Hello

9/28/22

On Sunday, October 16, we’ll be playing a show at Heaven Gallery with best buds Hannah Bureau and Bad Posture Club. This will be a new type of show for DPCD — I’ll be trying a mostly solo set of music from the DPCD SINGS world. The impetus for this new set is literally just the fact that Heaven Gallery has a piano. Piano is my home-base instrument. When I reflect on when/ why I picked up the guitar, a good large portion of it was wanting a portable acoustic instrument that I could develop a personal relationship to and play anywhere. I think there was a sadness when I realized how rare it was going to be for a musician in the scene I ran in to play at a venue with a piano. But now having had a piano at home for a few years, and my baby Jenco Celeste, I’m ready to emerge with a FULL SET of keyboard music, feeling a weird mixture of comfort and newness, ready to spooky ya.

8/29/22

It feels excellent and righteous to be able to post a Big August Update, signifying that many things have happened in the month of August. There have been many months where only a few things happened. This is not one of them. Midwest tour was simply a delight. We crushed for buddies in Chicago, serenaded the street fest in Milwaukee, played late night underwater guitar for the youth of Madison, and sank into hometown #2 good vibes in Minneapolis. Eternal thank you to everyone that helped and listened and played.

At our Minneapolis show, besties Bad Posture Club and I debuted two new lullabies. One was written by me, one was written by Morgan of BPC’s great-grandmother. Mine is called “All Good Things Come to An End,” you can hear our performance here. I wanted this song to have the same feeling as a Sherman Brothers’ lullaby — Hush-a-by Mountain from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Charlotte’s song from the animated Charlotte’s Web movie, Stay Awake from Mary Poppins. I think the Sherman Brothers were masters of the melancholy sleepy song. Young people deserve spooky lullabies in minor keys! I remember being totally transfixed by the music of Charlotte’s Web. This song is my offering in this genre, it’ll be out in recorded form on a future DPCD SINGS album. I also had the absolute delight of playing BPC’s lullaby with them, keep your eyes peeled for a recorded version of that as well.

Large August Time ended with two performances of Ethan T. Parcell’s opera WASTED LIGHT at Steppenwolf Theater. Absolute life pinnacle music making experience. We went deep. It is documented, and the evidence is COMING SOON.

Moving into the fall feeling very full of good experiences, physically tired but emotionally very recharged. In the works are two new projects in the DPCD SINGS world, and new DPCD record, as well as a few fall shows. <3

6/24/22

Brother in song Ethan Parcell released a new album under his decade long, ever evolving moniker The World Without Parking Lots this month. The album is called You’ll Have to Take My Word For It. Ethan is my favorite songwriter, and this album is an essential notch in his discography. Ethan has this way of writing Love Songs to ordinary objects. My evidences for this are the nouns on this album: bouquets, pets, coffee, eye glasses, swimming, backflips, a funny bone, chores, dinner, your uncle, all surrounded by music that sounds like it wants to glorify these things mightily, which it does.

I played celeste, piano, and sang on the last track. I also love recording Ethan’s music because he is absolutely insistent on at most 1-2 takes when he asks you to play on his stuff. He just wants what you can give, no fussing around. The song I played piano on is “Another Good Reason to Get Married on New Year’s Eve,” which sounds like the title of a Flannery O’Connor story if she didn’t have chronic pain and was Unitarian Universalist instead of Catholic. It’s also the one song on the record Ethan doesn’t sing — Hannah Bureau takes the mic with ease and honestly devastating consequences. I love playing with Hannah.

Please listen to the record, you will love it so much.

3/10/22

11/19/21

With the release of DPCD SINGS, I am thrilled to announce the very first DPCD SONGBOOK! It is a collection of eight songs from the album, lovingly arranged for piano and voice by genius human Evan Allen. The cover illustration was done by Nicholas Burrus.

