Dino Expedition’s Tahlia Amanson takes us track-by-track by way of her band’s debut album ‘Thanks a Million,’ a heavy-hitting and deeply human indie rock album that aches in and out with the load of reminiscence and uncooked emotion.
Stream: “Marie” – Dino Expedition
Tinheritor band title might reference outdated reptiles, however Dino Expedition is uncompromisingly, unapologetically, and undeniably human.
The trio’s debut album Thanks a Million aches in and out with uncooked emotion because the group choose on the previous like one would possibly a scab, revealing layers of feeling underneath moments from way back.
Sorry for my delay
my pores and skin was blue,
however that’s okay.
My ft had been weak
down within the creek
proper off the cusp
of Iris avenue.
Might you overlook someday
what occurred to you yesterday.
It was okay!
– “Marie,” Dino Expedition
Independently launched November 15th, Thanks a Million is a soul-stirring different reverie pushed by reminiscence and emotion – these issues that, above every thing else, make us human.
It’s a heavy and hard-hitting introduction to Dino Expedition – the trio of Tahlia Amanson, Aiden Velazquez (bass guitar), and McCabe Teems (drums) – and one which places the model new Brooklyn trio on the map, due to their breathtakingly intimate model of indie rock.
As Amanson explains, Thanks a Million’s story is as a lot a story of danger and reward, as it’s considered one of self-reflection and interior reckoning.
“The entire course of of constructing this document was a life altering one, to say the least,” she tells Atwood Journal. In spring of 2022, I used to be attending Pratt Institute for inventive writing. One night time, I used to be sitting at a bar with some associates. I don’t know what hit me, however I felt this sudden urge to e mail Calvin Lauber, my favourite engineer of all time. We didn’t know one another, and I really believed that this e mail, introducing my music, wouldn’t result in a lot. Little did I do know, Calvin listened to a few of my earlier work that I emailed and believed in what was to return.”
“That fall of 2022, I packed up my automotive to the brim, and drove from the Bay Space, alongside I-40 to Memphis. Calvin, Elijah Poston, and I spent 10 hours a day for 10 entire days, bringing these seven songs to life. I realized a lot – from new friendships to the sweetness that reverberates by way of Memphis. I grew my information on what kind of sound I wished for the band shifting ahead. This document made me inclined to maneuver again to Brooklyn to start out the band, leaving my research at Pratt behind.”
Amanson leaves few stones unturned as she unravels herself like a ball of yarn throughout these seven songs. “This document is a recollection of the final fifteen years of my life, dispersing between the troubles that went on with my mother and father’ relationship, to the naiveness of a younger teenage lady,” she explains. “I by no means actually have a transparent imaginative and prescient when writing. I feel permitting freedom of the thoughts to hold your phrases is most essential. This document is extra of a set to me, not intentional or deliberate. Every music was already written, so by the point we determined to document, it was simply luck of the draw when selecting the songs. In regard to my writing, it’s all little snapshots from previous experiences – that is how I inform my story. I rely closely on phrases that emphasize imagery, it’s what I’ve all the time gravitated in direction of when studying lengthy essays or poetry – the phrases!”
For her, it’s not simply what she says, however how she and the band say it that basically makes this music so particular. “This document covers a variety of floor, not solely lyrically, however instrumentally. Every music was created to really feel such as you’re a widespread panorama, but so personable you may sense each motion and ingredient inside. I do really feel that this document captures my consideration to element. I’ve all the time gravitated in direction of music that may be performed a billion occasions, but all the time gives one thing new to the ear with each hear.”
To that finish, Amanson candidly describes Thanks a Million as ‘periscope, bandaged, evolve’ – utilizing phrases that replicate her emotional deep-dive, in addition to her personal private development and ongoing intimate journey.
The album’s title, she explains, is an homage to a beloved one.
“My grandfather, Paul, was the one prolonged member of the family who lived close to me rising up,” she says. “Though I didn’t see him a lot, on uncommon events we exchanged phrases over the telephone. I all the time admired his recollection of the previous, his look after storytelling. In contrast to most individuals, he would all the time finish the calls with the saying, ‘Thanks A Million.’ It all the time felt like a tribute to the endurance and a spotlight we’d give to him. My very own storytelling has introduced me some closure with many previous experiences, so I wished the title to relay gratitude to not solely the listeners, but additionally the experiences that on the time might haven’t been stunning, however now are part of me and my story.”
Highlights abound on the journey from the album’s enchanting, scene-setting opener “Nextdoor” to its fascinating, cathartic nearer, “Pink Moon.” The dramatic, intense “Lose Your Thoughts” remembers moments of concern and tragedy by way of a hazy of heavy, heated alt-rock, whereas “Consolation You” deftly unpacks emotional injury, intimacy, and the fragility of youth.
Fourth observe “Marie” is disarmingly stunning – a susceptible, shiver-inducing, intimate indie folks music of trauma and innocence, belief betrayed and guarantees damaged. In premiering the music this fall, Atwood Journal praised it as a dreamy, soul-stirring eruption from these haunting, innermost human depths: “Way more ‘folks’ than shoegaze or dream pop, ‘Marie’ is deceptively mellifluous, its easygoing melodies and candy harmonies protecting up a few of the extra visceral churn at its core.”
