New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Today, L.A. neo-psych group
Dream Phases share "In a Box," the final single in anticipation of their forthcoming sophomore album, New Distractions (due November 10 via
Nomad Eel Records/Lunar Ruins). The single comes alongside an accompanying music video.
On the track, the band said: "'In a Box' was the first song written for New Distractions, in fact we played this song on our 2019 European tour. The song is about overcoming writers block, and searching for the inspiration to do just that. The chorus progressively get more hopeful as the joy of writing something new is felt. The accompanying music video was made by Matthew Lingo and
Styles Wolff Baker and visualizes the journey through the sub conscious mind, searching for inspiration."
Like many people, the members of
Dream Phases found themselves looking inward during the year of quarantine. "Don't Forget Love," a song both driving and tender, is the account of a failed romance. As the song winds to a close,
Brandon lays it all out: "Just don't forget, I'm too sincere to give you less than all of my love and care." Inspired by the smoldering strut of
Chris Isaak and Roy Orbison, Don't Forget Love is
Dream Phases at their most unguarded.
Upcoming album New Distractions, due November 10th, represents a new era for
Dream Phases. It's the moment when an already exciting band takes a step into the unknown. Where So Long, Yesterday found the Los Angeles trio perfecting their psychedelic folk rock, New Distractions explodes that sound, picking up the pieces to make different shapes. Recorded during quarantine, but expansive and far-reaching as ever, it represents is a new peak for
Dream Phases, and an exciting harbinger of things to come. What started as a solo project for lead singer
Brandon Graham has now become a fully collaborative affair, with multi-instrumentalist Keveen Baudouin and drummer Shane Graham claiming songwriting credits for the first time.
"In the past I would make a fully fleshed out demo recording and then show the guys that," says Brandon. "With this one I mostly just wrote the skeleton of the song, like the lyrics, vocal, guitar and sometimes keys and then sent that. We talked about structure, rhythm, and other elements that brought the songs to life."
New Distractions was largely written and composed during lockdown, with the band members working the songs through email and regular Zoom meetings. This situation paradoxically allowed for more creative freedom between the band members, as they traded songs back and forth and built them up from the ground, together. The album is, at heart, the record of a band exalting in complete creative freedom, a group with a curatorial eye toward their influences and an adventurous approach to the rock & roll canon.
Dream Phases mastered their sound long ago. New Distractions is what happens when you push further on toward that unexplored horizon.
