OKLAHOMA CITY — In all the incessant talk of the songs or albums of the summer and the inevitable annual search for the perfect warm weather soundtrack, the conversation seems always focused on finding the best tracks to pair with the long, hot, bright summer days.
But summer nights need soundtracks, too.
The sweltering mid-year months carry their own unique brands of white-hot wistfulness and seasonal depression as the days drag on and on and the nights just flatly refuse to cool off.
So while everyone else was occupied with pinpointing the perfect breezy pop track to crown as the summer’s anthem, OKC scene veteran Ford Chastain dropped an album that feels perfectly tailored to those hot summer night drives with the windows rolled down and the feels cranked up.
There’s an easy confidence and musical self-assuredness on Chastain’s brand new debut full-length that no doubt comes naturally after years touring with psych-rockers Stardeath and the White Dwarfs, a gig he picked up when he was just 16 years old.
But even in the face of such a deep history with Stardeath (as well as their sister band of sorts, The Flaming Lips,) Chastain forges something very much his own on “Wavelines,” expertly avoiding any psych-rock rehashing in favor of something with way more room to breathe.
This is straight-up, laser-focused dream-pop of a kind that’s been difficult to find since the 90s.
Read any modern dream-pop review and it’s bound to mention all kinds of shoegaze-y elements: oceans of reverb, hairy, fuzz-drenched guitars, and walls of wooly sound that feel engulfing and impenetrable.
There’s actually shockingly little, if any, of that on “Wavelines.” These songs are consistently dreamy and floating, but always tight.
Chastain handles the production himself throughout, playing every instrument, engineering every track, and mixing the songs with a skill that wholly belies the entire “bedroom pop” designation.
I’ll be clear: this is one of the best-sounding bedroom-recorded albums I’ve ever heard in my life. The clarity and punch and focus of each track never wavers.
And that’s likely one of the things that makes the emotions in the songs so palpable and effective.
When other similarly influenced acts take the mind-wandering dream-pop approach and smother it in layer after layer of reverbs and effects, the result is usually a drowned-out, washed-away sentiment, buried beneath the production and endless sustain and detached from vulnerability.
But on “Wavelines,” Chastain lets himself remain vulnerable and lets the sentiment take center stage.
There are still plenty of swirling synth pads adding atmosphere to the tracks, and still a healthy helping of reverb carrying the vocals away into the ether, but every word, every riff, and every precision-picked bassline is present in a way that’s much more early Cure than Mazzy Star.
And that’s because Chastain clearly wants his musical backing to remain as direct and nakedly honest as his songwriting.
On every song, one way or another, he’s grappling with the passage of time, and more precisely, with the difficulty of pushing forward and leaving the past in the past.
“Gotta take my time, it’s hard / Try to redefine the start,” he sings on “No Way” in the album’s very first opening lines.
Of course, redefining the start might be exactly what Chastain hopes is the result of “Wavelines.”
It’s not hard to search and see all of the numerous headlines about a teenager plucked out of the exploding local scene years ago, plopped into a weird and wild, buzzy band, and elevated to “Flaming Lips opener” status.
But now that was a lifetime ago, and a time before life had even largely begun for Chastain.
“Wavelines” feels like a way for him to re-emerge and re-establish his own voice and his own sound, finally apart from the baggage of history and the expectations of association.
Every song is about moving on, about the past and memories and surrendering to the waves that carry us all away down the years.
The songs feel loaded with reverence for his history and acknowledgment of his inspirations, but there’s always a firm hand pulling in a new direction, always ensuring that the sounds are his own, not just a pastiche of his mentors and musical friends.
There’s always been something inherently nostalgic in the sound of great, straightforward dream-pop, but the songs across “Wavelines” feel particularly designed for those endless summer nights when all you can think about is the lives and loves of every previous summer before.
The next time you’ve wrapped up a day’s worth of summer partying, dropped off all your friends, and found yourself heading home alone in your car, maybe roll down the windows, roll back your memories, and let Ford Chastain help you send the past off into the hot night air.
“Wavelines” by Ford Chastain is available at fordchastain.bandcamp.com and on streaming services everywhere now.
Follow Ford Chastain online at facebook.com/fordchastainmusic and on Instagram at @fordchastainmusic.
You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.