After deciding to step out from the guise of high-energy indie rock into a different space, Elliott Dawson has arrived, having written and produced his debut solo album, titled Hang Low. The album delicately charts Dawson’s renegotiation of his relationship to masculinity, youth, and substance abuse. Sonically ambitious and genre-defiant, it is an 8-track chapter of a singular mind; representing a kind of coming of age for Dawson.
Hang Low was written in late 2020/early 2021, recorded at Lee Prebble’s Newtown Surgery Studio in December 2021, and is engineered and mixed by Aotearoa’s stalwart and resident wizard James Goldsmith (Mermaidens, Earth Tongue, Sheep Dog & Wolf, Aldous Harding - to name a few). It features a band of Pōneke’s finest musicians - Olivia Campion (Yumi Zouma, Revulva, Mystery Waitress), Lily Rose Shaw (Revulva, Dawn Diver, The Gallery), Reuben Topzand (Neil Macleod, ZÖ) and Pierce Higginson (DOONS, Solomon Crook).
Hang Low’ is a record of rebirth. It’s something that I tried to make sound jarring and pretty at the same time, drawing on my experience of heavier music, within the context of the jazz musicians in the band.
Tracklist
- Lay Your Walls Down
- CEO
- Bald Spot
- Truman
- Winter’s Ghost
- No Consequence
- You’re So Nice / Boy’s Home
- Kill the Man
