DYGL
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2019 has seen DYGL begin the year at SXSW, land offers from major festivals across Asia including Fuji Rock, tour Europe with The Mystery lights and Bad Suns, and the US with SWMRS, and Girlpool.
They also released a new album titled Songs Of Innocence & Experience, produced by Rory Attwell (Test Icicles, The Vaccines, Palma Violets). Regarding the choice of the title frontman Nobuki Akiyama says, “The album title is quoted by the title of the poetry book by William Blake 'Songs of Innocence and of Experience' because I felt some connection between his work and my lyrics. “The songs on this album are a personal questioning and contradiction in this life or world, rather than presenting a specific answer. Maybe it's about coming of age; maybe it's more than that. It's quite related to personal feelings.”
DYGL pull from varying facets across the indie landscape to deliver this message. They offer up an indie swagger reminiscent of the likes of The Libertines and The Cribs with lead single ‘A Paper Dream’ and ‘Bad Kicks’. Meanwhile there’s a touch of Beach Boys surf paired with the nonchalant shoegaze of DIIV in ‘Spit It Out’. A gritty low-fi attitude similar to the likes of Iceage or Shame channels through the likes of ‘Ordinary Love’. There are also beautifully delicate moments peppered throughout Songs Of Innocence & Experience, with the likes of album opener ‘Hard To Love’, ‘Only You (An Empty Room)’, ‘Nashville’ and ‘Behind The Sun’, which closes the album. Speaking about ‘Behind The Sun’ and its influence on the album artwork Nobuki says, “There’s a lyric in ‘Behind The Sun’, “If I could swim across the stars to fly to what awaits me behind the sun”.
In my vision I have an image like floating in outer space alone with no sound around, so we asked the designer (Jordanne Chant) to make the artwork related to that. It's the airship flying in front of the sun, a bit emotionlessly, but still a bit sadly secret. “In this album I think I felt both sides of life, pure innocence and some kind of broken unreasonable experience.
It could be quite depressing and sad, but at the same time there's some cheerful, fun melodies, some passions and anger, and some comforting silence. I think it's all connected and has a meaning to each other, like our lives itself. It's not like looking for the answer; it's more like singing some contradiction and questions as it is like some abstract drawings. But I hope it could be still giving people who listen to it some energy and passions for music, and for their lives.” Songs Of Innocence & Experience is the follow up DYGL’s highly acclaimed debut album Say Goodbye To Memory Den in 2017. The record was produced by Albert Hammond Jr and was quick to make DYGL the hottest indie names in Tokyo, while also sparking UK praise from the likes of NME, Clash and more. The new album finds DYGL venturing much deeper into themselves both musically and lyrically than found on their first record, showing a vastly greater depth to their songwriting prowess. Songs Of Innocence & Experience further cements DYGL as Tokyo’s hottest indie exports.
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