this is the most excited I've been to release music in ages

maybe even ever

I hope this music takes you to a dreamy place

to start the new year off from the heart

Aesthetic is about that chapter in love when the feelings are light and any little time apart shines light on just how deep the connection is

Lullabies continues those emotions when you're in that stage where everything feels romanticized. where every story the person you are falling in love with tells a story that plays in your head in a hundred ways. you see the meaning in everything and it lingers when they leave and amplifies in anticipation of their return. it also touches on that redeeming quality of intimacy where everything just feels better when you're falling love. when it's as if your union with someone makes everything make sense.

Ukraine came from a series of dreams I kept having in January of 2022. I kept having this vision of driving in my car from russia to ukraine over and over again. we were engaged in some heists that got deeper and deeper each night and this girl was some classic bond girl who had some serious code like bonnie and clyde vibes. there were a ton of lyrics in the demos that never made it into the song with a bunch of literary references. 4 weeks after recording these demos and having visions of armies on the border war ended up breaking out. the guitar of this song is actually recorded on the floor of our "then" apartment in Santa Monica.

Gold Rush picks up where Lullabies left off. it's that chapter in love where the feelings start to pull deeper into your past, when love breaks free from the distractions and touches into that ideal that you held as a kid, or a teenager, that idea of what true love could be, and when those feelings throw away all the pretense and all the fears and all the anxieties of failed love and that rush of believing the love you've always prayed for is at your door and that you can be that person you always wanted with the person you've waited your whole life for.

Cheetahs is the final song of this EP, it almost didn't make it on but it's also the song that started it all off. it's that very first part of the love cycle where someone starts to know little things about you and they make them feel big. for me it's this obsession I have with Cheetahs and a lover who would text them to me in the morning. then all the daydreams that spill from connecting deeper with someone. love is the greatest catalyst for creativity and when it starts to wash over you all sorts of metaphors and messages spill out

thanks for reading and listening

I love you all so much

see you soon

Dustin