Collaborating with these two on this physical object was a joy. Nicholas has such a well of knowledge about how to find and produce antique lettering styles, and immediately zeroed in on the old sheet music cover vibe. The moon is so important in all music from this era, and I find it very revealing that the moon is often given a face on these sheet music covers. The moon watches what happens at night — lovers’ rendezvous, private moments, loneliness in the living room. Nicholas created the moon-like character on the cover, we called her “Ms. Streetlamp,” nestled in the trunk of a White Oak. Ms. Streetlamp is the moon, but is also a streetlamp, and is also the ghost of your middle-school crush.

Evan’s arrangements are pure voice-leading masterpieces; they roll off of the fingers. The intros and outros are solid gold. Intros and outros are often my favorite part of old sheet music. You can often feel the arranger leaping at that small moment to exercise some creative autonomy— and Evan FULLY LEAPED. Flexed, if you will, and I certainly will.

I wrote this music based on the music I’ve turned to again and again to fill up my living space — music that provides the comfort and safety of familiar forms and sounds, but still grips you with an intimacy.

11/18/21

New album out today: DPCD SINGS! Happy to get this music out into the world. Here’s my little essay on it:

“Popular American song from the mid 20th century has often been used to evoke the uncanny. Al Bowly’s “Midnight, The Stars and You” was reverb-ed out and immortalized in The Shining, casting a ghostly shadow on the Swing era dance band classic. David Lynch used the songs of Bobby Vinton and Roy Orbison in "Blue Velvet,” translating lyrics about loneliness and heartbreak into something more more mysterious, something downright spooky.

What did Stanley Kubrick hear in “Midnight, The Stars and You?” Why did he connect it to his ghost story? The Great American Songbook has the power of collective nostalgia behind it — and all of the specters, angels, and demons that come along with it. But this strange nostalgia is only highlighting something already present in this music. A close reading of the lyrics of this era reveals an innate eeriness, a fixation on the uncanny: nighttime, (“Midnight and a rendezvous,”) fantasy, (“In dreams you’re mine, all the time, we’re together in dreams,”) desperation, (“I still can see blue velvet through my tears”) and ghostly figures, (“A candy-colored clown they call the Sandman,”) A candy-colored clown, can you believe that?

Nostalgia, Midnight, Dreams, Yearning, Ghosts: these words color so much of the ambiance of mid-century song. But it isn't only its text that contributes to these themes: it is also its musical elements. Twinkling celestes and sweeping muted strings take us to the dream world. Stacked sixth chords create layers of mist. Diminished chords can offer romance, or create dread. Twisting, motivic melodies provide hypnotizing canvases on which lyricists work. Large background choirs oo-ing and ah-ing wordlessly summon up spirits.

The few precious examples home-recorded songs that exist from this era illuminate these songwriting forms in a more domestic, intimate way. Connie Converse invites us into her personal mythology of suitors, men in the sky, wizards, and witches with her guitar and voice, recorded in her kitchen. The few recordings that exist of her piano songs are also completely stunning, dipping their toes into Art Song territory with baffling counterpoint. Another home recording gem is the music of Molly Drake, mother of Nick Drake. Her parlour piano ballads show us a rainy picture of the mid-century song world, with elegant, subdued piano playing and images of sorrow and loss situated the British landscape: “I remember oranges, and you remember dust.”

Out of a deep love for this broad category of song emerges DPCD SINGS. A home recording project of Alec Watson, the album documents an obsession with the Great American Songbook, its counterparts, and its living forms. The music contains nods to the great musical theater composers of the mid 20th century, the working Tin Pan Alley songwriter, and the common song. Hazed-out barbershop quartets dovetail with lonely piano ballads, lovingly embracing rhyme scheme and form. The verses linger on surrealist themes: specters swirl through dim hallways, mirrors reflect faces of unrequited lovers, and fading memories flicker under the light of the moon.

So light your lamps, close the blinds, and be enveloped in this dreamy landscape of threatened suburban innocence, with dark tendrils closing in and strange figures looming in the corners.”

10/25/21

Two more live videos of Rich Man songs comin’ at ya: the title track and Tree of Though.

