Wyatt Smith - "Maple" LP

$20.00

Wyatt Smith - "Maple" LP

$20.00

Sometimes, all it takes is a dog. Bay Area indie artist Wyatt Smith was outlining what would become their latest full-length, Maple, while taking care of a friend’s dog sharing the same name. Despite releasing music consistently and prolifically since 2017, Smith found themselves in a creative drought while wrestling with bipolar disorder and dropping out of San Francisco State University, where many early recordings were pieced together. With Maple, Wyatt strung together the sporadic inspiration of their dog days of whatever to refocus after a shifting routine, all thanks to a mutt named Maple. (Additional thanks to Jay Som’s Melissa Duterte, a longtime friend of Wyatt’s, for mixing the record.)

Maple strikes a midway point between the lonely ambiance of BART rides and the hazy possibility of a future outside futile mindsets. While surrounded by this pet’s boundless energy and explorer’s heart, Wyatt found their own meandering adventure within their lo-fi trademarks. Even though Smith’s downcast indie retains its minimalist production values, the songs themselves are built from more refined ideas and attention to detail. Intersecting piano twinkles lend melodic weight to “Cage,” an early example of matter-of-fact storytelling. Maple is a record bound by the might of small, simple fragments. Wrinkled chords set Wyatt’s flash fiction in muted colors, like the sour party scene from “Cursed” or the jagged indifference fueling “Whoop.” By finding a new creative space, Maple came together as Wyatt’s most cohesive and fully realized work yet.

Track Listing

1. Elated
2. Maple
3. Doubt
4. Cage
5. Evelyn
6. Slow
7. Cursed
8. Stuck
9. Whoop
10. East Bay
11. Snake
12. Fountain

Pressing Information

Pink Vinyl /300