In our Track by Track feature, artists give insider details on each track on their latest release. Today, Dirty Projectors dig into their newly completed 5EPs cycle.
Dirty Projectors have today completed their year-long 5EPs series with the release of the final installment, Ring Road. Not only is the full collection available to stream below via Apple Music and Spotify, but the band has broken down the entire project Track by Track.
The 20 songs on the 5EPs anthology were, as the name implies, originally spread across five separate releases arriving throughout the year. Each of the first four presented a different member of the band taking lead and showcasing a different musical style, while the last is a joint effort. Whoever sung on the individual EPs co-wrote the songs alongside bandleader Dave Longstreth, who also produced, mixed, and recorded the whole project.
Marchās Windows Open centered on guitarist Maia Friedman singing existential folk, Felicia Douglass stepped up for the future soul of Juneās Flight Tower, Longstreth took a bossa nova turn on Septemberās Super JoĆ£o, and Octoberās Earth Crisis featured glitchy orchestral arrangements under Kristin Slippās vocals. The final spin in the cycle, Ring Road, finds the entirety of Dirty Projectors coming together as one, each member taking their own verses and layering in for multi-part harmonies.
This is what the whole project has been building towards, with the various talents highlighted over the last nine months reuniting like the Avengers. Below, listen to the full sonic journey of 5EPs, followed by the bandās complete Track by Track breakdown.
The 5EPs limited edition box set is sold out, but vinyl and CDs are available via the bandās webstore, while independent retailers have a clear LP.
5EPs follows Dirty Projectorsā 2018 full-length Lamp Lit Prose, which the band also took us through track by track.
Windows Open
āOn the Breezeā:
I wrote this melody last time I was in Australia. I got to the hotel after the long flight from LA and, even though I was dead tired, I felt like there was a melody in the room. I love how this recording came out ā thereās so little going on! ā Dave Longstreth
āOn the Breezeā is one of my favorites on Windows Open. It reminds me that some songs are best without so many bells and whistles. I get lost in the calming lyrics and Maia sings it so beautifully. ā Felicia Douglass
āOverlordā:
In terms of the sculptor and the slab, I guess a melody is the slab and the song is the form that needs to be freed? That seems backwards, but for me thatās often how it is. ā DL
When we were talking about how the drums should sound we listened to some old Dolly Parton and George Jones tunes. The drums are EQād so beautifully on some of them. Theyāre so thin and silky but still have a little punch. Sometimes they wonāt even hit the snare drum but will just hit the hi-hat on two and four. We also talked about Kenny Buttrey and his loose sort of improvisatory style. ā Mike Johnson
āSearch for Lifeā:
I noticed that I talk about searching in so many of my songs, going back fifteen years now. So I had this phrase printed on a hat and I wear the hat all the time. I like it: Searching as a way of life. ā DL
Oliver Hill arranged the strings for this song and he did such a beautiful job. While I was drafting lyrics for āSearch For Lifeā with Dave, I had an image that kept returning to me of a big, lone tree atop a hill. The tree was standing still, watching the world change around it. Although the lyrical content shifted through many drafts, this image stands firm in my mind. ā Maia Friedman
āGuarding the Babyā:
When Maia and I were together in the studio I had a stack of seven or eight ideas I played her, and the four songs on Windows Open are the ideas that she dug. I never would have chosen this one ā but now itās one of my favorites. Thanks Maia! ā DL
This is my favorite off the Windows Open EP ā the lyrics have the most personal resonance for me. I love how the vocal sits so soft and quiet, yet the words and story have a biting harshness to them. If you werenāt listening carefully you might not even notice the darkness there. I love that. I learned so much about crafting lyrics while writing with Dave. And discovered my love of RhymeZone. ā MF
Flight Tower
āInner Worldā:
Felicia does like two takes and youāre done ā Iāve never heard her sing something and have it not be perfect but also⦠so her. ā DL
My eyes are glued to Mike when we perform this song live. The percussion is so beautiful and intricate ā somehow Mike manages to play with such ease and precision, fitting the rhythms together perfectly. I also love the way the guitar part I play interlocks with Feliciaās voice; itās very satisfying and invites a sense of intimacy between us. Iām not sure Felicia knows that about my experience! ā MF
āLose Your Loveā:
āLose Your Loveā was a joy to be a part of. I was pulled in on first listen. I have a lot of respect for Daveās writing so it was exciting to put our heads together on a pop song. It also challenges my range and I think taking that leap in the chorus is fitting for the passionate nature of the song. Itās extremely fun to perform live. I grew up listening to larger than life artists such as Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin and I love the idea of trying to summon that type of energy to performance. I watch lots of old live clips on YouTube: funk, disco, and soul. They made it look easy! ā FD
āSelf Designā:
Whatās your love but safe design? I love that. whatās your but self design? I love that. In this song, the word āselfā and āsafeā are the same. ā DL
āEmpty Vesselā:
When I was a teenager, I found this book called Tombs of SipƔn about a great pre-Colombian necropolis in Northern Peru. The trove of artifacts, ceramics, textiles, and jewelry they found held insights into the Moche civilization that flourished in the region before the Inca. A secondary site was uncovered more recently, with people buried upright in large ceramic urns. I might be making this up, but I think I read they were all facing east.
