posted November 19, 2018 #
For those not interested in a long writeup, here's the TLDR:
DM Stith has joined the roster of artists over on my lil label
yk Records. He built out his home studio and mined his archives for a variety of songs; the first of which is "
Gravity" - a track recorded with Richard Swift circa 2012. It's streaming everywhere right now, so please go enjoy it.
Here's the longer version of that, from a more personal perspective:
I met DM Stith at a sidewalk bar in Manhattan, having a cocktail with friends of mine from Tennessee that he had recorded with on complete happenstance. Though I likely should have thought better of it, I gushed at what a fan of his work I was. His history touring with Sufjan Stevens and collaborating with the likes of Son Lux or Sarah Kirkland Snider were unknown to me; I was simply a fan of his solo albums Pigeonheart and Heavy Ghost. The musical elements of both albums paired with his completely haunting vocal performances always captivated me. I had always wondered why there wasn't more of it.
Over the ensuing years, we struck up a proper friendship and could spend hours together without a chaperone of common friends. Through this experience I learned that there was more DM Stith, plenty more. There were songs recorded in various studios with noteworthy collaborators like Richard Swift. There were new tracks in half finished states born from his learnings recording Pigeonheart that took the expansive state of "My Impatience" even further. There was even an entire album of songs crafted, recorded and prepared for release that lived between the two official albums that met an unfortunate, and undeserved, fate. With a little coaxing, we decided that the fate had not been sealed for these songs.
Over time, Stith moved into a new apartment and built a small studio in his bedroom. This space allowed him to mine through the archives of works we'd discussed and cull together a collection of songs never meant to be lost. Some needed nothing more than a gentle touch, while others are reworked into entirely new arrangements.
This collection of revived compositions will be released over the final months of 2018 and throughout the early part of 2019. To speak a bit metaphorically, sometimes you must sacrifice your creations into the river of time to let them come back to you, ready to be pulled from the mire and given a fresh breath of proper life back into them. I'm humbled and extremely excited to be a small part of that process.
