Cover art I designed myself for Heavy Thinker
Dear friends, fans, and good people taking care of themselves,
I’m beyond proud to debut my new single and the 2nd EP bonus track. “Heavy Thinker” is out now! Stream the song HERE. Dedicated to my dad and our sleepless nights hanging with the coyotes. Please share this with a friend!!!
The story. There’s so much I want to say about this song and I don’t have the perfect words. But when I talk about my time living ‘alone in the woods’ — this is the best descriptor I have. A silence at night so pristine that the only sound cutting through it was coyotes howling. And they were loud. Loud enough that they kept my dad and I up through the night one time. Which inspired this song. Sometimes quiet is not the answer to finding peace or healing. Sometimes you need to get out there on the field & just live life. So that’s what I’m working on now.
I was both nervous and pumped to share this song.
Though my friends who know me on a super personal level know I've always experimented with crossover genre stuff combining lofi rap, indie rock, and folk music behind the curtain of my bedroom recording sessions - this might the first time I've ever released something like this publicly. So I hope you enjoy the rawness, the vulnerability, and the lack of allegiance to any genre whatsoever.
As for the single art, I made it myself. I was on a trip to Arizona this fall officiating my best bud's wedding (he also produced the song, shoutout to naebird) - so I printed out the original cover in a hotel's office room, wrinkled it up, and then brought it home and scanned it to make it look like an outtake of the Take Care Of Yourself cover. The mood is grey, but I'm confident and optimistic that other people will relate to what I talk about in this song.
That time I married my friends.
For those who are interested in music production and seeing behind the scenes, check out my messy-as-hell logic pro session below. This is how this song began before naebird made it sound as good as it does in the final version. My original idea was for this song to be all about the coyotes, and I even originally wanted to call it The Sound of Coyotes, which you can see in the session name below. It’s a faster tempo than I normally play with which may have pushed me to embrace the drama in the lyrics. There’s a forced urgency when you rap in a boom bap flow over 96bpm drums. And I like that a whole lot.
For my musicians and bedroom producers out there…
My messy-as-hell logic session. The song was originally named The Sound of Coyotes.
Oh yeah, and here’s a high compliment that made my release day today. This new era being compared to the There’s More To Life era. The two release periods feel in sync in my mind too, and I don’t even really know how to articulate why — maybe because after long phases of introspection I am finally letting loose & sharing a whole lot of thoughts, drafts, demos, and finished recordings that have been cooped up in my brain & heart for way too long.
I would like to do a lot more of that this year, and maybe a little less heavy thinking. But we’ll see how it goes…
Heavy Thinker Credits
Lyrics and vocals by Dylan Owen
Written by Dylan Owen, naebird
Produced by naebird
Mixed by naebird
Mastered by naebird, Wes Henry
Artwork by Dylan Owen
A Nowhere Kids Release
This entire new era of my music would not exist without naebird & wes henry, so major props and gratitude to these dudes.
Hope someone relates to this song. HEAVY THINKER OUT NOW.
- Dylan