Youth Lagoon

Heaven Is A Junkyard (Fat Possum)

Contact Jacob Daneman about Youth Lagoon

Youth Lagoon — the beloved project of Trevor Powers — releases “The Sling,” a new single/video from his forthcoming album, Heaven Is a Junkyard, out June 9th on Fat Possum. “The Sling,” a song Powers refers to as “the album’s core,” is a ghostly and naked piano ballad. We hear each line like a voyeur peeping through a crack in the wall. “On a lonely street, children still play. Families still eat,” he sings. Heaven Is a Junkyard is a phrase Powers wrote down in his journal after watching a neighbor’s farmhouse catch fire. “I wasn’t even sure what those words meant at the time,” he says. “I’m not sure I still do.” But when the album’s title is heard at the end of “The Sling,” it feels substantial. “Heaven is a junkyard, and it’s my home,” sings Powers.

 

Of “The Sling,” Powers adds: “For years, I’ve been chasing a phantom. This feeling of an unseen world deep inside of me. It’s why I make music. I have a compulsion to understand myself. Or learn to love myself. Maybe that’s the same thing. I’ve been asked by multiple people to describe ‘The Sling’ — where does it come from? What does it mean? Every time I start an explanation, I contradict myself. I’d consider it a song about time. And love. That I can say with confidence. I wrote it one night I felt trapped. The next morning I was free.”

 

Throughout Heaven Is a Junkyard, Powers stitches together a lyrical style that feels both punk and western. With whispers of country, Heaven Is a Junkyard is mutant Americana in a world of love, drugs, storytelling, and miracles — held together by Powers’ voice and an upright piano. In Powers’ own words, “Heaven Is a Junkyard is about all of us. It’s stories of brothers leaving for war, drunk fathers learning to hug, mothers falling in love, neighbors stealing mail, cowboys doing drugs, friends skipping school, me crying in the bathtub, dogs catching rabbits, and children playing in tall grass.”

 

In 2016, Trevor Powers shut the door on Youth Lagoon. “I felt like I was in a chokehold,” he says. “Even though it was my music, I lost my way. In a lot of ways, I lost myself.” Following a series of health issues that left Powers unable to speak, he turned to text messages and a pen and paper as his only ways to communicate.  “I wasn’t sure if I’d ever be able to speak again, let alone sing,” he says. “It all felt symbolic in a way,” he adds. “I’d been swallowing fear all my life and now here it was coming back up.”

 

The growth that followed that nightmare narrowed Powers’ focus. Rather than writing about the world at large, he started writing about home. “Family, neighbors, and grim reapers,” laughs Powers. “I’ve always written about far away things, but the best material has been right in front of me this whole time in Idaho.” Recorded in six weeks with co-producer Rodaidh McDonald (The xx, Adele, Gil Scott-Heron), Heaven Is a Junkyard is a work of absolute devotion. A portrait of the God-haunted American West. And a reminder that there is always love in the tall grass.

VIDEO

Tour

  •  
    Jul 14, 2023
    Spokane, WA
    Lucky You

  •  
    Jul 15, 2023
    Bozeman, MT
    The Elm

  •  
    Jul 17, 2023
    Sioux Falls, SD
    Club David

  •  
    Jul 18, 2023
    Iowa City, IA
    Gabe's

  •  
    Jul 20, 2023
    Milwaukee, WI
    Cactus Club

  •  
    Jul 21, 2023
    Chicago, IL
    Pitchfork Music Festival

  •  
    Jul 22, 2023
    Louisville, KY
    The Whirling Tiger

  •  
    Jul 23, 2023
    St. Louis, MO
    Blueberry Hill

  •  
    Jul 25, 2023
    Kansas City, MO
    recordBar

  •  
    Jul 26, 2023
    Omaha, NE
    Slowdown

  •  
    Jul 28, 2023
    Ft. Collins, CO
    The Aggie

  •  
    Jul 29, 2023
    Boulder, CO
    Fox Theatre

  •  
    Jul 31, 2023
    Jackson Hole, WY
    Center for the Arts

  •  
    Sep 07, 2023
    Boise, ID
    Treefort Music Hall

  •  
    Sep 08, 2023
    Salt Lake City, UT
    Urban Lounge

  •  
    Sep 09, 2023
    Denver, CO
    Bluebird Theater

  •  
    Sep 11, 2023
    Minneapolis, MN
    Fine Line

  •  
    Sep 12, 2023
    Madison, WI
    High Noon Saloon

  •  
    Sep 15, 2023
    Detroit, MI
    El Club

  •  
    Sep 16, 2023
    Toronto, ON
    Horseshoe Tavern

  •  
    Sep 18, 2023
    Montreal, QC
    Theatre Fairmount

  •  
    Sep 19, 2023
    Boston, MA
    Sinclair

  •  
    Sep 20, 2023
    Brooklyn, NY
    Music Hall of Williamsburg

  •  
    Sep 22, 2023
    Philadelphia, PA
    First Unitarian Church

  •  
    Sep 23, 2023
    Washington, DC
    Union Stage

  •  
    Sep 25, 2023
    Durham, NC
    Motorco Music Hall

  •  
    Sep 26, 2023
    Atlanta, GA
    Aisle 5

  •  
    Sep 28, 2023
    Houston, TX
    White Oak Music Hall (Upstairs)

  •  
    Sep 29, 2023
    Austin, TX
    Antone's

  •  
    Sep 30, 2023
    Dallas, TX
    Trees

  •  
    Oct 02, 2023
    Santa Fe, NM
    Meow Wolf

  •  
    Oct 03, 2023
    Phoenix, AZ
    Crescent Ballroom

  •  
    Oct 04, 2023
    Santa Ana, CA
    Constellation Room

  •  
    Oct 06, 2023
    Los Angeles, CA
    Teragram Ballroom

  •  
    Oct 07, 2023
    San Francisco, CA
    Great American Music Hall

  •  
    Oct 09, 2023
    Portland, OR
    Mississippi Studios

  •  
    Oct 10, 2023
    Seattle, WA
    Neumos

  •  
    Oct 11, 2023
    Vancouver, BC
    Cobalt

  •  
    Oct 12, 2023
    Bellingham, WA
    Bellingham Exit