On its surface, "Good luck With Whatever" can sound like a somewhat dismissive phrase, confirms Taylor Goldsmith of folk-rock band Dawes. However, the singer-songwriter and guitarist adds, it's interpretable. "Someone can read that same title and say, 'Oh that actually is like a kind thing. It's a kind sendoff.' To tell someone, 'truly, good luck with whatever' is really not a mean thing. So, it's interesting, like, it means what you decide it does."

In a virtual interview and live session with The Current's Mac Wilson, Goldsmith talked about how their music, whether it's their 2016 album We're All Gonna Die or their upcoming seventh studio album Good Luck With Whatever, has unintentionally ended up being very suited to the current moment. Though the entirety of the new album was written pre-pandemic, songs off of it like "Who Do You Think You're Talking To?", which he performed in this session, connect to something in the air, "Whether it's loneliness or longing or your relationship with yourself or just your relationship with humanity. I feel like these songs are colored by the moment we're living in and the moment is colored by the songs that we hear."

During the pandemic, Goldsmith has kept up with writing music, though he's not forcing it. "I don't want to push it, you know," he said. "I used to be one of those guys that's like, 'Well, I have to keep writing to make sure that the muscle still works.' And I've really turned a corner on that. Now I'm more of the opinion that, if I'm not writing, it's for a reason, and I should honor that. And typically that might mean that something good'll come out of it ten months or a year down the road."

One such unplanned moment was Dawes' renowned cover of Warren Zevon's "Desperados Under the Eaves" on one of the last episodes of Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman spoke about his deep friendship with the late Zevon, who Goldsmith is in his own words obsessed with, and Goldsmith said it was incredibly emotional for everyone involved. "It was overwhelming, and it was a true honor. It felt like a sacred experience between, you know, two people that truly loved each other, and me feeling the way that I do not only about Zevon but that song especially was one of the coolest moments for the band."

Good Luck With Whatever is set to release on October 2, 2020.

Songs Performed

01:05 Who Do You Think You're Talking To?
10:05 St. Augustine at Night
23:58 Crack the Case

Credits

Hosted by Mac Wilson
Engineered by Eric Romani
Produced by Jesse Wiza
Article by Iman Jafri