SoCal native and rural France resident Dylan Cox releases his second single, "Welcome" off of his upcoming debut EP, A Place to Meet. Dylan’s music is an intimate brand of indie folk influenced by his days surfing to escape a turbulent home life in San Clemente and his time working three jobs while studying philosophy and literature at UC Berkeley.
"Welcome", the opening track of the record is an ode to the doubt that accompanies the beginning of a relationship with someone. Dylan's oldest song on the record, "Welcome", also sets a tone for many of the other songs: it's at once a rich expression of an abstract scene of intimacy between two people learning to be vulnerable with one another and a hope for what a song can do as a collective place of belonging.
Originally written after a breakup in 2017, the song took on a new form when Dylan was invited to his friend's neighbor's for a drink in the French south-west beach town of Biarritz; the neighbors were the internationally renowned all-men Basque choir, Oldarra, who were having their annual evening of mourning for the choir members they had lost (the choir was almost completely 60+). After a bottle of cider, Dylan performed "Welcome" with them and found for the first time the chorus vocal melody with forty voices singing along.
In the studio, the gang-vocal chorus became a way of nodding to this experience, of leaning into doubt but doing so with others, a kind of welcome to the unknown multitude of listeners to a place where singing together is possible. The percussion on the song, performed by producer Abraham Rounds, is done entirely on co-producer Sarah Walk's piano, using the sustain pedal as a kick and brushes on the wood. Dylan's fingers scratch the piano as well, mimicking the intimate sounds of feet on wood, of notes being written, welcoming the details of love (and the record) to begin.
Windows written by Dylan Cox
Guitar and vocals by Dylan Cox
Percussion by Abe Rounds
Piano by Sarah Walk
Organ and Keyboard by Jake Sherman
Stand-up bass by Alan Hampton
Back up Vocals by Abe Rounds, Sarah Walk, Dylan Cox, Kirra Bennett
