Woodstock-based composer and multi-hyphenate Will Epstein shares “Dishwasher,” a bemused, existential ode to the household appliance as the third and final single from his new album ‘Yeah, Mostly,’ out this Friday, January 9, via Fat Possum. Epstein explains, “It was always glaring at me, taunting me, and I couldn’t get away from this feeling that I was living my life on its terms instead of the other way around. For months, every time I ran the dishwasher, I would be embroiled in utter befuddlement that it was time to stick the little pod in its hole and send my porcelain through the paces yet again. Didn’t I just do this?? The whole thing was causing a level of distress that my partner found both amusing and disconcerting and I myself started to wonder, is there something more going on here? Was it the passing of time that I couldn’t accept? Or the endless cleaning cycles, compulsively correct?” The sinuous, loping track follows lush and languid lead single “Brideshead Revisited Revisited” and the gentle September single “That’ll Be Me,” with Epstein celebrating the release at Brooklyn’s Nightclub 101 on January 13 and Los Angeles’s Healing Force of the Universe on January 22.
The 11 tracks on ‘Yeah, Mostly’ resemble a collection of short stories traversing a grandparent’s funeral, a newfound love of costume dramas, an ungodly cold night in Los Angeles, and other scenes that float in and around the rhythms of daily life, marking the most personal and self-assured album yet from Epstein, also known for his work under the moniker High Water and collaborations with Nicolás Jaar and Dave Harrington from Darkside. Recorded between July 2024 and January 2025 at Epstein’s home studio on an eight track tape machine with vocals sung live and unedited and minimal overdubs, the album’s warm, homespun quality owes much to the intimate setting of its creation, with Epstein noting, “A drop of music on an image can totally change the feeling and texture,” as his work composing for movies like the forthcoming documentary Joybubbles directed by Rachael J. Morrison, premiering next month at Sundance Film Festival, and his recent IDA Documentary Award-nominated score for Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV bleeds into his recent, more accessible work. Co-produced by Michael Coleman, who has worked with Cassandra Jenkins and Billie Marten and also provided additional guitar, synths, bass, and backing vocals, the album features contributions from Austin Vaughn who has played with Cass McCombs, Luke Temple, and Sam Evian, and Kenny Wollesen who has worked with Linda Thompson, Laurie Anderson, and Tomberlin on drums and percussion, Kurt Kotheimer from Cassandra Jenkins and Eli Crews from Tune-Yards on bass and co-engineering, and Zosha Warpeha from L’Rain and Big Thief on hardanger d’amore.