Tristan Dolce is a producer, engineer and singer-songwriter based in LA. After a career of collaboration and production with other artists, not to mention playing in bands like ska punks Chase Long Beach, Dolce has now made an album of his own. Titled Medium True, the album is a solo effort in name only, recorded live almost entirely in one day at Long Beach’s Big Ego Studios alongside Max Knouse (electric guitar, acoustic guitar), Anthony Beville (bass) and Christian Orozco (drums). A long list of other collaborators added their talents later, fleshing out the songs with further flourishes including pedal steel, vibraphone and Wurlitzer.
Lead single ‘Willow Springs’ was our first introduction to the record, a buoyant indie rock song that feels at once fresh and timeless. The standout quality is the lyrical inventiveness, following a twisty, surreal narrative that sees our protagonist run a new route only to end up in a limo with four strangers, an unfamiliar wedding, a moonlit cemetery. Dolce describes it as “a song about all the crazy things you think about when you’re out on a run. Then if all those crazy things actually happened.”
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Second single ‘Alaska’ is slower and more considered, drawing on the emotive indie rock of early 00s heavyweights like Death Cab and The Shins. Where Tristan Dolce’s playfulness stood out on the previous single, here it is the earnest heart of the track, though that is not to say the lyricism is any less inventive. Mining the full depths of nostalgic longing, even if that’s for a place you’ve never seen.
Medium True is out now via Camping Songs on limited edition free (!) cassette. All you need to do is place an order on the Tristan Dolce website and pay shipping. The album will be released digitally on 12th January and you can pre-order it now.