helps too.
In regard to lyrics, Powers explained in a recent interview with SPIN (where you can also stream the full album):
Powers recorded the LP in his room, basing the dreamy piano pop on personal concerns, including his longtime struggle with debilitating anxiety. "I hid it from my parents. I would have panic attacks in my room before bed over things that don't make sense to the average person," he says. "One of my fears was that I'd die before Christmas. I'd think about it so much that I couldn't sleep and it would overwhelm my mind."Another troubled soul artist. Oh well. As Ella Fitzgerald swung it -It don't matter if it's sweet or hot, just give it that rhythm, and give it everything you've got. We'll see how the music matures in years to come.
Perhaps the best thing to come out of Youth Lagoon is the teaming up with Film Director Tyler T. Williams, who produced the music video for YL's song "Montana." One might even prefer to call it a film with a sound track by Youth Lagoon. In any case, the film was shot in rhythm, creating scores of brief images that told a story intelligently and effectively.
Youth Lagoon - Montana from Tyler T Williams on Vimeo.
Williams expanded upon the music video in his interview with Pitchfork, here.
If there's more art created that shows as much promise as the music video, then I'm keeping tabs on Youth Lagoon. Musically, it's what I look for. It's the kind of music that makes the chances of me going to sleep in my chair, and spilling wine all over my shirt, go up. And that's a good thing.
~ J. Bunch
