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Feb 29, 2024 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Brett Warren

Over the past few years, songwriters Joshua Lee Turner and Allison Young have been sharing a string of singles together as The Bygones, pulling from vintage singer/songwriters, jazz and classical arrangements, and folk-tinged indie rock. Most recently, the Brooklyn and Nashville-based duo returned last month with “Whatever That Is,” the lead single from their forthcoming self-titled debut album, The Bygones, due out on April 4th. Along with Turner and Young, the album also features contributions from Eric Slick on drums (Dr. Dog, Kevin Morby), Josh Gilligan on bass (Liza Anne, HalfNoise), and Luke Schneider on pedal steel (Margo Price, Orville Peck).

Today, the pair are back with the record’s second single, “How Do You Waste A Day,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“How Do You Waste A Day” finds the band at their breezy and charming best, with Turner and Young’s airy vocals encircling an elliptical guitar riff. At moments, the results feel almost hypnotic, as if the chiming tones and easygoing rhythms are lulling you into a sunlit reverie, inviting you to get swept away on a bed of pillowy melodies. Meanwhile, The pair’s vocals capture a similar sense of carefree ease, dancing with each other in unison as they sing about the joy of whiling away the hours with someone you love: “How do you waste a day?/You tell me there isn’t one/Not when I’m wasting away with you.”

Turner shares of the band’s latest single, “This song started out as me just playing around with a fingerstyle riff on electric guitar. I wanted to write something a little melancholy that still made you want to move, because I’ve always been intrigued by that juxtaposition of moods (like ‘Heart it Race’” by Architecture in Helsinki, ‘Heartbeats’ by The Knife, ‘Sara’ by Alex G, so much of LCD Soundsystem). Lyrics are the hardest part about songwriting for me, so I mumbled in falsetto over the guitar riff and shared it with Allison, who interpreted my mumbling into text. It became a song about just killing a day with someone you love. We decided to preserve my layered falsetto from the demo, with Allison and I singing in unison for the entire song. This gave the vocals that weird, hazy feel, like the memory of a day that’s more of a mood than a series of events.”

Check out the song and video below. The Bygones is out everywhere on April 4th via Tonetree.