Through The Long And Lonely Night

and a reddit AMA this friday may 2nd, 3p eastern / 12p pacific ...

hi all,

the media horse is trotting out in front of the song cart, neighing about AMA’ing …

what i’m saying is: i’m doing a reddit ‘ask-me-anything’ this coming friday, may 2nd at 3p eastern / 12p pacific.

y’know … sometimes you surf the web, and sometimes the web serfs you

so: i’m really looking forward to hanging out. dirty projectors did an AMA back in ‘20, and it was, tbh, one of the coolest experiences of the internet i’ve had? consider a pop-in!

however: i’m feeling possibly maybe like the AMA could be a nice last moment before i kiss the sky and softly vaporize back into the pure possibility of a meat suit throwing hamfists at some ivories

what i mean is, i gotta finish the piano songs! i’m so excited about these new songs. the idea of a landlord emerged in the context of medieval serfdom. could we call zuckerberg et al timelords? because our time is our own — but somehow they claim it for themselves! i guess i just want some time away from the matrix, is all.

anyway, come to the reddit AMA … this fri - a - day ;)

---

the other thing is …

i was hoping to tell you about the new original dirty projectors song featured on The Legend of Ochi OST. it’s called ,,Through the Long And Lonely Night”.

this song is the rosetta stone. in the deep lore of the film exists an old traditional melody, handed down through generations of carpathians, its provenance as a folkloric adaptation of the vocalizations of the forest ochi long obscured and forgotten.

this ancient air winds through the film in myriad guises, as a primary theme of the score and in a couple diegetic forms, ultimately finding expression in a 70s folk-rock / early Eurovision-style recording. the main character’s parents — played by willem dafoe & emily watson — fell in love to this song in their long-ago youth.

in the film it’s sung by a russian man we found hosting an open mic at a russian dive bar in north hollywood. during the session — in my poorly-ventilated and much-too-small garage writing room — he smelled authentically of cigarettes & vodka.

that odorous experience moved me to take the ‘70s eastern european folk’ prompt in a less literal direction. recording with mike and maia and felicia in chelsea of new york city, an arrangement took shape that felt very elvis in memphis, a honky-tonk rhythm section tootling along while a 45-piece string orchestra would be stuffed entirely in the left channel …

the day we recorded ‘the long and lonely night’ L—R: felicia douglass, me, mike johnson, maia friedman

the one true disagreement i had with the director isaiah in our yearslong collaborative process was about my vocal on this song. i’d recorded a guide vocal for the russian guy. and the day we laid down the performances in chelsea, i realized — as i had on the swing lo magellan songs — that i loved my guide, warbles and all. there’s a looseness to it, a little levity. the vocal is crying into its beer. it’s morose and merle but a lil cheeky and lefty (frizzy?). isaiah didn’t see it that way. he said, ‘it doesn’t sound like dirty projectors. people will think it’s a joke, because you don’t sound like yourself.’

it’s not a joke — i love the song!

i don’t know. it’s kind of a deep question for a songwriter or a performer:

do i sound like myself?

it is sometimes cool not to sound like yourself? or expand what the boundaries of what your “self” is by, say, crying into your melodic beer a little bit? maybe there is no self …

what do you think?

geez what a month !

the release of song of the earth and the legend of ochi within weeks of each other! it’s been epic. thank you for being along for the ride. these two feel like woolly mammoth twins emerging from the thawing of the accumulated glaciation of, like, eight years of life. (granted, i started both four years ago & worked ‘em in tandem, but … )

jus wanted to say thanks for listening, thanks for writing to me if you’ve done that — it feels great to share this music with you!

until soon (perhaps the friday AMA)

dave