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May 30, 2018 By Christopher Roberts Trevor Powers

Youth Lagoon was essentially a solo project for Trevor Powers (even though he did tour with a live backing band), but back in 2016 he retired the project, broke up the one-man band. Back at the start of the month he shared a video for new song, “Playwright,” simply under his given name. Now Powers has announced a full album under his own name, Mulberry Violence, and shared two more songs from it, “Ache” and “Plaster Saint.” Mulberry Violence is due out August 17 via his own label Baby Halo. The album also features “Playwright.” He has also announced some tour dates. Check out the songs below, followed by the album’s cover art and his upcoming tour dates.

Powers issued a lengthy statement about the album: “Early chronicles have long enveloped mulberry trees in legend. Some say they’re the link between heaven and earth. Others say the red berries are stained from the blood of star-crossed lovers. For over 5,000 years, medicine has been made from their leaves, with some cultures claiming them to be a miracle remedy or even the key to eternal life. Although many stories and attributes surround the mulberry tree, they are known most for one reigning characteristic ::: wisdom. Mulberries wait until the danger of frost is completely gone before they begin to bud, at which point the budding occurs overnight. They are patient. They are restrained. They are calculated. They are everything we’re not.

“We are tornadoes, sweeping the fields - mutable and unsettled. Storms of impulse; units of destruction. Often our instincts are misguided / lashing out rather than soaking in silence, tuning in to the whispers. Violence is king, and we are its servants ::: eager to please, trained in frenzy, and knowing little else. Since infancy, we’ve grown used to hearing words far opposite the examples we’ve been shown. We’ve been told to douse fires, but we’ve been handed a torch. Should it be a surprise that the world is burning?

“Mulberry Violence is the intersection of these two dimensions. It is where stillness meets pandemonium. Dead air meets babel. Harmony meets war. Sisters from the same womb, separated at birth. It serves as a personal document of the everlasting battle inside of us. No one has it figured out; least of all me.”

As Youth Lagoon, Powers released three albums: 2011’s The Year of Hibernation, 2013’s Wondrous Bughouse, and 2015’s Savage Hills Ballroom.

Trevor Powers Tour Dates:

9/26 Boise, ID Neurolux
9/27 Seattle, WA Barboza
9/28 Vancouver, BC Biltmore
9/29 Portland, OR Mississippi Studios
10/1 San Francisco, CA Independent
10/3 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room
10/5 Salt Lake City, UT Metro
10/6 Denver, CO Lost Lake
10/8 Kansas City, MO Encore
10/9 Omaha, NE The Slowdown
10/11 Minneapolis, MN Turf Club
10/12 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
10/13 Detroit, MI DIME
10/14 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern
10/16 Boston, MA Great Scott
10/17 New York, NY National Sawdust
10/18 Philadelphia, PA Boot and Saddle
10/19 Washington, DC U Street Music Hall
10/30 London, UK Electrowerkz
11/1 Amsterdam, NL Cinetol
11/3 Hamburg, DE Häkken
11/4 Berlin, DE Frannz Club

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