A gripping track with melodic sophisti-pop entrancement, “Windshield” comes via Pawl‘s forthcoming album MYSTIC, out on August 29th. Jazzy percussion, warming organs, and embracing vocal layers converge for an immersive sound, dazzling in both its serene vocal momentum and trickling guitar flourishes — as lyrics reference higher roads, history repeating, and a sense of traversing through the human experience with growing experience.
The “amnesia strikes,” section consumes with the multiple vocal layers, organ-laden momentum, and prancing guitars; the aesthetic is strikingly reminiscent of Prefab Sprout, and lovably so. “Windshield” is a lovely track, written entirely by the artist on a Nord Studio 88 Keyboard in one night. “It came about less as a keyboard composition and more as a daydreaming exercise,” Pawl says. “I was thinking about a period of my life and I was thinking of writing a story about it.”
Pawl elaborates further:
“But instead, I was imagining images in my mind that seemed to pertain to my life and that is where the lyrics and melodies came from. I was going through a lot of turmoil at the time as I was moving and changing in my life in large ways. After I wrote the song, I brought the song to my friend James Pope–an amazing drummer in Phoenix–and he came up with the jazzy feel I was looking for with percussion.”
“We recorded those parts at his house. We called our mutual friend Marlon Burno, who is a fantastic bassist/ guitarist and he laid down those instruments. DAN E.T. is an old friend of mine and he took the track into his studio in Tempe, AZ and added the organs and recorded a wonderful singer Hayley Green on backing vocals. DAN E.T. ultimately mixed the track in Arizona. It is our second track together, the first being more of a collaboration: Alright.”
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
