"stranded in the crowd and overcome by voices"
The single with the curious title of Introvertigo from the EP of the same curious name by Baybs (the musical project of San Francisco musician Craig Jacobs) feels, at once, like a hidden view of the past and now all at once. It is like using an old Polaroid camera and staring at the image and feeling like you have just time traveled back. You might feel a rolling visage, the movement steeped in garden rock illusions and a sense of sunlight glaring through trees, of wanderlust as a metaphor for life dances among the psyche rock guitar strains and Jacob's comforting vox. The character of his voice is steeped in a Polaroid vastness too, one of scars and bruises but one of a friend, the kind of pal that you want around when a fight breaks out.
Introvertigo is the last song on the EP but maybe the most all inclusive in terms of tones and textures. The first track, Would You Dare, with female / male blends from time to time has an incredible shuffle and while it does possess that 70's folk rock vibe, it feels barefoot and dirtier but in a good way. Other songs like, These Songs In My Head and Sunchild swing even harder. The latter like a two step will make you smile and be transported in a dark secluded honky-tonk, at least in your mind and the former with a sort of tropical jag, part calypso, part zydeco might be the most jubilant on the EP. Finally, Drifter, sung by friend and musical collaborator Melissa Russi (and inspired by one of her poems) might be the
most beautiful. Her storytelling sounds grand and refined and while there is a 60's garden rock sway, there is, especially on the chorus, an elegant chamber pop ascension and Jacobs vocal harmonies embrace Russi's vox in wonderful ways.
The "Introvertigo" EP is out now and you will enjoy it often because it will, invariably, take you places, make you feel joy with a patina of sadness and long to feel that honky-tonk somewhere.
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
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In the 1st look at his debut project, San Francisco musician Craig Jacobs (aka Baybs) asks: ”What if the answer comes with surrender? Could you part?.. Would you dare?”
With songs created as a way to cope with an anxiety-ridden past, Baybs' music itself delivers a more optimistic posture while still remaining chillingly intimate and impassioned. The Bay Bridged has called Baybs “poetic and charming” with a “Magnetic Fields meets Tennis vibe”.
In creating his music, Jacobs recalls, "There were a periods of my life where I didn't want to leave my house.. soon I couldn't leave my room.. then I didn't even feel safe in my own body. The times I felt like literally jumping out of my skin the only thing that helped was picking up a guitar and creating a melody."
The resulting sound is an ebb and flow of dreamy folk pop with a flirtatious rhythmic pulse. To create an atmosphere of multilayered vocal texture, Jacobs collaborates with singers Melissa Russi and Chloe Zelma Studebaker (Zelma Stone), live and in the studio. In the summer of 2019 two debut singles, “Heartbeats (Amor Fati)” and “You’re the Only One” were released. After several months of playing live shows at local venues including Rickshaw Stop, Bottom Of The Hill and Amnesia, Jacobs teamed up with producer Timothy Vickers aka GrandBankss (who also plays bass in Baybs) to record the a debut EP "Intovertigo." The five track album is a true testament to the constant turbulence and distress caused by social anxiety as well as the general feeling of chronic alienation from ones’ immediate surroundings. Despite the intensity of the lyrics, in true Baybs fashion, the record is upbeat, flowy and meant to make the listener physically feel good. After teaming up with label Text Me Records in 2020, Baybs' is set to unveil
"Introvertigo" little by little, single by single, with the full EP out on all platforms on June 11th.
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