Premiere: YESES, ‘Long Way Home’

Kevin Bronson on October 10th, 2018

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YESES is the new project from Daniel Dixon, former guitarist for the Portland band Greylag, which released a highly regarded (and Phil Ek-produced) album in 2014. After the dissolution of the band, he returned to his native California only to be stricken by a mysterious illness. In and out of the hospital, often bedridden, Dixon began to work his way through what he described as a “mental fog” by writing new songs.

YESES’ debut EP sees Dixon coming out the other side, with songs that are hazy but propulsive, nostalgic but sanguine, with melody at their chewy center. It’s folk-rock as filtered through the ’80s, or a lower-register James Mercer the morning after. And the songs ask a lot of questions — “How far do you have to swim / before you fall off the edge of the world?” Dixon asks in “Edge of the World.” And in the lead single “Long Way Home,” he wonders about the myth of Home, and questions nostalgia itself.

“The nostalgic longing for a lost sense of Home is a strong theme throughout the record,” he says. “However, the song explores the role we play in thwarting our own stated desires for Home and the stubborn, often unacknowledged apprehension toward actually finding the thing you seek.

“We chase one enticing thing after the next, while secretly fearing to be defined and tied down by what we may find there — ‘Always slipping in and out of love / You build it up to fall with a touch.’ This song is meant to be a reminder that meaning is to be found in the stuff that already makes up your life now, not some illusory someday, forever further down the road.”

The EP was made with producer Jon Joseph (BØRNS’ bassist), along with James MacAlister (Sufjan Stevens), Logan Baudean (Moon Honey) and Dixon’s wife Stephanie Dixon singing background vocals. It’s out Oct. 19.

||| Stream: “Long Way Home”