Youth Lagoon on how Tom Waits, Frank Ocean, The Durutti Column & more influenced his new album ‘Rarely Do I Dream’

Trevor Powers‘ fifth album as Youth Lagoon, Rarely Do I Dream, was inspired in part after dusting off some old home movies in his parents’ basement, which he sampled for his most personal album to date. From our Notable Releases review:

Rarely Do I Dream is a musical reinvention, just like every Youth Lagoon album has been, but it also feels like Trevor is embracing a familiar comfort zone rather than pushing himself to get out of one, as he’s done in the past. These songs feel as natural and personal to Trevor Powers in his mid thirties as The Year of Hibernation did to Trevor in his early twenties. The latter was a coming-of-age piece driven by a character on the cusp of leaving home, and this new one embodies the feeling of stopping back in 15 years later, dusting off some old boxes, and seeing it all a little differently than you ever have before.

There are of course other influences on the album, and Trevor told us about eight songs that also helped shape the sound and style of Rarely Do I Dream, including ones by Tom Waits, Kate Bush, Frank Ocean, The Durutti Column, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and more. Check out his list and commentary and listen to the album below.

Rarely Do I Dream by Youth Lagoon

8 SONGS THAT INFLUENCED YOUTH LAGOON’S ‘RARELY DO I DREAM’

1. Tom Waits – “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me)” (1976)
Arguably one of the smartest, most well-constructed songs ever made. The emotional weight and depth of narrative in this track is unparalleled and a true benchmark in the transcendent power of songwriting. Someone get this man a drink.

2. The Durutti Column – “The Rest of My Life” (1994)
God is everywhere but especially in this track. Vini Reilly’s guitar playing feels like a road trip through the Celestial City. I don’t have synesthesia, but when I hear this song I see every color of the rainbow. If I found out I only had 5 minutes left to live, I would call my wife for 46 seconds, then listen to this song.

3. Kate Bush – “Waking the Witch” (1985)
The first 1/3 of “Waking the Witch” is a euphoric slow-drip into a coma while the last 2/3s act as a procession of gorgeously dark, enticing nightmares. There’s a complete desperation in Kate Bush’s words (“…is a stone around my neck… get out of the waves, get out of the water”) that scream for salvation and a warped sense of comfort I get from hearing that scream. It reminds me I’m not alone. What is music if not a life raft?

4. Frank Ocean – “In My Room” (2019)
Frank is one of the few artists that gives me an irresistible compulsion to write music anytime I hear him sing. Innovative but never alienating — every word and melody is as digestible as it is ingenious. “In My Room” exemplifies Frank’s ability to build an inner-world wholly his own, while using bricks that feel as oddly familiar as a childhood home. That, my friends, is no small feat.

5. RZA – “Flying Birds” (1999)
The hypnotic highlight from RZA’s score for Jim Jarmusch’s underrated gem Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, “Flying Birds” is a testament to the sublime virtue of texture in music. Give me a song that I can reach out and touch. I want to live in it. Be swallowed by it. I want music to be a living, breathing, tangible creature. Angel or demon, it doesn’t matter. I just want to feel its breath. RZA’s music always hits, but his minimal approach on “Flying Birds” shows that sometimes all you need to create life is a synth and a sampler.

6. Gavin Bryars – “The Sinking of the Titanic” (1975)
I was introduced to this song/album by my friend Brion Rushton who works at the local record shop. Brion is similar to my doctor in that he asks me a few questions and hands me a prescription. Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic” was a prescription I got a few years ago, and I’ve been taking it ever since.

Thanks, Doc…

No, I’m not addicted.

It just helps me sleep.

7. Susan Christie – “King Kong / Frank N. Stein” (1966)
The fact the whole world doesn’t know about Susan Christie’s brilliance is appalling and tragic. She had a series of stunners released on Columbia Records in the late ‘60s and went on to create a psych-folk album Paint a Lady in 1970, but they were all songs society largely ignored. Their loss. Christie is as imaginative as she is masterful. “King Kong” and “Frank N. Stein” are technically two tracks that function as one, with Christie subbing out one folkloric brute for another — all within the context of the same jubilantly-demented melody. A strange thing starts to happen when innocence is pushed to the point of absurdity… a once very wholesome idea slowly turns into something sinister, hedonistic, and crackbrained. You’re royalty in my eyes, Susan.

8. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – “Jesus Alone” (2016)
The whole of Skeleton Tree is some of my favorite music front-to-back of the last decade, and no track sums up this devastating and extraordinary work more than “Jesus Alone.” Nick Cave’s devout pursuit of inwardness and the divine often feels like the very same ghost I have living in my house. Sometimes it’s not about figuring out the mystery, but merely falling in love with it.

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Youth Lagoon — 2025 Tour Dates
Thu. Mar. 27 – Spokane, WA @ District Bar @ Knitting Factory
Fri. Mar. 28 – Missoula, MT @ ZACC
Sat. Mar. 29 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Fest
Thu. Apr. 3 Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
Fri. Apr. 4 – Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret
Sat. Apr. 5 – Victoria, BC @ Upstairs
Sun. Apr. 6 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile
Tue. Apr. 8 – San Francisco, CA @ August Hall
Wed. Apr. 9 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent
Thu. Apr. 10 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Fri. Apr. 11 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
Mon. Apr. 14 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
Tue. Apr. 15 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk
Wed. Apr. 16 – Dallas, TX @ Deep Ellum Art Co
Fri. Apr. 18 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
Sat. Apr. 19 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade (Altar)
Sun. Apr. 20 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
Mon. Apr. 21 – Washington, DC @ The Atlantis
Tue. Apr. 22 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry
Thu. Apr. 24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw
Fri. Apr. 25 – Jersey City, NJ @ White Eagle Hall
Sat. Apr. 26 – New Haven, CT @ Space Ballroom
Sun. Apr. 27 – Boston, MA @ Middle East Downstairs
Tue. Apr. 29 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa
Thu. May 1 – Toronto, ON @ Axis
Fri. May 2 – Detroit, MI @ El Club
Sat. May 3 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
Sun. May 4 – Louisville, KY @ Whirling Tiger
Mon. May 5 – Indianapolis, IN @ Hi-Fi
Wed. May 7 – Chicago, IL @ Outset
Thu. May 8 – Milwaukee, WI @ Vivarium
Fri May 9 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon
Sat. May 10 – St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club
Mon. May 12 – St. Louis, MO @ Atomic Cowboy
Tue. May 13 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
Thu. May 15 – Denver, CO @ Marquis
Fri. May 16 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Block Party