FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 8, 2021
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INTIMATE INDIE-FOLK ARTIST DYLAN COX SHARES
DEBUT EP
OUT NOW
RIYL: Andrew Bird, Big Thief, The Tallest Man On Earth
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Dylan Cox’s new EP was recorded in April of 2021 in the studio of Abraham Rounds and Sarah Walk in Los Angeles, who both produced the record. Abe, a percussionist, drummer, and composer who plays in the band of Meshell Ndgeocello, and often collaborates with Blake Mills, Andrew Bird, and Ethan Gruska, brought a deep musical knowledge and inspiration to the recording and its arrangements. Sarah, an accomplished and brilliant songwriter, singer, and multi-instrumentalist was there to sew together many of the poetic meanings into arrangements. Also featured on the album is Jake Sherman on keys, a frequent collaborator with Abe and who also plays with Andrew Bird, as well as Nick Hakim, among others. On the stand-up bass is Alan Hampton, the long-time collaborator of Bird, and on lead guitar, Mateo Vermot, a young French guitarist.
A Place to Meet is part of the songs Dylan wrote while living at of La Villa Magnan in the southwest of France. Dylan often performed there to experiment with the enormous acoustic sounds of singing in big rooms. Part of the bigness of the vocals and the string-like melodies of the post-choruses, in this song and others, comes from these spaces, as well as the giant "orangerie" of the villa, a room originally built to nurse orange trees in the cold of winter. Dylan trained his voice and rehearsed there for over two years.
The EP is made of songs that think about language, what it can and can't communicate, and a hope that in music, language can create a place that defies the limits of our connections with other people. In short, these songs express a hope for music, that making and listening to it is like making and finding family, creating a place where we can love the ones we love, near or far. "Animals in the Kitchen," released in March of 2021, expresses the kind of joy and sadness that language's inherent lack has. Songs on the album like "World Between" or "Joy" are celebrations of musical form, that creative invention can be ways of being close or getting close to those and to what we've been separated from, deprived of, or what we have lost. “The Comet” is an aching song about self-orphanage, and feeling through the built in aspect of every relationship, that we will lose the ones we love.
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A PLACE TO MEET
TRACKLIST
Welcome
Animals in the Kitchen
A Place to Meet
The Comet
World Between
Flying Martha
Joy
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ABOUT DYLAN COX:
Dylan Cox grew up in the seaside town of San Clemente, an hour south of Los Angeles and an hour north of the Mexican-U.S. border. One finds in this sleepy town a couple of world-famous dusty beaches and the center of Californian surf culture. From a young age, Dylan was immersed in it, literally growing up at the beach, surrounded by seasoned locals and international stars in the surf world. With the prospects of a career in surfing, Dylan competed often, winning sponsors and a national title. But a problematic home-life caused a certain kind of angst and distance, pulling Dylan away from surfing. At 16, he had bought a 1987 Toyota pickup truck and was determined to work his way out and live in the back. Running away and continuing to work and go to high school, he was eventually offered a place to stay with his coworker and her mom, who soon became family to him. Living in a small apartment together, he began to play guitar and sing with his newfound sister, a trained singer. She being the daughter of a local musician, a juke-box of Americana, rock, and folk songs, she passed on a myriad of songs and singing techniques, instilling in him a musical culture and a way of singing. He wrote and performed songs at open mics in town, developing his voice and honing his songwriting ability.
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At 18 he earned a scholarship to attend UC Berkeley. For four years he immersed himself deeply in the study of literature and philosophy, earning two degrees and graduating with honors and as a prize-winning young poet. During his time in the San Francisco Bay Area, much of Dylan's songwriting gleaned inspiration from the moody tree-lined landscape, an engagement in progressive politics, and his own exploration of literature and its relationship to music. While listening to Otis Redding or Feist or Jeff Buckley or the Fleet Foxes, Dylan was reading Kant and Heidegger, Wallace Stevens, and Emily Dickinson, making connections between the lyrical form and the love song. Amid all the abstraction of academia and the hustle of working three jobs, Dylan continued to write songs and perform at small Bay-Area venues, opening for bands passing through town (Big Thief, Little Wings) or playing house shows.
Dylan graduated in 2019 and soon left California for France. After visiting numerous times and having already studied the language at school, he had formed a small tight-knit artistic group of friends. Two of them had recently bought an abandoned villa in the south-west of France, and were planning to create an experimental and cinematic bed and breakfast, which soon became the internationally renowned La Villa Magnan. They invited him to stay there and help them run the place, while having the space and time to create music. After 6 months, the pandemic began, and Cox stayed on. Cradled near the Spanish border on the Basque coastline, the 10 acre art-deco villa was once the home of the Spanish Royal family, who had found refuge there during the Spanish civil war. With a family of help, the new owners refurbished the Balenciaga designed palace into a bohemian wonderland, where Dylan lives and works alongside a donkey, a sheep, and numerous chickens, assisting in enormous haute couture fashion shoots and the upkeep of the place.
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(Photo Credit: Drew Martin)
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PRESS CONTACTS:
Tamara Simons
Big Hassle Media
Justin Ciccone
Big Hassle Media
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