The image of being buried upright, facing east toward sunrise for all eternity stuck with me and inspired the lyric to this song: āWe are just another empty vessel, filled by warmth, forged in crucible of hope.ā ā DL
Super João
āHoly Mackerelā:
The chorus lyric was written by my wife Teresa ā according to family lore, these were her very first words. She saw a hippopotamus emerge from the water at the zoo when she was ten months old and cried, āHo macko!ā
I wrote this melody, along with āI Get Carried Awayā and āMoon If Everā, in an old hotel in Kauai. I think we were watching Blue Hawaii on TV. ā DL
I think this is my favorite off Daveās EP, Super JoĆ£o. I love the lyrics ā a great reflection of Daveās humor and sensitivity. At one point Dave was talking about re-recording the vocals and I begged him not to. Thereās something so sweet, vulnerable and sincere about the original performance that ended up on the track. Itās perfect. ā MF
āI Get Carried Awayā:
A year or two ago, when we could still go to live music, I saw Jonathan Richman at The Kitchen in NYC. Incredible show, much of it just him on a nylon acoustic, no amplification. He was João Gilberto in reverse: If João is the calm belying deep passion, Jonathan felt like the rhapsodic mania sheathing inner calm.
One thing is that I wish I hadnāt put delay on the entire mix of this song. It will be better live! ā DL
āYou Create Yourselfā:
I played an early version of this one at a show at a VFW hall in Portland, OR in 2013 where I got shocked by a live microphone so many times that I forgot how to play the song for six years! ā DL
āMoon If Everā:
My friend Kyle Field, Little Wings, is an amazing songwriter, poet, watercolorist. He lives in a canyon above the city, and going to see him is like visiting the Oracle at Delphi. Apparently there was a stone inscription above the entry to Delphi that said, āKNOW YOURSELF.ā Which is a Drake song. Sharing lyrics with Kyle is the same: You see things reflected back differently than you knew. I love to share stuff Iām working on with Kyle, and sometimes he takes it and runs with it, creating something better, both deeper and lighter, than I could imagine. āMoon If Everā is one of those times. ā DL
Earth Crisis
āEyes on the Roadā:
When I went into the booth to record this, I imagined I was floating down a Venetian canal in a gondola. It helped to capture the very flowing melodic phrasing over the string loop. ā Kristin Slipp
OMG! I remember Kristin sent me a gif of a Venetian gondolier from the booth and we were cracking up about this melody. This song is on a serious Bel Canto vibe, the parallel thirds and the big yawning leap. The lyric āI serenade the losersā hits me different every time. The image in my head was the Mother Earth, almost like a Gaia statue of liberty, calling out to the downtrodden, singing to all creatures under heaven, because weāre all losers. ā DL
āThere I Said Itā:
The sparse combination of elements on āThere I Said Itā on the Earth Crisis EP is infectious and I wish it were longer. Kristin is a powerful vocalist and she has an incredible amount of control over vocal runs which is evident here. Though itās the shortest itās one I keep coming back to. ā FD
To me, āThere I Said Itā is the āsingleā of the EP. After I recorded this song, it was suck in my head for weeks. Specifically, Daveās demo version was stuck in my head. Heād pitched up his vocals (and possibly also sped them up?). That informed my performance when I went to record it, and I think thatās audible in the final version. ā KS
āBirdās Eyeā:
This one is made out of an arrangement I wrote for āSpray paint (The Walls)ā from Rise Above. This EP started to take on an ecological theme when I began hearing that string quartet part like a damaged version of the springtime theme from Vivaldiās āFour Seasonsā. To me, of all the EPs, Earth Crisis is the one that points the way forward. Now Iām writing an opera or orchestral tone poem that takes it further, kind of like a rewrite of Mahlerās āDas Lied on der Erdeā ā a song of the Earth in crisis. ā DL
āNow I Knowā:
This has some of my favorite lyrics on the Earth Crisis EP: āRealize baby is a healer, she grasped wisdom and yielded, she has a long road.ā Iāve spent some time recently thinking about the deep wisdom babies hold in their tiny bodies. Itās like they know nothing, and everything, in the best way. ā KS
Kristin sings this song so beautifully, with such tenderness and vulnerability. I want to wrap her up in my arms with love and comfort. ā MF
Ring Road
āSearching Spiritā:
Another searching song! This is one thatās been around from the Swing Lo Magellan era. I loved the guitar part, but couldnāt finish the song, because I didnāt know how the lyrics went, and I didnāt know what key it should be in. The drums on this recording are Brian McOmber, and he sounds incredible! ā DL
āPorque Noā:
To me this is a total Muppets song, so fun to play. I feel like a cartoon in a cartoon rock band! ā DL
That was a fun opportunity to blast a little. I guess the song is about indulgence. Also an homage to some of the drum feels of ā50s rock. Dave shouts out the show Billions in the lyrics and fun fact: Asia-Kate Dillon was once my manager at a coffee shop. ā MJ
āNo Studyingā:
Probably the fastest shaker part Iāve ever played. Itās a sort of motoric floor tom beat which is fun to play. A feel that I guess people havenāt messed with too much for a little while. Generally just a pretty fun jammer. ā MJ
āMy Possessionā:
I love the sounds in this song, I love the composition itself, and its message. āItās time to throw it awayā feels like an important line. I also love the tom-my snare sound. Dave used a similar sound in his song āKeep Your Nameā⦠It was the first thing about that song I noticed. ā KS
This is the most recent song of the entire anthology. The possession in question is ego. I possess a sense of self ā a husk of opinions and facts, memories and experiences ā that I confuse for my actual being. My projection! The irony of the song is how my ego actually possesses me: defining, limiting, controlling how I experience life on Earth. Itās a thumbnail I mistake for the actual document, a blowup that only diminishes. The coda lyrics is all imagery from The Exorcist, but the way Felicia sings it youād never really know!! ā DL
5EPs Artwork:
5EPs Panorama (all paintings by Jake Longstreth):