DARI BAY - SURPRISE WISH

Dari Bay has already been many things. Since first launching the band, Zachary James and his friends have used Dari Bay to explore free-for-all experimentation, shape-shifting from project to project before slowly cohering into a vehicle for James’ most direct and personal songwriting. The pivot became clear on 2023’s Longest Day Of The Year, a rangey songwriting exercise that served as Dari Bay’s proper debut. Now, the evolution has blossomed on Surprise Wish, Dari Bay’s sophomore outing and first for Double Double Whammy. Though these nine songs may sound like the work of an assured craftsman, they also emerge from an era of transition, when James puzzled over what he wanted his life to look like, and what Dari Bay would become.

Growing up in a musical family based in Brattleboro, Vermont, James tried his hand at everything: learning drums as a child, DJ’ing, rap beats, production, elementary school punk rock. “Vermont is small, so it can take time to create a scene with a strong identity,” James recalls. But he eventually became a multi-faceted and in-demand player: providing drums on recordings and tours for old friends Lily Seabird and Greg Freeman, serving as one of the primary songwriters in Robber Robber, joining Unknown Mortal Orchestra as a full-time member, all while steadily concocting Dari Bay’s next chapter.

Surprise Wish came together slowly over time as James balanced multiple projects while finishing college, but everything about these songs was immediate. Seeking to abandon the genre detours of past Dari Bay releases, James honed in on a scuzzy, visceral rock sound. “I cared less about aesthetics and more about primal feelings,” he explains. For each song, James harnessed moments of sudden, unpredictable inspiration — ideas that struck him then wouldn’t leave him alone. As before, James made much of Surprise Wish alone without real studio time, giving the whole album a raw, homespun quality anchoring lyrics that are intimate yet casual and self-effacing.