For Amanson, it’s not a single music, however relatively the recording experiences themselves that she’ll carry along with her shifting ahead. “The night time earlier than I started my highway journey to Memphis to document Thanks a Million, my pal and I went to see Pavement in SF,” she remembers. “If I could say so myself, it was among the finest concert events I’ve ever seen – the document actually wouldn’t sound the way in which it does if I hadn’t seen their stay present. Through the manufacturing of ‘Consolation You’ and ‘Lose Your Thoughts,’ we truly ended up recording stay double drums as a result of I used to be so moved by Pavement’s stay double drum efficiency that it felt like a necessity for these two tracks. I keep in mind being within the console room watching Calvin and Elijah document the drums – the heaviness of the bass drum and flooring tom felt like a stay heartbeat.”
In the end, it takes a document like Thanks a Million to jolt us out of our each day doldrums and admire who we’re and the place we come from.
Sure, there’s a lot that makes us who we’re, however at our core, we’re an ever-increasing assortment of reminiscences and lived moments, feelings and experiences. In listening to those seven songs, it’s like we’re experiences a chunk of Amanson’s humanity itself; she’s gifted us that highly effective connection in creating these songs and releasing them to the world.
“There’s a lot to take from this document,” Amanson shares. “I do really feel like each music gives one thing totally different. As a collective although, I hope individuals are capable of flip to their interior little one after listening to the document, and turn out to be impressed to gather their very own tales from the previous that will have been buried.”
“From earlier than making this document, ‘til now, I’ve realized so much about permitting house for brand spanking new concepts,” she provides. “My time at Memphis Magnetic and dealing with Calvin Lauber actually opened my eyes on the kind of sound that I wished for Dino Expedition. Initially after we began recording, I had introduced my very own gear to make use of for the document. Calvin and I ended up experimenting with a variety of classic gear on the studio, most of which I’ve acquired now for our stay reveals!”
Expertise the complete document by way of our under stream, and peek inside Dino Expedition’s Thanks a Million with Atwood Journal because the band goes track-by-track by way of the music and lyrics of their debut album!
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Stream: ‘Thanks a Million’ – Dino Expedition
:: Inside Thanks a Million ::
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Nextdoor
Stability was all the time tough to understand as a younger little one. When my mother and father determined to lastly settle in a small coastal city outdoors of San Francisco, I really witnessed what it felt prefer to be an outsider, in a city the place everybody knew every thing about each other. Observe 1; Nextdoor is a few time after I put belief into somebody whom I’d thought was a good friend, solely to understand that they had been main me right into a lethal expertise the place I nearly didn’t make it residence that night time.
Lose Your Thoughts
Just a few days after July 4th 2019, a big fireplace broke out within the lot subsequent to my household’s home. Til at the present time I keep in mind the concern in my father’s voice, the panic in his eyes to get the household out of the home on the break of daybreak. I had actually thought that we had been going to lose every thing. Observe 2; Lose Your Thoughts, revisits that entire situation, with particular particulars outlining the concern of my fathers childhood home fireplace, to the current.
Consolation You
On the time that I wrote Observe 3; Consolation You, I used to be escaping a cut-off date when my naiveness was taken benefit of by somebody that I had put belief into. All through the music, I begin to understand the extent of possession this individual had on me throughout a fragile time in my teen years. The method of constructing this music was in a way like re-learning how to absorb consolation as a security internet relatively than what I had solely referred to as an escape sign.
Marie
My good pal would all the time say “Sorry for my delay.” I discovered myself beginning to use this phrase fairly often, there gave the impression to be solace in what nearly appeared like a distanced gradual burn. I don’t like rhyming, so after I initially began writing Marie, it was type of a joke, since I used to be going in opposition to a pet peeve of mine. Observe 4; Marie ended up turning into an ode to the lady my father was seeing secretly when her mother and father had been going by way of a tough patch of their marriage – wanting on the ache and isolation by way of the lens of my very own childhood innocence.
Clockwork
All through my childhood, there was a variety of drastic change. At six years outdated, I had already been enrolled in six totally different colleges, throughout two totally different states. The one factor that appeared regular was my mother and father’ love for each other. It was the beginning of highschool after I began to note that issues between them weren’t good. Observe 5; Clockwork is about that silver lining that we discover as we develop up, between what we thought may by no means occur after we had been younger, to really all these “horror tales” changing into actual.
Apology Letters
After the 2008 financial collapse, every thing modified for my household. My father was gone more often than not at jobs far up north, leaving my mom to deal with two daughters by herself. In Observe 6; Apology Letters describes my very own complicated father-daughter relationship. I keep in mind writing apology letters to my mother and father as a toddler, slipping them underneath the bed room door after I had executed one thing unsuitable. In a way, there is part of me that’s eager to obtain one in any case these years.
Pink Moon
Proper earlier than I moved to Brooklyn to attend Pratt Institute, I took a stroll on my favourite path overlooking the pacific ocean. It was such a beautiful night time, the moon glowing, and coincidentally, I used to be listening to Nick Drake. Observe 7; Pink Moon speaks about coming to phrases with the truth that I used to be shifting on with my life, creating a brand new chapter. Whereas I used to be accustomed to packing my baggage, it was the primary time I used to be to take action alone, and alone phrases.
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© Riley Natalova
Thanks a Million
an album by Dino Expedition
