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Friday, March 28 // Doors at 7PM // Show at 8 // $20 Advance // $25 DoS
“Life itself is a thunderstorm,” says Trevor Powers, the Idaho-based songwriter and producer behind Youth Lagoon. “Life’s those fleeting moments we often miss—like a dog at the backdoor, a speeding car, or the color of sunlight. Often, a simple treasure.”
In 2023, that treasure came when Powers stumbled upon a shoebox of home videos in his parents’ basement. While searching for a pre-war harmonica that once belonged to his grandmother, he discovered footage of himself and his brother at the state fair. “I was 4 years old, choking on a corn dog,” he recalls with a laugh. That week, Powers recorded moments from the tapes—Easter egg hunts, bloody noses, road trips—and began incorporating them into his music, creating a kind of audio-visual snapshot of his past. “I wanted to really make someone feel like they were inside my living room in 1993,” he explains.
Powers’ new album, Rarely Do I Dream, blends these intimate glimpses of his childhood with his signature sound—a mix of electronica and rock that drifts between reality and imagination. With themes of boyhood, love, and mythology, the album merges personal history with fantastical stories of drifters, drug-addled hustlers, and folklore. “The more I rewind the tapes of my life, the more I can hear the voice of my soul,” Powers says. “This isn’t nostalgia. Life’s much messier than that.”
The album drifts into rural noir territory, where personal memories and poetic confessions intertwine with twisted mythologies. On “Gumshoe (Dracula From Arkansas)”, Powers sings, “The summer taught me that life’s a baseball bat to the jaw,” over a backdrop of western tremolo guitars and distorted drums. The album opener, “Neighborhood Scene”, serves as a “postcard” to those Powers has loved, transforming his Idaho cul-de-sac into a surreal, sacred place.
“Speed Freak” marks a dark, grungy evolution for Youth Lagoon, blending synth bass with a post-punk edge. “This song came from a thought I had of giving the angel of death a hug,” Powers says. “The more I’ve learned to die to myself, the more I’ve learned there is no death. Only transformation.”
After an eight-year hiatus, Powers returned to Youth Lagoon in 2023 with Heaven Is a Junkyard, an album that explored warped Americana. It was a return to form that led to Rarely Do I Dream, Youth Lagoon’s most ambitious record to date. “I had ended Youth Lagoon years ago because I lost who I was,” he admits. “Then life gave me a beating. That suffering changed my frequency. Now my ideas are a river.”
Recorded with co-producer Rodaidh McDonald, Rarely Do I Dream is a striking leap forward—innovative, yet classic. The album combines guitars, fuzz, pianos, and distorted electronics into a sound that feels like an old photograph reanimated in a strange future. “I needed the feeling of knowing I could either be making something great or something so bad it could be career suicide. Anything short of that, I’ve failed myself.”
Powers’ relentless evolution of Youth Lagoon has led to a fiercely original and expansive sound on Rarely Do I Dream. It’s a deeply personal, genre-bending album that fuses family history with a surreal, noir sensibility. “I wanted to make an album that feels like life itself,” Powers says.
Zootown Arts Community Center
