But in addition to all of this, Kate Davis also works on solo material in the indie rock genre, songs described as being both informed by and in rebuttal of her formal training. Back in 2019, Davis released Trophy on Solitaire Recordings, an album that explored identity and loss with a distinctively heartfelt, cathartic tone. And this year, Davis has teamed up with Daniel Johnston’s charity, the Hi How Are You Project, to record a cover album of Johnston’s Strange Boy. The project is a “non-profit organization inspiring new conversations around mental health issues by funding and creating thoughtful media content, projects and events,” and a portion of the proceeds will go towards supporting this good work.

Something of an archetype in the bedroom pop genre, Johnston has been covered many times by the current crop of musicians, but taking on a whole record of a performer so singular and beloved is no mean feat. But Davis has the skill, range and emotional sensitivity to do his work justice, as highlighted by lead single ‘I’ll Do Anything But Breakdance For Ya, Darling.’ “When I first heard Daniel Johnston I was struck by the directness and clarity in his writing,” Davis says. “I wanted to gain perspective into that directness.” This version does exactly that, serving as a poignant tribute to Johnston himself while retaining the personal tone that made him so special, carrying the flame for a new generation of artists.

Sometimes I feel like I am a boxer
Seems like I’m always standing in the ring
And then I find someone’s been in my locker
He left me a note that says I can’t sing
I’ll do anything but break dance for you, darlin’

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While such a statement might conjure the holy icons of celebrities on magazine covers or the communal prayers of sports crowds, or even the near-transcendental flutter experienced at the promise of large sums of money, Wallace’s truth is probably a lot more subtle and personalised, centred around our view of ourselves and the yearning for something more. As such, much of the worship goes on inside our heads, small hopes and habits we repeat over and over, as though incantation and ritual might invoke our better selves.

Don’t Hide From The Light, the debut release from PAT MOON, feels like this sensation committed to music. The solo recording project of Portland’s Kate Davis, who you might know as the face behind Track and Field Records, PAT MOON utilises analog synths and drum machines to create what could be described as dark dream dance or ecclesiastical electro-pop. At once insular and expansive, the album feels like a private ceremony within an abandoned church, solemn and serious and sacred in its own humble way, pertaining to no system of belief beyond that of human experience yet feeling instantly recognisable, a likeness of our own inner-thoughts. Such empathy is present from the first bars of ‘Feel You’, the opener possessing that warm-yet-cold feeling peculiar to cathedrals, where death and guilt and love and life are so entwined they become one.

Other highlights include ‘Show Me a Sign’, an echoing, synth-heavy plea for enlightenment, the spectral chorus of ‘I See You’ and ‘Love Me as I Am’, another song that manages to be at once intimate and vast, submissive and resolute, a steadfast hymn summoned from deep within. Closing track ‘Enter My Mind / All I Know is Now’ is imbued with a certain lightness, a candle-lit organ-drone which seems to brighten across its run-time.

With its melancholic seriousness punctuated with near-mystical frisson, PAT MOON’s debut is a reminder that worship is not some hotline for divine intervention but rather a process of feeling and thinking and believing. Sure, Davis may find her prayers unanswered, her rituals unrewarded, but you get the sense that the very process of acting and asking can be a route to confidence and love. One that does not rely on the whim of a deity or the alignment of the stars.

Don’t Hide From The Light is out now and you can buy it from the PAT MOON Bandcamp page.

Photo by Sam Velenne

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