Dimples

The bicoastal duo of Greg Hartunian (West) and Colby Nathan (East) have made music together for 15 years. For their third and most focused full length, Dimples displays that they are anything but spring chickies. Past injuries leave scars, old flames leave burns, and memories are little more mental syrup on a midnight sundae.

Obscure Residue stays true to Dimples’ bittersweet off-the-cuff pop sound while pushing the tempo up a bpm or two, honing in their codeine dream melodies with orchestral arrangements. Psychedelic lyrics reflect on the movement of time, the choices we make, the distractions we face, and the scars we bear. The humor is subtle, but ever-present - cherished, not precious. Nowhere is this more clear than on “Passage of Time,” the most elemental and stripped down track of the album. Nathan’s voice accompanied by the guitar delivers a personal and resonant message, stating: “Open up/you may get burned/But keep shut/And never even get a turn…There’s no easing the passage of time.”

Dimples’ songs comment on the psychic clutter that we collect, filter, and then retain or abandon throughout our lives - be it by choice, chance, or circumstance. This clutter can be physical, too - as experienced during Dimples live performances. Nathan typically performs alone in an evermounting pile of nostalgic detritus. He uses elements of the recorded materials while mixing in real time cacophonous loops, projections of deeply layered video collage, mutating outfits, and interactive set designs. One can see him smirking as he folds himself into the canvas of light and freak accident.

Hartunian prefers tending his desert garden over performing live. He chooses instead to paint a world of his own design. These paintings, utilized for Dimples’ album artwork and incorporated into the live projections, display surreal worlds that act as shelter for these strange pop songs.

For a band more familiar with questions than answers, Dimples share some glimpses of wisdom that time bestows. “No room in the heart for always fretting over what might have been/With this ten minutes/Or that left turn…I shoulda known it would be no good/But I didn’t.” Cheeky lyrics reflect that wisdom lies in the acceptance of ignorance and how it sculpts perception.

“I feel like we’re always really searching for some kind of cosmic sense of humor. Like there should always be something sort of funny or odd happening,” reflects Nathan, “that’s what we like the most.”