LA rockers Dawes have released a deeply thoughtful and insightful new song and video about mental health and personal survival today. "Didn't Fix Me," available now at all DSPs and streaming services, is the fourth song from the Los Angeles-based band’s eagerly awaited seventh studio LP, GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER. Produced by 6x GRAMMY® Award-winner Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit) at Nashville’s famed RCA Studio A, the album arrives via Rounder Records on Friday, October 2; pre-orders are available now.
WATCH "DIDN'T FIX ME"
PRE-ORDER GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER
Consequence of Sound premiered "Didn't Fix Me" yesterday, saying, "Now more than ever, we’re all on our own journeys to try and feel just a little bit better. Of course, the double-edged sword of it all is no matter how good a place we find ourselves in, this year has made it ever more clear that such harmony is frail. But as anyone with any experience giving or receiving mental health advice will tell you, that’s normal. Feeling 100% all the time is an unfeasible expectation — and that’s okay. If you ever need a reminder of that, Dawes have delivered what could be the perfect musical hug with their new song...If you’re at all empathetic to the emotional strains of daily life, grab a box of tissues and check out the video."
"It feels very natural to outsource our problems," says Taylor Goldsmith. "Telling ourselves 'once I have this job, this partner, this amount of money, etc, I will be happy' is really effective and convenient. Unfortunately no one’s life actually works that way. I'm sure we all know plenty of miserable people who seem to have it all and plenty of blissful people that seem to have close to nothing. This song is about the efforts one makes to find some easy fix, unable to recognize that it will never work that way, that we are in the end our own responsibility."
"Didn't Fix Me" follows the release last month of the captivating and reflective “Still Feel Like A Kid."
LISTEN TO “STILL FEEL LIKE A KID”
GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER was first heralded by the releases of “Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?” and “St. Augustine At Night.” The high-spirited “Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?” was joined by an official companion video, directed by actress/filmmaker Caitlin Gerard and streaming now at the official Dawes YouTube channel. The band performed both songs on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in August. In July, Goldsmith nominated for an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics” for the song “Memorized” from the NBC show This Is Us.
WATCH “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE TALKING TO?”
ON JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!
WATCH “ST. AUGUSTINE AT NIGHT” ON JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!
“Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?” was met by widespread applause upon its July premiere, with Rolling Stone hailing it as “a turbo-charged Eighties heartland rocker that finds Goldsmith narrating an interaction between two people, one of whom is still plagued by a past relationship.” “From the sounds of ‘Who Do You Think You’re Talking To?,’ bringing everyone closer to the process has led to a bigger sound,” declared Consequence of Sound. “As Goldsmith’s classic melodies and riffs continue the thread of Dawes’ decade-long career, the percussion snaps like a whip crack and Lee Pardini’s keys reach Roy Bittan levels of drama as they’re pushed to the forefront.”
WATCH “WHO DO YOU THINK YOU’RE TALKING TO?”
OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
WATCH “ST. AUGUSTINE AT NIGHT” LYRIC VIDEO
GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER – which marks Dawes’ first release on their new label, Rounder Records – follows a series of acclaimed self-released albums including 2013’s STORIES DON’T END, 2015’s ALL YOUR FAVORITE BANDS, 2016’s WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE, and 2018’s PASSWORDS, all of which reached the top 10 or higher on Billboard’s “Top Rock Albums” and “Americana/Folk Albums” charts.
From its first downbeat, GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER sees Goldsmith grappling with the expectations of adulthood on a remarkable cycle of new songs fueled by many of the same elements that first earned the band worldwide attention and applause – graceful melodies with kinetic riffs and intricate musical interplay. Throughout the album, Dawes once again prove incredibly adept at pushing the emotional limits of the classically structured rock song, a testament to their tightly honed yet imaginative musicianship and the gripping specificity of Goldsmith’s songwriting. A culmination of their entire catalogue and decade-long career all wrapped up in nine glorious tracks, GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER reclaims the rugged urgency and easy confidence of Dawes’ early work while tapping into the veteran band’s intense musical connection more effectively than ever before.
“In the past, I’ve definitely been more precious about the way I wanted the songs to sound, but that’s never as fun,” Goldsmith says. “The music we make is everyone’s mode of expression, and the other guys all have chops that I don’t have and never will. The fact that we’re able to lean on each other and celebrate each other as individuals just makes us so much more excited about getting to play together in this band.”
Dawes is: Taylor Goldsmith (guitars, vocals), Griffin Goldsmith (drums), Wylie Gelber (bass), Lee Pardini (keys).
DAWES
GOOD LUCK WITH WHATEVER
(ROUNDER RECORDS)
RELEASE DATE: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2
