CRASH by Davy Drones

What people are saying about CRASH

"Davy Drones, whose new album Crash is more than just homage to classic noisegaze artists like APTBS and Spectres, but takes the lessons learned and builds anew from their foundations." - DKFM

"This is SO GOOD. It's like Al Jourgensen joined A Place to Bury Strangers, with a dash of Battle Tapes and Big Black Delta. Beautifully noisy, like it should be." - WizFan


Liner Notes:

“This is a journey into sound”…those words uttered by Geoffrey Sumner back in 1958 that has been sampled countless times since it was recorded are in the back of my mind every time I listen to a new soundscape. So it was with great pride when DVYDRNS asked me to wax poetic on his official release, because I was looking forward to a new journey.

Granted I know DVYDRNS by his real moniker and I even know the rest of the DRNS family. As with many things, it’s somewhat interesting to understand the context of where something begins, the impetus if you will, but you don’t necessarily want to spoil the complete mystery of where art originates. I will do my humble best to keep this narrative down to the bare essentials and let you, the listener, glean your own musings.

I’m always fascinated by Jim Morrison’s quote “Let me tell you about heartache and the loss of god”. It truly sums up in eleven words a significant amount of loss and pain a human endures at various aspects of their lives and the decisions one makes base off of that feeling. This album is born out of those broken hearts and bad decisions, but also out of genuine creativity, laughter, and musical exploration when rebuilding one’s life. I recall the bare bones of this project first germinating when I went to visit DVYDRNS at the now defunct Soundland Studios (RIP) in Auburn. CA. His divorce was finalizing and it was time to rebuild, so there was a lot of bourbon to drink, a lot of vinyl to play, a radio show to participate in (RIP Subterranean University), and an analysis of what he had already been producing, such as his work with Ming and Ping, and DEKADES. We chased down our favorite band of the past 15 years, A Place to Bury Strangers, to see gigs in Santa Cruz and Sacramento. We made plans to finally see our industrial heroes of Wax Trax Records at the Cold Waves Festival in Chicago (and have hit three of those festivals since). I hammered out some weird sounds on a drum machine and learned about mixing. We started and stopped a podcast…three times now! We just lived, ate, and breathed music. Pretty much still do.

DVY took that week of just pure musical delving and went to Europe with it to explore history and make new music. What an influence that turned out to be…he was there for the Paris bombings in 2015. Subsequent world and personal events have continued to influence this album. We continue to discuss ideas, words, sounds, every time we get together, but it took a global pandemic and quarantine to finally finish. A soundtrack for the apocalypse? Depends on your definition of apocalypse. After a long time coming, it’s now in your hands.

Now, the songs.

CAR CRASH – Based on actual events (yes, the inspiration truly was born in a car crash), Car Crash went from garage punk quickie to multi-layered sonic assault over the course of recording and mastering. (An early version can be found online if you look hard enough). The album version takes you on a sonic collision along with the protagonist. We may or not make it before the song is over, we are in a virtual crash in all the best ways possible.

BBC – Reminiscent of Jesus and the Mary Chain doing their Jan and Dean vibe, this is a distorted shoegaze hook that is just a gift that keeps on giving until it leads into KAMIKAZE, that takes that JAMC vibe up a few more notches. I’m allowed to note the JAMC influence here because that is exactly what DVYDRNS will admit to in all our conversations.

We take it down a bit with GLASS, one of my favorite tracks that finishes “side one” (I’m still hoping for a vinyl release). It feels like it could fit well on a score ala Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ recent work. I actually wish this track was longer. There is a lot of nuanced mixing that ends just as we discover it.

TV SKY is about the closest you’ll hear to the melancholy that originally bred this album. The loneliness, the longing, is all there. This strikes me as not just any one influence, but ALL of them. By Influence, I mean significant others, the Achilles’ Heel of many an artist.

KELLY ANNE is probably the oldest idea on this album in terms of its subject matter and a great lesson in using music as a catharsis for addressing whatever it is the artist needs to get out of their system. Though it has since evolved into a great distortion heavy piece, its pop melody and punk pace would fit just as well on a Ramones album.

DECADE – This is my favorite track on the album, because as much as other tracks embrace the effects pedals and white noise, this song is a lesson in restraint. It’s as if the long lost love child between the Cure and Joy Division was the muse that bequeathed this song to DVYDRNS. Beyond homage….very much a successor.

Of course you cannot close an album called CRASH without having a track called CRASH and essentially asking your listener to embrace that sound.

FLY ON THE WINDSCREEN – a cover from the greatest Depeche Mode album ever (that’s right Music for the Masses and Songs of Faith and Devotion fans, I said it), the very DNA of this song not only bookends nicely with Car Crash, and the overall aesthetic of CRASH but harkens back to the overall journey of DVYDRNS himself…Black Celebration is the first album he recalls buying with his own money and it still continues to inspire him. How is that for heritage?



- Aaron Cooper – Phoenix, AZ 2020



“Aaron Cooper’s biggest claim to fame is knowing DVYDRNS for over 25 years and getting a one-time 3-hour stint on Subterranean University with him on KFOK 95.1 FM. He may or may not have created some drum and effect samples on this album. We may never know. When he is not opining on his friends or anyone else’s music, he works a relatively interesting white collar gig that allows the regular pursuit of musical outlets, vinyl records, and raising a family. You decide the order.”




Thank You

To the People who Supported
Believed in & Inspired this record


My Family
Oliver Ackermann
Paul Barker
Josh Benton
Hud Bixler
Janelle Cordtz
Aaron Cooper
Gina Duran
Robi Gonzales
Joanna Hubbard
Dion Lunadon
Peter Post
Christopher Allen Poe
Bao Vo
90's Internet Chat



From Davy: This album was recorded and mixed the way it sounds. Its Not You. Its Me. Turn it up.

noisy synth and guitar shoe-gaze pop chaos from portland.

davypelletier.com