Time was a cruel mistress for the local post-punk outfit Dark Black.
The five-piece’s latest full-length LP, YAH (an acronym for “You Are Here”), finally came out on January 10, marking a triumph for a band that seemed locked in an eternal limbo of delays. After years of recording stops and starts, it’s finally here, and it’s nothing short of monumental.
“It’s exciting and bittersweet to have it out, because it took so long. We could have been 80 years old and been like, ‘It’s coming out someday!’” says drummer George Foskaris inside their rehearsal space at The Alamo.
YAH is a snapshot of a journey. It bears witness to the band’s evolution since its start in 2015, both musically and personally. Through pandemics, job changes, recording pauses and even a marriage, Dark Black persevered to get the damn thing done.
Dark Black's YAH
In an effort to fully commit themselves to the recording process, Foskaris, Dillon Shines (vocals, guitar, synthesizer), Matthew Frantom (vocals, guitar), Rocky Stevenson (keyboards, acoustic guitar, percussion) and Kevin Oakley (bass) took a firm approach.
“We did a lock-in style where everyone took a week off of work and we showed up and did consecutive 12-hour sessions,” says Shines.
The process revealed itself to be rewarding. Starting in 2019, sessions were held at National Southwestern Recording, Naked City Audio and Shines’ home studio, Center Street Studios, with the band relying on the help of multiple friends to engineer. It took a year for the project to finish mixing and mastering.
Clocking in at 39 minutes, the 10-track album covers a lot of ground, shifting between a variety of moods. From the jangly, upbeat vibe of “Son of Mine” to the almost western yet surf-forward riffage of “Ray of Light,” the record is a whirlwind. The lead single, “My Morning Mood,” trudges steadily, glimmering with the touch of a synth keyboard. Shines’ and Frantom’s vocals come at you in somber tones, while the upbeat tempos contract in unexpected ways.
Each track tells a story of growing up, human nature and relationships, woven together by mere minutes of ear-catching melodies, layered guitars and driving rhythms.
For all its sonic experimentation, YAH represents the band’s biggest project to date—one made possible by the help of a large crew made up of musically inclined friends of the band.
“We started a thank you list and I was just like f**king baking it for a week,” recalls Foskaris. “People just kept popping up in my head…it turned out pretty long.”
To prime the public’s ear, Dark Black recorded a live session at Half Way Home, a recording studio in Solana Beach, California. The session captured renditions of four tracks from YAH, and yielded a YouTube video to promote the album.
Dark Black’s roots run deep in the local music scene, with Frantom, Shines and Foskaris all having played together in the locally acclaimed post-hardcore band Caravels. But their bond stretches even further back. “George and I even played in bands together in middle school,” says Frantom, remembering that he and Foskaris’ musical friendship began long before the days of Caravels.
When it comes to songwriting, Dark Black’s evolution is striking. YAH is a record that reveals the band’s transformation from heavily post-punk influenced to a fusion of shoegaze, indie-pop and even gothic elements.
As the band prepares for its February 28 show at The Usual Place, Shines admits that time and their absence in the live music scene might have shifted perceptions. He adds that people can expect something new.
“When we first started, we wanted to sound more like Wire and maybe like Total Control and just square post-punk,” says Shines. “But we don’t really sound like those bands anymore. We’re kind of, I think, a lot dreamier now. Our songs are more linear than they were back then.”
DARK BLACK VINYL RELEASE SHOW February 28, 8:30 p.m., 21+, $10, The Usual Place, theusualplace.vegas.
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