When we recorded this music, we layered parts individually, usually not playing them all at the same time in the same room, so that what you hear on the record is the first time those ideas ever overlapped. This occurred to us when we recorded these videos — it was the excitement of playing a song together for the first time, but after the song has already been finished and released, a really interesting feeling. Looking forward to much more of that feeling and more live things in the future!

10/14/21

Rich Man has been out for a few weeks, it’s been such a pleasure to share. When you share something you’ve made with your community, your relationship to it changes, and I always think this is a good thing.

We recorded a version of “I’ll Do What You’re Doing” in my kitchen, check it out here. Also here’s some bootleg Morton Salt art I made. Should I make this into merch?

10/13/21

Duyster radio from Studio Brussel also included us in a playlist along with a bunch of music we love. Master of None is the one of the most harmonically surprising 2010’s indie hits, still slaps.

10/1/21

It’s Hard for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God is out today! Feeling so proud of this thing we made. Buy it on cassette/ digital here, stream it anywhere!

The Chicago Reader included us in their list of bandcamp friday recommendations for spooky season, along with a bunch of amazing music from Chicago and beyond.

Third Coast Review also made an Autumnal music recommendation list, they included us and wrote a beautiful little blurb about the new music:

“DPCD makes perfect and gentle songs that evoke strong and deep emotions. His latest, It’s Hard for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God, ruminates on religion and mysticism in quite a breathtaking way.”

9/30/21

CHIRP Radio is such a generous fixture in Chicago. I did an interview with them about It’s Hard for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God — where the title comes from, some influences, and why I chose to release the album exclusively on the Joel Osteen Inspiration Cube. Here’s a bit of it:

“CHIRP: Tell us a little about the meaning behind the title of your new album It's Hard for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God, and the themes you explore on it.

DPCD: The title is something Jesus says after a conversation with a rich man. The man is asking what he has to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus says "follow the commandments." The man says "I already follow them." Jesus says "Ok, then give away all of your wealth and follow me." The man gets sad and walks away. Jesus says “It’s hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Christian scripture is often employed in short, contextless bursts. Sometimes the feeling is warm and fuzzy — “Love is patient, love is kind.” Sometimes what is communicated is doomy and gloomy, like a billboard with clip art flames that says “Repent! For the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

I wanted to use this trope, the contextless scripture quote, but with a verse that I’ve never seen used like that before. I wanted to aim these words at the powerful in a way that they aren’t usually aimed.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people my age who grew up in the evangelical church have embraced left politics. I think this is partly because of the radical nature of evangelicalism. As evangelicals, we were taught to "live radically for Jesus," to give our lives to the cause, to save the world essentially.

We were also taught to critique "secular materialist culture," -- shopping malls, advertisements, consumption. But this critique never went as far as looking at capitalism, which I think has to do with the Church’s alignment with Cold-War era conservative politics.

And the Church is still deeply invested in maintaining the status quo. Much of that radical energy is used for causes that are harmful — repression of Queer gender identity and sexuality, fear-based evangelization, and unhealthy ego suppression.

But leaving these things behind, I think a desire to follow a large, world-saving project remains in many former evangelicals. And there are actual problems our world needs help with right now! Let's redirect our radical energy!

The last thing I’ll say is the most personal. Everything I've said so far I believe in and is very important to me, but the album isn’t really a political manifesto. The music is also about this strange sense of loss that comes from a shift in religious identity. Loss mixed in with joy and freedom.

This is another thing I know so many people my age who grew up evangelical experience— “this thing used to mean so much to me, I got so much out of it, but was also so harmful to me. I’ve left the harmful things, should I salvage the good things? Where am I now? What do I do with all of this?”

