An indie-folk storyteller, musician Daniel Trakell's sophomore album 'Into The Blue' is a collection of ten songs that will charm as well as ignite (dormant) thoughts in the listener – a sonic journey best enjoyed continuously from beginning to end.
Recorded between an old church hall that sits in Mollongghip – a farming community 20 minutes from Ballarat – and Aviary studios in Melbourne's Abbotsford with a full band, Trakell teamed with Josh Barber (Gretta Ray, Gotye, and Archie Roach) who recorded, produced and mixed it before it was mastered by multi-Grammy-winning engineer, Shawn Hatfield of AudibleOddities."'Into The Blue' means to go into the unknown, or leave without a trace which I really liked as a common theme in my songwriting seems to be escaping," shares Daniel.
Bruised yet enchanting folk melodies married to wistful alt. country tones, Trakell's emotive songwriting resonates with an exquisite richness that will linger long after the final note fades into the oblivion of time.
Featuring previously released singles 'Into The Blue', 'Folk Song #2' and 'Waves', 'Into The Blue' is a stunning showcase of Daniel's earnest and eloquent songwriting.
For fans of Bon Iver, Father John Misty, and Elliot Smith, here Daniel shares a few insights and stories behind each song that features on 'Into The Blue'.
Still
This song is written from a friend's perspective, about letting someone back into your life after they've broken your trust. You know you shouldn't and that no good will come from it, but somehow you still can't help yourself. There are some really soft background vocals from Georgia Knight in the chorus and bridge on this one.Out Of Time
This one was written after discovering an author named Emily St. John Mandel, who I instantly became a fan of and read four of her books in a row straight after finishing the first. One in particular from 2014 called 'Station 11' stood out; it was set during a pandemic with people scrambling to jump on planes and leave the cities amidst mad rush and panic.This song takes it a step further and mixes in a bit of the plot of the movie 'Don't Look Up' – it's about being left behind on Earth waiting for some kind of imminent disaster to hit while the wealthy are escaping in their pods, leaving the rest of us to our fate.
Into The Blue
Lyrically 'Into The Blue' is about escaping and leaving everything behind. The phrase means to disappear into the unknown, vanish or leave without a trace. I had the song for a while, but didn't quite know how to finish the lyrics.After re-watching the film 'Into The Wild' (based on the story of Chris McCandless who disappeared into the Alaskan wilderness) the lyrics started to come together in a kind of re-telling of that story, which resonates so much with me as it's a topic I think about a lot. It's also, I think, quite a hopeful song about taking some kind of risk or leap of faith and trusting that things will work out.
Praise Your Name
Musically/ production wise, this one was inspired a little by the band Neutral Milk Hotel, – I love the scrappy sounding nylon guitars with horns on the album 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea'. When I was writing this song, for whatever reason I got an image in my mind of a bearded, hippie kind of religious cult, dressed in white robes holding a funeral on a riverbank.Lyrically it's also about the hypocrisy of some religious people who just pay lip service to an idea: 'They praise your name, but words don't mean that much,' and the opening line references a place in the Californian desert called Salvation Mountain. "Words of the Saviour, painted and bright."
It's also the longest song on the album, with a kind of extended, repetitive outro, which Josh joked we always have to put one on each album ('Wasted Light' from my first EP and 'Warning Bell' from my last album).
Waves
This song came out kind of fast. I don't remember much about the writing of it. A lot of my songs I try not to have too much conscious thought while writing, take the thinking part of my mind out of the process as much as possible. Looking back it's pretty clearly about death and fully letting go.The outro borrows a little from the chord progression in Elliott Smith's song 'Let's Get Lost'. Matt Dixon's work on pedal steel and baritone guitar and the piano, which Josh overlaid, really make this song for me.
Folk Song #2
An ode to the pressures of living up to internal and external expectations while being consumed by self-doubt, musically drawing inspiration from a playlist of '60s-era folk my friend made, of songs by artists like Townes Van Zandt, Jackson C Frank and Bob Dylan.When The Lights Go Down
We kind of tried for a New Orleans-style funeral march on this one with extra horns, clarinet and piano. The lyrics are a stream of consciousness. I think it's about being tired and out of options.Second Time Around
I believe this started out as 'Folk Song #1'. A contemplation of life and a reminder that being too hard on yourself for things beyond your control is probably a waste of time. "If there's no second time around, don't let the currents drag you down."It's also the third song on the album to reference drowning or being carried off by the sea, so as I mostly try to write unconsciously one of my favourite parts about putting together an album is hearing it all back and seeing which themes and ideas are repeated, like a snapshot of my subconscious.
Never Satisfied
One of my favourite tracks on the album, I really love how this turned out. I played guitar on the demo and had the strings mapped out, but Josh had the idea to make the recording really sparse and just have pedal steel and upright bass played with a bow underneath the vocals. It makes the song feel much slower and gives it a darker undertone and a lot more space.Lyrically, it's about a certain type of corrupt, wealthy, political/ ruling class who believe it's their God-given right to be in charge, where any amount of unethical behaviour can be justified as long as they're kept in power, enacting policies to enrich themselves and their friends at the expense of everyone else.
I'll Watch Over You
This is a song I made up for my son Teddy; he holds my hand while I sing to him to sleep every night. It was deliberately kept quite lo-fi, and though it's a different kind of song for me – it has a childlike, sentimental directness that I love in artists like Kimya Dawson.Daniel Trakell with Jimmy Stanfield plays Lulie Tavern (Melbourne) on 3 December.
