Listen at https://orcd.co/lpd-whatittakes

This is a lyric about the demands a city makes on you. Especially the city I’ve grown up in – Los Angeles, CA. Anyone that lives here is constantly fed this message that your success depends on whether or not you’re willing to push your commitments to the absolute extremes. And that all might be true for all I know. But by the time we reach the chorus this song becomes a kind of resistance to that idea. Recognizing that, sure, maybe sacrifices need to be made. But where is the line for when that sacrifice is too big? I think as a new father this idea has been knocking around in my head for a while now. But it’s not a song about parenthood. It’s a song for anyone that wrestling with ideas of dreams, grace and boundaries.

The words all kinda wrote themselves when I sat down with Lee’s original music for this piece – Lou’s Theme. I’ve always loved this track, as I’ve always loved every note of Lee’s music. He creates such a rich emotional soundscape that the themes and mood of the lyrics felt kind of inevitable somehow. In the best way. I couldn’t be more proud of the tune, but also excited about those of us in the Dawes universe continuing to find new ways to all make music and get it out into the world.

What started as a fascination with his fitness videos and a deep love of his latest album, Sad Hunk, has turned into us joining forces this fall for a bunch of co-headline shows with the masterful Bahamas. But it’s not your typical co-headline bill. At these shows Dawes (we) will be members of Bahamas and Bahamas (Afie) will be in Dawes. Just a steady flow of each other’s songs all night long. No opener.

Come get weird with us. Tickets at https://dawestheband.com/tour/

‘Nothing Is Wrong (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)’ out now on LP & digital!
Featuring…
-2 creamy white LP’s in a deluxe die-cut jacket w/ front window and gold foil
-Bonus 7” with B-sides “Strangers Getting Stranger” and “Rest Easy”
-New and enhanced album art
-Custom inner-sleeves with new liner notes by Taylor
-Includes digital download with 4 ‘NIW’ session B-sides
Listen & Order Your Copy at https://found.ee/Dawes10thNothingIsWrong

Sound checks, curb sides, hotel rooms, and especially the back row of the van…that’s where all these songs got worked through and finalized. Our only clear objective was filling the holes in the live set. More than half of that first record is either very slow or very soft. Meanwhile we were becoming a rock and roll band that wanted to play loud. We wanted the songs to be bigger, faster, louder. So that’s how I tried to write. I remember putting together the outro to Fire Away and dreaming about what it would sound like on a stage. Those were the moments we were looking for. Finally, after road testing each song ad nauseam (except Little Bit of Everything – that one was written the day before it was recorded) we took them back to our trusted producer Jonathan Wilson and spent a brisk month getting them all down to tape.

The songs themselves were coming straight out of my life at the time. No one was safe. If I shared a particularly lively conversation with someone or even a more intimate encounter, it was all immediately fair game. My parameters for discretion were not quite established yet. It took me a second too long to realize how voyeuristic being a writer could be. I still needed to figure out how to add a layer or two to an emotion, how to express myself without putting all my cards on the table at every opportunity. But maybe that’s what being 25 is all about. All the rest would come later. I’m just glad it’s all there for us to reach back into on any given night. Each record has been a turning point and something of a growth spurt, but maybe none as pivotal as Nothing Is Wrong was for us. That was the moment where we could see ourselves turning from hopeful upstarts into lifers. Glad it’s still worth talking about 10 years later.

From the Bullpen #8 (Click Here to Listen)

I remember hearing The Waterboys for the first time. It was embarrassingly recent. I had the radio on, which is rare these days, and on came The Whole of the Moon. I fell in love in a way that’s harder and harder to do as I get older. It was that very special adolescent feeling of coming across something that speaks to you and for you. I immediately did a deep dive. Studied the records, even read Mike Scott’s autobiography and finally ended up playing this song in a rehearsal one day. It started with Griff’s drum part. Then I started playing the changes and everyone fell in and we’ve played it the same way ever since. This must have been sometime in 2015. Duane Betts was in the line up helping us bring this one to life each night. It’s the only cover we’ve done that felt like it was ours. Covers can sometimes just feel approximations or hat tips, which are great. This felt like we created something that belonged to us. Obviously indebted to the Waterboys masterful version. But it felt like we found something that could sit well next to any of our songs on a setlist. It often still does. Happy to be sharing the recording with you.

As happened when it was first released back in 2016, all proceeds will go to Nothing But Nets; the world’s largest grassroots campaign fighting to end malaria, a preventable disease which claims the life of a child every two minutes. Nothing But Nets brings together UN partners, advocates, celebrity champions, donors, and organizations to raise awareness, funds, and voices to protect vulnerable families from malaria. Learn more at nothingbutnets.net

Listen at https://found.ee/DawesFishermansBlues