Since the release of his self-titled 2022 effort, singer/songwriter Kramies has been drenched in acclaim and accolades. The landmark release introduced the world to the poetically passionate artist who has been bubbling just under the surface for years now. The gentle, eight-song project carried with both an air of whimsy and distraught, as Kramies blurs the lines between palpable emotions and fantasy as if it were something he was always meant to do.
We are now three years removed from Kramies’s breakthrough, and the artist has prepared another sonic fantasy for us to escape into. Today, the artist announces Goodbye Dreampop Troubador, the anticipated follow-up to the self-titled effort, set to be released on October 10. The title is symbolic, as Dreampop Troubador was a title given to Kramies amid all the adoration of his previous release. This release seems to hint at a new chapter for the artist, one lined with warping folk bliss that employs psychedelic tendencies to emphasize the longing that permeates through the artist’s lyrics. Goodbye Dreampop Troubador is seemingly here to break that mold, and Kramies isn’t making fans wait to see what he means.
“Hollywood Signs” is the first preview of the upcoming Kramies LP, and it is a beautifully moving piece of raw folk tinted with psych-rock tendencies. The lead single from Goodbye Dreampop Troubador (below) brings with it an atmosphere of remorse and acceptance, with Kramies taking us through a wild ride of a night filled with blinding neon signs and enough drugs to go around.
“‘Hollywood Signs’ was born from a surreal, cocaine-fueled storyline — an eruption of nostalgia, memory, and the need to create colliding together,” explains Kramies. “After the success of my last album, I slipped into a quiet, disoriented emotional fog, drained and disconnected. I had nothing left to pull from—until I let myself descend into a spiral. From that small bit of chaos came a new folkloric story, a new truth.” That truth is an acceptance of reality. Kramies seems to come out from the shadows he was hiding in with a new sense of artistic freedom, allowing a song like “Hollywood Nights” to flourish in all its nuances.
“This track—and the album it belongs to—was conjured from a fiery cauldron, dripping with the blood of witches and the weight of everything I was afraid to revisit and reveal,” continues Kramies. “This became the heart of ‘Hollywood Signs’ and the driving force behind my new album, which I believe is my best story told to date, a story which haunted me for two years. The song also marks a turning point, fueled by a transformative collaboration with producer Mario J. McNulty, whose work with my hero David Bowie and has left a lasting impression.”
“And oddly enough, ‘Hollywood Signs,’ as well as the rest of the album, marks not only a personal rebirth but also the first time in 20 years that I’ve written and recorded in the town where I was born,” says Kramies when asked about his upcoming album. “Which was not planned, just like everything else in my life. Odd, Strange, Beautiful, and forever Unforeseen”
