The Dawn Drapes Drop Topical, Predictive New Single, "Facts"
Graphic by Bre Cura
By Emily Herbein & Bre Cura
The Dawn Drapes dropped their last single, “Facts,” last week, and it’s a tune that’s been four years in the making, entering our ears at a perfectly political moment. “Facts” features subtle bass lines that loop the track into its most productive evolution and shift effortlessly behind sleek vocals and hypnotic riffs.
This punchy, socially commentative track sits at just around two-minutes, and the precision behind the lyrics leaves no room for debate. The message is clear: what the heck are “alternative facts” anyways?
Lovers of intentional sound will enjoy the “smooth criminal” vibes projected throughout “Facts” as fuzzed-out vocals align themselves flawlessly to the overarching theme of the track, which is political dissonance and blurred lines. It listens like something that would play behind a heist montage or something else incredibly high-pressure and purposeful.
Mike Sanzo says this track was born shortly after Trump’s inauguration in 2016, and a particularly defining moment was when one of Trump’s advisors claimed they were presenting “alternative facts” when they blatantly lied about the size of the inaugural crowd.
The one lyric that really stands out and emphasizes the politically-charged climate we're living in right now is “Your facts or my facts / thank God you're in the news.” With media playing the role of a double-edged sword through this administration, the sarcastically thankless praise rings all too true.
The Dawn Drapes, comprised primarily of Sanzo and Dan Rice, have toured this song as both a three-piece, with the inclusion of drummer Keaton Thandi, and a four-piece, with Noah Skaroff contributing the driving bass line.
Working with Shane Woods (Mo Lowda and the Humble, Headroom Studios), Skaroff credits the track’s cohesive feel to the fact that the writing and recording process was a perfect hybrid of everybody’s ideas rather than “a tug-of-war” of thoughts. We found that perfectly ironic considering the theme of “Facts” is all about unrest and disagreement and miscommunication. Putting together a song that explicitly calls out the tug-of-war between people and an administration turned out to be a relatively seamless process.
The takeaway? Alternative facts aren't facts. The other takeaway? Rice and Sanzo predicted a level of unrest that is perfectly reflected in lines like “little tyrants don't need shelter / let them flip your colonies.” As we head into a new wave of understanding and (hopefully) bettering the society we live in, we can't call the status of the current political climate an “alternative fact.” Call it what it is. The Dawn Drapes do just that.