Seraphina Lotkhamnga on September 9th, 2011

2

Devon Williams has come along way from his days as a teenager who played in the infamous punk band Osker. Since then, the L.A.-based musician has found his voice playing in various bands, including Lavender Diamond and his former band Fingers-cut Megamachine. However, it’s the 29-year-old’s lush psych-pop that has catapulted his name as a songwriter. His new follow-up to 2009’s “Carefree” (also known as “Careerfree”), “Euphoria” presents him as the contemplative type, considering songs titled “Revelations,” “Dreaming” and “Tower of Thought.” Not that he is living in the clouds.

||| Download: “Your Sympathy”

“Do I consider myself a dreamer? Not really,” Williams explains. “There’s just a connotation to it that I’m not happy with. For example, I got this horoscope once that said I’m content to have these fantasies in my head and daydream instead of doing them. That bummed me out because I want to do the things I think I should do.” However, he does add, “But I guess I fall in the dreamer category because working for what you want is part of the dreamer’s process.”

“Working” is a keyword in Williams’ life philosophy, and his work ethic as a songwriter can be heard on the new record, just released on Slumberland Records. Shimmering pop adorned with jangling guitar riffs, fluid keyboard lines and off-kilter yet honest choruses slightly coated in reverb fill “Euphoria” to the brim, adding an otherworldly feel to what he had offered on his previous album.

“I worked on it for a long time. Once ”˜Carefree’ came out, I was already writing songs and I was trying to formulate what would become ”˜Euphoria,'” he says. “I even tried to start recording the new album back then, but it just wasn’t ready.”

After much trial and error, and with some songs falling apart or becoming pieces of other songs, Williams decided he would actually demo everything out before he went into studio, and even before he would present the music to his band (which now consists of Wayne Faler, Bill Gray, Marty Sataman and Nick Murray). “I was a little devastated that some songs fell apart because I invest a lot into the music,” he explains. “I’m adamant on something working, but I think it’s good. It made me feel confident if I had to throw a song away, because I felt something better was going to be written.”

And with “Sufferer” as the only song that had been remixed with different lyrics and keyboard parts since the initial tracking the year before, Williams is satisfied with the process. The warm, hazy arrangements are particularly intriguing when paired with sympathetic lyrics such as “Shed your fear / and I will share mine” and “You open me.” Touching on some Brian Wilson-esque combination of structure and layered emotion, one couldn’t help but think if Williams could be a closeted romantic if he defied life as a dreamer. “I don’t want to say being optimistic is the same as being romantic,” he says, “but I guess I can see the sweetness in certain things. A lot of the songs are about me trying to find understanding.”

Williams is happy to touring again, but he’s also already planning to start recording in October. With a large batch of songs that have been more “finished” than anything he’s done before, he’s even hoping it will be completed before next summer. He may be pushing the concept of dreams aside, but Williams doesn’t deny his romance with his band’s music which he claims, “I’ll do till I die.”

||| Live: Devon Williams plays Saturday at F House and Oct. 21 at the Echo with Tamaryn.

Photo by Daniel Arnold