I’m singing about these questions. The feeling of grief over losing something that gave meaning to your life, that’s a powerful feeling. And the continued search for meaning and wonder. I hope others who have felt these things can find a home in this music.”

read the rest of the interview here

9/28/21

I had the privilege of writing an essay for Talkhouse about the Shakers — their art, their radical communal organization, and their religious practices. I’ve felt a connection to the Shaker artists who worked during the Era of Manifestations in trying to make music that engages with spirituality and deals with issues of religious identity. It was a gift to be able to write about this, here’s a blurb:

“The first time I saw Hannah Cohoon’s The Tree of Life, a spirit hand reached out and grabbed my arm. I had been browsing a book of American Folk Art when I saw it in the Shaker section. My eyes traced over the illustration: the tree, its bower of spiny leaves, its orb-like fruit, and the scrawl of illegible text below it. I counted the fruit: 14 in total, seven orange, seven green. I noticed leaf groupings in fours. The tree was balanced but asymmetrical, ordered but wild, and conveyed an eerie sense of otherworldliness. The spirit hand asked me to turn the page.”

Read the full essay here.

9/21/21

Our friends at the Chicago Reader gifted us a beautiful review of It’s Hard for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God. They wrote that the music “has the intimate feel of friends sharing confidences around a dinner table.” This is not only the feel, but the truth. Thank you for adjectives, thank you for connecting our music to the fall <3

9/15/21

It’s Hard for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God cassettes have arrived! Grab one of these beauties here. A few tapes have secret codes in them, Willy Wonka style. If you get a secret code, follow these instructions: wait til new years eve 2021, go outside at 11:59pm, put your hands behind your back, look up at the sky, whisper the secret code, and smell the air. If it’s snowing, you will have suddenly have a vivid memory of meeting your 1st grade best friend. If it’s not, you will hear the sound of your great-great-grandmother’s sneeze, followed by the sound of one of her friends saying “bless you.” If it is raining, look at the nearest tree — it will wave at you and sing you a song called “My Bark Becomes a Mirror.”

Special thank you to wonderful Chicago artist Clare Byrne for designing the album cover and cassette J-card. Clare created the beautiful little symbols on the J-card design, and is a master of font and texture.

9/3/21

Our new record, It’s Hard for a Rich Man to Enter the Kingdom of God, comes out 10/1. I am beyond thrilled to be able to share this music with you, my friends, my community. It’s the best thing we’ve made. I’m so proud of the songs, and SO psyched on the friend contributions to it. This record is the closest we’ve come to “first idea, best idea” — more life, more spontaneity, and thus more joy throughout the process. You will hear acoustic guitars holding hands. You will hear perfect singing from Sam. You will hear the hovering moth bass of Jesse coming in with gentle authority. The JENCO CELESTE makes its big debut.

Listen to the first single, “Happy Thanksgiving,” here.

4/20/21

Kenan Serenbetz is an eternal musical partner and life confidant, and released his debut album, CLEARING, a few weeks ago. Something I always get surprised by when talking to Kenan is how intentionally he refuses certain dichotomies: between human and nature, between past and present, between spirit and material. His music sounds like the unification of these things! It also sounds like the patient and loving person he is. Listen here.

3/19/21

DPCD voice contributor Sam Connour has a musical output that weaves together hymns, folk music, North Dakota country, and deep intuitive piano playing. I sang on a beautiful, spacious new single of hers, listen here.

2/11/21

About a year ago we were going to play a show to celebrate the release of our long song Silent Shadows and Dreams. Ethan was also going to play on the bill, and for the show wrote something that he described to me at the time as “a sort of country song thing with narration.” The show of course was yeeted, but Ethan’s country song thing very much was not. It is out now, called The New County Choruses, and is the new Focus Group opera. I play piano and a little guitar. Listen here.

12/23/20

Our friends at WRWO 94.5 in Ottawa, IL cut together a nice video of our set for their Song + Story program a while back. Here’s The Spinner and here’s the whole set. And here’s a little blurb about the thing from our friend Christina:

“On the darkest night of the year, the Winter Solstice, Monday, December 21 at 6pm, we invite you to gather with us virtually as we listen together to a filmed performance by Chicago-based heavy mellow music project DPCD.

You will hear a the soothing sounds of a gentle and unadulterated voice singing atop a bed of interwoven string melodies and harmonies. Cathartic in nature, the words are reflective and contemplative, beckoning body and soul tensions to rise to the surface, and offer an opportunity for release.”

