Here’s the new single from the brilliant Dawes. ‘House Parties’ is an upbeat song with warm bass and a great groove, ready for your summer playlist. It’s about good times and a sense of belonging, themes reinforced by the accompanying video, which features the band in the studio during the verses but when the choruses burst into life, there’s footage of real house parties supplied by fans. Knowing that these are real people having real fun genuinely adds to the enjoyment.
Taylor Goldsmith says of the song: “A nostalgic song. A song about how true cultural experiences aren’t in the tourist traps but within human connections among specific communities. It’s a goofy lyric but the sentiment is not. We can all relate to feeling truly alive at a dive bar or a stranger’s home, getting access into a universe we didn’t even know existed…Whether across the planet or just one town over.”
The song was co-produced by brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith with their friend Mike Viola and features on the forthcoming ‘Oh Brother’. This will be the band’s 9th studio album and represents a new direction for Dawes due to the departure of two band-mates after 2022’s ‘Misadventures of Doomscroller’. The writing and recording process involved each song being initially recorded live with just Griffin on drums and Taylor on vocals and guitar. Later, additional instrumentation was added to those raw recordings. Taylor says of the album: “All you can really do is find out what are the most essential, truest, and idiosyncratic parts of yourself. And I like the fact that Griffin and I are kind of clinging to each other and holding on to each other more than we ever have. We’re grateful for each other in a new way. But we’ve also been through a lot. It feels like we’re reborn in a way, and I mean that with so, so much love and gratitude to everyone we’ve ever played with before! This is what it means to be a lifer, to have iterations. It means having phases and chapters, and this is a very clear delineation as to the beginning of a new one. So ‘Oh Brother’ feels like a ninth record, but it also feels like a first record.” Look out for the album on 11th October 2024 – we anticipate something special.
