My friends at Big & Tall Recording invited me to perform at their first neighborhood pop-up show to debut some of my new songs. We went hard even without a microphone…
There’s something raw and invigorating about performing to a group of people with a stripped down musical setup — this time was just me and Gabe Valle on piano (my longtime partner on violin, piano, and more instruments at live shows) and I spit my songs entirely over his masterful piano playing. He is good enough to keep rhythm and play the melody notes at the same time, so I didn’t feel like anything was missing.
This show was a special limited event I put together with Big & Tall in NJ, where I recorded parts of my album Holes In Our Stories (and a lot more over the years)—and the 30 slots sold out right away so we opened it up to another 10 people. 40 souls packed in a room in New Jersey in a nowhere town. That’s what I call a proper DIY show. I met some fans who’ve been listening for 10+ years, and they showed up in KYFC hats and rocking red Nowhere Kid t-shirts, and damn that moved me. A good reminder not only of why I do this, but of how much I don’t ever want to stop.
I performed my new song “Young Skins” for the first time ever. It felt good. Genuine honesty in the lyrics about my career thus far and directed straight to the audience at hand…it’s an ode to every independent artist, so I introduced the song by dedicating it to everybody in the crowd who dreams of being a poet, a rapper, a musician, a graphic designer, or anything like the people in the posters on their bedroom walls. Felt fitting to be in a small town outside of NYC with the main hook line of the song: WE DON’T NEED TO MEET OUR HEROES WE BECOME THEM.
My setlist was: Creases, Young Skins (unreleased), Dear Summer (unreleased), and of course…Ghosts. Shoutout to Melissa Cherie who performed a few vulnerable and lyrical songs, and Jon Khan of Blue Vervain who sang a couple honest songs of his own about heartbreak.
This night was energizing.
This is how we are kicking off EP3.
News on Young Skins soon — this Tuesday @ 12 noon to be exact.
All photos above by my longtime friend Patrick Capriglione. Huge thanks and massive gratitude to Big & Tall (Gabe Valle + Tom McCormick). Bonus shoutout to Abbey, Holly, Patrick, Brian, and the countless others who helped being the scenes to make this show a reality. Especially the fans who showed up Friday night.
Much love & let’s make this new season of nonstop music count. Till next time,
Dylan