Song + Story also collects recipes from their performers, here’s ours:

WILD MUSHROOM OMELETTE

8 oz wild mushrooms (oyster, hen of the woods, chicken of the woods)

3 large eggs

2 Tbsp Butter

Sauté mushrooms in 1 Tbsp of butter over medium high heat until golden brown. Season with salt and pepper, Transfer to small bowl.

Crack eggs into another bowl and beat until yolks and whites are homogenous. Season with salt. Add 1 Tbsp of butter to pan and turn to medium heat. Pour eggs into pan and cook, shaking pan and stirring constantly until eggs are barely set. Add mushrooms. Fold eggs over at the edge and roll into omelette. Turn over onto plate and serve.

——

9/17/20

We played a set on Que4 radio, in their beautiful theater-ish space. Check out the vid here.

Thanks to Mike Rice and his ChiCityLives program, local radio forever.

9/16/20

Looking back at my last post, it is so funny to see how casually I was like “we will reschedule the spring tour for the summer.” Obviously couldn’t have known then, but it is still strange to remember when I thought the pandemic would be over in a month or two.

Some updates, starting from from April:

-We released Silent Shadows and Dreams. Long acoustic drone word song with horror and angels.

-We made a song called Wide Awake for ERASED! Tapes’ enormous compilation Outlive the Sun. So much good, detailed, homemade music on that comp. Wide Awake was fun to make, first experiment in home to home recording collab with the friends. Turned out massive sounding somehow, acoustic shoe-gaze mission activated.

-We are almost finished with a new album. We got together in Minnesota, near something called “Bucksnort Dam.” It was beautiful, tiring, and cathartic. Kenan caught a trout, An orange cat hung out with us on the porch the whole weekend. Its name was Spirit Trout. We got to look out of a big window while we recorded. More soon.

3/17/20

We decided a few days ago to cancel our tour over Covid-19 concerns. While this is of course sad, it was absolutely the right and safe decision for all. Time is abundant, shows can and will be rescheduled. I am also holding onto the fact that tour being delayed will make seeing friends and playing out east this summer even sweeter. Like we all made it through something together, which we will.

We are still releasing Silent Shadows and Dreams on April 10th. Silent Shadows and Dreams is a song that we recorded with all of the False Virtue music. It was meant to be the centerpiece of the album in someways, but it kept growing and growing and changing in tone and meaning, and eventually it felt like something else. It is kind of a bird’s eye view of ideas I was writing about in False Virtue, also a few of the ideas under a microscope. I decided giving the song it’s own space sounded like a good idea, so here we are: Silent Shadows and Dreams. We’re releasing it on cassette, those will be available soon.

3/6/20

East coast dates announced! Excited to see lots of friends. Playing in Canada for the first time too. One time I was trying to order the Canadian beer ‘Maudite.” I said “Can I get a Maudite?” The bartender said, “not to be rude, but it’s pronounced “Maudite.” I said, “oh, thanks, can I get a Maudite?” The bartender said, “sure thing.” I plan on ordering a Maudite at the bar we’re playing at in Toronto, Ontario.

3/3/20

Midwest shows were so supremely good. There is so much earnest, detailed music going on in Minnesota and Wisconsin and Illinois. And don’t even get me STARTED on Michigan. Seriously though, felt extremely refreshed and heartened. Played 2 solo shows, 2 duo shows, 1 trio show. Really enjoying seeing what these different formations bring out in the songs. Duo with Sam in Peoria was a revelation— 1 microphone, 2 voices, one guitar, singing very medium volume into a large wooden room. Duo with Kenan in Minneapolis was perfect comfort. Special shout out to Bad Posture Club for being siblings in acoustic dealings <3

———

2/17/20

Announced a few midwestern dates for late feb. Looking forward to seeing friends in Minnesota and Wisconsin, making some new friends, playing some new places.

2/13/20

We played a cozy set live on Que4 radio this week, then did an interview with host and kindred spirit Mike Rice. Had a really nice time; playing quiet in a super sound-treated room is a very special feeling.

