Listen: Yowler - "WTFK"

photo by Sam Split

Singer/songwriter Maryn Jones has kept herself busy over the years - a former member of Columbus folk pop outfit Saintseneca, Jones simultaneously recorded and released records as a part of Saintseneca, pop punk band all dogs, as well as debuting her solo project Yowler. Relocating from her native Columbus to Philly, Jones has now focused her efforts almost exclusively on Yowler and the result is a follow up to her beautiful debut The Offer. "WTFK", the first single from her upcoming sophomore album Black Dog In My Path, continues the synthier direction Jones started to explore at the tail end of her sparse debut. Jones demonstrated her multi-instrumentalism during her tenure with Saintseneca and "WTFK" finds Jones expanding her textural pallete: layering sounds in addition to Jones' standard guitar and bass skills. For Black Dog In My Path, Jones combines her wide breadth of instrumental talents with those of Swearin' Kyle Gilbridle who plays synths, percussion as well as doubles Jones' guitar and bass.

Yowler has always functioned as a quieter alternative to Jones' most boisterous musical affiliations and while "WTFK" luxuriates in Jones' characteristic introspective hush, it's delivered in decidedly poppier dressings. The result is a song whose hook laden delivery somewhat obscures the fact that Jones is singing about some rather dark subjects. On "WTFK", Jones' returns to the religious upbringing that she was reared in and wrestles with the notion of sin as an unavoidably human thing. And yet even as Jones' sings of how destructive it is - or rather the complete avoidance of it is - Jones sings from a place of spiritual growth. It's a song about embracing who you are - not what people tell you you are or who they want you to be. And though it's a direct result of the shame spiral that some are brought up in - Jones has made it out on the other side with a sense of poignant self-reflection and a positive outlook. 



Yowler's sophomore full length album Black Dog In My Path is out October 12th on Double Double Whammy. You can pre-order the record now.