DAN DEACON ANNOUNCES MYSTIC FAMILIAR
NEW ALBUM OUT JANUARY 31 ON DOMINO | NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES
Dan Deacon announces Mystic Familiar, his new album out January 31st on Domino, lead single/video “Sat By A Tree,” and a North American tour (tix on sale HERE this Friday, November 1st at 10am local time).
With Mystic Familiar, Dan gives us the result of years of obsessive work, play, and self-discovery. It’s at once his most emotionally open record and his most transcendent, 11 kaleidoscopic tracks of majestic synth-pop that exponentially expand his sound with unfettered imagination and newfound vulnerability.
Since 2015’s Gliss Riffer, Deacon has branched out into an array of collaborative projects including film scores to Rat Film, HBO’s Well Groomed, ESPN’s 30 for 30: Subject to Review; collaborating with the NYCBallet’s resident choreographer Justin Peck, LAPhil and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
While fulfilling, these projects lacked Dan’s singing voice. In the midst of that whirlwind of activity, he returned whenever he could to a personal oasis—the songs that would become Mystic Familiar, informed by all these collaborations but built from within. Deacon’s writing took an exploratory new direction developed with therapeutic practices of self-compassion and mindfulness, daily prompts from Brian Eno’s deck of Oblique Strategies and the use of meditation. These techniques produced songs that paint life as a psychedelic journey brimming with bliss and disruption, darkness and light.
It’s a vulnerable shift in a songbook abundant with characters, metaphors, and modulations. This voice-focused album is also the first record in which each song was built around one central concept—the Mystic Familiar, a supernatural other being that we carry with us everywhere in our head, which only we can hear and with whom we live our lives in eternal conversation.
Mystic Familiar takes a propulsive leap with the robot-performed drums and soaring melodies of “Sat By a Tree.” Lyrically, the song conjures campfire reflections on key memories with the hard-won clarity of time, a dialogue with an anthropomorphic tree on chilling out, and befores and afters of life and death. The video, directed by Daren Rabinovitch of film and animation studio Encyclopedia Pictura and starring comedian Aparna Nancherla, uses natural world elements, vivid colors, and a cartoon-like aesthetic to reflect on time and the precious shortness of life (not for those with an aversion to bugs).
Mystic Familiar is available to pre-order on CD, limited edition silver colored vinyl, and limited edition silver colored cassette now through Domino.
Tour Dates
Fri. November 1 – Knoxville, TN @ Pilot Light
Sat. November 2 – Chattanooga, TN @ JJ’s Bohemia
Sun. November 3 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
Tue. November 5 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Bark
Wed. November 6 – Orlando, FL @ Wills Pub
Thu. November 7 – Miami, FL @ Floyd
Fri. November 8 – Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits
Sat. November 9 – Gainesville, FL @ The Atlantic
Tue. November 12 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club
Wed. November 13 – Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre
Thu. November 14 – Virginia Beach, VA @ Elevation 27
Fri. Jan. 31 – Dublin, IE @ Grand Social
Sat. Feb. 1 – Glasgow, UK @ Classic Grand
Tue. Feb. 4 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell
Thu. Feb. 6 – London, UK @ Scala
Mon. Feb. 10 – Paris, FR @ La Maroquinerie
Wed. Feb. 26 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern
Thu. Feb. 27 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Fri. Feb. 28 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Sat. Feb. 29 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle
Sun. March 1 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East
Tue. March 3 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
Thu. March 5 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Fri. March 6 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
Sat. March 7 – Austin, TX @ Scoot Inn
Sun. March 8 – Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co.
Tue. March 10 – Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
Wed. March 11 – San Diego, CA – Music Box
Thu. March 12 – Santa Ana, CA @ The Observatory
Fri. March 13 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent Theater
Sat. March 14 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Mon. March 16 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
Thu. March 19 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Fri. March 20 – Seattle, WA @ Neptune
Sat. March 21 – Vancouver, BC @ Venue
Tue. March 24 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux
Wed. March 25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Fri. March 27 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf
Sat. March 28 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
Mon. March 30 – Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater
Tue. March 31 – St. Louis, MO @ The Ready Room
Thu. April 2 – Chicago, IL @ Metro
Fri. April 3 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater
Sat. April 4 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Thu. April 16 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
Fri. April 17 – Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
Sat. April 18 – Cincinnati, OH @ Urban Artifact
Sun. April 19 – Louisville, KY @ Headliner’s Music Hall
Tue. April 21 – Indianapolis, IN @ HI-FI Indianapolis
Wed. April 22 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s Music Diner
Thu. April 23 – Detroit, MI @ Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
Fri. April 24 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
Sat. April 25 – Ithaca, NY @ The Haunt
Sun. April 26 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club
Tue. April 28 – Portland, ME @ SPACE Gallery
Wed. April 29 – Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Artspace
Thu. April 30 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Fri. May 1 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Sat. May 2 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Artist Links
Background Photo Credit: Frank Hamilton
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DAN DEACON – SPIDERMAN OF THE RINGS
