Scene Spotlight: Young Man

Noah SonnenburgScene EditorApril 5, 2018I found something great, but far too late. I’ve been a fan of dream rock group DIIV for years now. The silky sounds they manufacture paired with their clear, driving instrumental power lulls the mind to all sorts of places when listening. The group’s members are young, lanky and somewhat decrepid but shockingly talented. Most intriguing to me was their storytelling prowess.While their frontman Zachary Cole Smith seemed interesting, over-listening to his work led to an overwhelming sense of boredom due to its repetitive nature. So, moderately jaded by my newfound lack of interest, I took a look at other members of the band. I honestly couldn’t find much that I liked. However, there was one clear exception: multi-instrumentalist Colin Caulfield.In the handful of interviews with him I could find, he seemed relaxed, interesting and blindingly creative. I dug deeper into what music of his I could find online. Apparently not deeply enough.Only over this last spring break did I happen upon his side band; a dream-pop group called Young Man.Having woken up at three in the afternoon, I was lazily scrolling through Spotify for fun stuff to wake me up. Unfortunately for the ambitious side of me, I was enjoying being back in my own bed at home. I opted instead for a sloppy compilation album called “Under the Covers”, which I felt was appropriate considering the circumstances. On it, one gem really stuck out to me as something truly interesting: a cover of Drake’s “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Young Man.The raspy, vintage-sounding track was immediately something I wanted to put on repeat for the next hour or so, and I ultimately followed the artist link and checked out their stuff.Four albums greeted me, each of them more engaging and daring than the last. I was fascinated with the spacey, crisp production each album had as well as the subtly brilliant lyricism. Now fully enraptured with what I had found, I clicked on the band bio.Lo and behold, it read: “Young Man crafts a dreamy atmosphere of layered vocals, airy guitar, and looped drums around founder Colin Caulfield’s contemplative lyrics.”I noticed that their most recent release, “Beyond Was All Around Me,” came out in 2013. Naturally, I was curious if there was any new material I could expect in the near future. I made my way to Google just to start my exploration of this new wonder. But that excitement ended fairly quickly.Just after hitting return, I read the dream-crushing Rolling Stone headline: “Young Man Bid Farewell in ‘Beyond Was All Around Me.’”Clearly I was late to the game on this one. I found one of my favorite groups just as the last page of its history was being written. However, its end doesn’t change anything; Young Man still is a musical powerhouse worth a listen.Contact Noah Sonnenburg at nasonnenburg@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.