Check it out here: https://soundcloud.com/dpcddpcd/live-at-que4-radio

1/13/20

Happy new year. DPCD plans for 2020:

-new long song release late winter

-eat breakfast every day

-support friends materially and emotionally

-midwest/ east coast tour early april

-record new music in summer

12/23/19

Made a little holiday song and animation, check it out here

10/25/19

Bloggers ComeHereFloyd wrote a flowery review of “Time Like a Field” from False Virtue:

“‘Time Like A Field’ is a beautiful ballad of contradictions and contrasts, melding in the sultry vocals of DPCD…lyrica[l] depth and utter transparency, as he divides the thick wall of ambiguity, with the knife of truth, honesty, and vigor. Subtle, understated, powerfully right.”

we’ve never been called sultry before, blushing <3

read here

10/1/19

The Chicago Reader wrote a telepathically spot-on preview of False Virtue this week:

“The autumnal folk music that Alec Watson writes (and performs with pals) under the name DPCD has the uncluttered, utilitarian grace of Shaker furniture, shaped with a contemplative sense of order and sturdy enough for daily use.”

How did they know we are obsessed with the Shakers? How did they know we love furniture?? How did they know we are pals???

read the full write-up here

10/1/19

We talked with the always kind Chicago Crowd Surfer about how the band met, summer camp crushes, midwestern flatness aesthetic, and our new record, False Virtue:

“CCS: DPCD has been around for a few years now, can you walk us through the gestation of the act?

DPCD: DPCD is me (Alec Watson) and my friends and family: Ethan Parcell, Kenan Serenbetz, Samantha Connour, Jesse Bielenberg, and Allie Thomas. This is a group of people I have known for a really long time. Jesse and Ethan and I grew up together in the western suburbs of Chicago. I've been on childhood camping trips with Jesse. Ethan and I became friends in elementary school when we realized we both thought the "773-202-LUNA" TV commercial was really funny. Allie and I met at band camp when we were teenagers and are now married (summer camp crush dreams do come true). Kenan I knew in high school, then we both ended up going to Boston for college and were roommates for a few years. Sam and I started singing together when I moved back to Chicago. 

When I started writing the music that became DPCD, I was playing solo a lot, but then just slowly added all my close people to the band, one by one. Now we are six strong! We just need one more member to hit the number of completion.”

read the full interview here

6/26/19

Chirp Radio did a nice interview with us about the band origin, name, and writing process.

CHIRP: Didn’t your family figure in the name DPCD, Alec?

ALEC: Yes, DPCD was a four-letter secret code passed down by my great grandfather, who was a Quaker and lived in Indiana. When I started writing songs, I was very interested in exploring my family history, particularly on my mother’s side. This served as a touchpoint for many of the songs on my first album, Good Visions. One of the songs, "Images of No Use," ruminates about the family tree, and how the past is connected to the present and the present is connected to the future. If you think about it, you realize that decisions you are making today could have a huge impact on future generations.”

read it here

6/22/19

Wonderful podcast What About Chicago?! previewed our CHIRP Night @ The Whistler show, and played a track off of Good Visions.

“that last song you heard, great song by DPCD, which I am still not sure what that stands for…gotta go to that show and ask him…sounds interesting.” 

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3 we are interested in you too.

listen here

5/9/19

Issue 59 of the Chicago Crowd Surfer wrote about our performance at the CHIRP Radio Record fair:

“We arrived just in time to take in the first act on the slate for the day in DPCD. Skipping over the first floor vendors for their thirty minute set was the best decision as Alec Watson and his cohorts’ acoustic, indie folk was the perfect accompaniment to our morning coffee and complimentary donut from Metropolis. Watson’s easy stage presence and the flowing layers of acoustic guitar were at odds with the bright surrounding of the Plumbers Hall bar area, but they made the best of it with tunes from the excellent Good Visions as well as a few newer tunes.”

They also included us in their monthly playlist.

write up here

playlist here