Night Market craft a beautifully uplifting song of longing in “White Seasons,” a poignant ode to balance fueled by raw folk rock warmth and visceral imagery.
Stream: “White Seasons” – Night Market
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/614754636?secret_token=s-lWHqn” params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=true&visual=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” /]No matter what dark storm or blissful revelry we find ourselves in, life is never purely black or purely white: It’s an unpredictable and imbalanced inundation of experience, an amalgam of ups within downs and downs within ups that drives us forward and forever keeps us on our toes. How do we process life’s emotional multitudes? We have words for being happy or sad, but the English language doesn’t have a direct translation for “bliss within melancholia”; the feelings equivalent to the eye of a storm.
Where words fail us, art steps in to fill the gaps and guide the way. Night Market craft a beautifully uplifting song of longing in “White Seasons,” a poignant ode to balance fueled by raw folk rock warmth and visceral imagery.
My feet take me all along
Out on the open road
Dead heat and the folded notes
And secrets that never show
Deep greens paint the orange groves
Miles and miles of rows
Take heat for the hurt you saw
Is over and down below
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “White Seasons,” the lead single off Night Market’s forthcoming sophomore EP White Seasons (out June 21, 2019). The Los Angeles-based duo of Evan Effres (vocals/guitar) and Jon Swan (vocals/guitar), Night Market formed in 2017 over a penchant for expressive songwriting and lush alternative rock warmth. The band’s debut EP Miles Alone, released Fall 2018, introduced a laid-back “California” rock vibe influenced as much by the Laurel Canyon ethos as it was the West Coast’s current rock canon (think Young the Giant).
Brimming with beautiful harmonies and enchanting interwoven guitars, “White Seasons” finds Night Market growing past their initial rock sound into an alternative folk space. Slowing their music down and giving their instruments room to breathe, the duo craft an absolutely intoxicating, genuinely emotional song of movement, change, and transformation.
White seasons all waiting for the snow
Get along and play all of your shows alone
Wild dreams, the fall, stationed in the tone
Get a long, long sleep before you go home
“White Seasons is about moving beyond the person you thought you once were, Jon Swan tells Atwood Magazine. “You are in a period of change and the lyrics represents the self-reflection that comes with winter.”
Evan Effres expands on this notion, describing “White Seasons” as a song about “longing for better days.”
“When I was younger, I would always look forward to winter because it meant trips up to Mammoth Lakes with my family and friends. I loved being in the snow where I could sit around a bonfire, drink hot chocolate, and be surrounded by a beautiful, pine-scented forest – something that I couldn’t experience in LA. The song is about longing for those days in the snow while going through the more trying times in life, such as coping with heartbreak, watching helplessly as a loved one deals with pain, or feelings of isolation and loneliness. Even with all of these troubles, there are countless joyful memories and an infinite number of incredible experiences to look forward to. I tried to evoke that feeling of hardship and hope by contrasting moments of hurt with images of lush green farmland, long stretches of desert, and lakes surrounded by snow, which are the scenic views you would get while driving up to the mountains from Santa Barbara, which is where I was living at the time I wrote the song.”
Although life can be tough and painful experiences are inevitable, the song’s focus is on remembering those happier “white seasons” of winter.
Wild beasts roaming all around
Keep all of your weapons close
Find peace in the shallow ground
A water that’s always cold
White seasons all waiting for the snow
Get along and play all of your shows alone
Wild dreams, the fall, stationed in the tone
Get a long, long sleep before you go home
Night Market immerse listeners in vivid images of seasons’ change, but it’s as much what they’re singing about as it is how they’re singing it: The pair imbue their vocals with a hearty layer of nostalgia and humble appreciation, marveling at the world from a distant position – as if this is all happening in some faraway dream from long ago. Maybe it’s their way of expressing how all things must pass; perhaps it’s just an artistic decision to blend their voices, like they do their guitars.
No matter its intended effect, “White Seasons” arrives at the perfect impassed, providing an entrancing soundtrack to our deliverance from winter’s cold grasp into spring and summer (if it ever comes). It’s a noticeable shift away from the alt rock encompassing the duo’s debut EP, but the change is not only welcome, but warranted: Not since the Civil Wars has a folk-rock duo made sadness feel so damn good.
At least, that’s one writer’s opinion. Lend Night Market your ears and stay tuned for their White Seasons EP, out June 21, 2019. For now, lose yourself in the buoyant but haunting “White Seasons,” streaming exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
Stream: “White Seasons” – Night Market
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