We often like to think of dreams as a fantasy escape from our daily life, as if our sleeping brains are trying to soothe the harm done by the real world. Unfortunately, sometimes the damage is just too deep and reality breaks through in disquieting ways. When you’re shocked awake, you can almost feel your thoughts struggling to distinguish fact from fiction. That disconcerting moment between troubled dreaming and anxious reality is something Athens, Georgia rockers Oak House explore on their new single, “Cut That Out”.
“‘Cut That Out’ is part one of my version of a Kafka-inspired dream,” Oak House frontman Gresham Cash tells Consequence of Sound. “Part two is the next track, ‘Esque’. I wanted to craft a picture of dreams by using frenetic, shifting imagery with a blend of hopeful nostalgia muddied by sadness, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc. Also, I felt that anxiety, depression and suicide are things that not only influence us directly, but also, those around us; hence, the chorus, ‘We’re all responsible for someone else.’ The ending is the feeling of the dream unraveling combined with the feeling that you are living within someone else’s dream: unsettling to say the least. Your only defense against the confusion and discomfort is like swatting at an irksome fly that keeps buzzing in your ears: ‘Cut that out.'”
The latest single from the trio’s forthcoming Hot or Mood, “Cut That Out” is fringed with a psychedelic haze. Synths decay under sudden guitars, playing out like a time-lapse video of a dying plant running constantly backwards and forwards. The sound of it all coalesces into a disorienting drone as the frenetic drumming and Cash’s own wailing vocals keep it all from collapsing in on itself. Experimental and visceral, the song pulls together an alien melody from the ether, and you can experience it below.
Hot or Mood will be self-released on April 7th.
