Featured Release

Optimist Breakfast

Dean Batten


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After "Aries", Dean was a bit spent. Burned out. Over it. Enter then a long period of self-reflection, growth and inner-healing. Dean began embracing aspects of himself he'd been afraid to accept, such as how much he likes and is influenced by 60's alt-country and folk music. Subsequently, Dean agreed with himself to just write what he feels like writing in the moment and stop hyper-analyzing everything to try and win "cool" points with indie kids. The result was a whole big bag of songs with a variety of comingling styles. He went in for some recording time on Music Row at Kent Wells Productions with engineer Kevin Willis, and sat in his home studio some more after those initial sessions, producing the twelve tracks on the new album "Optimist Breakfast", as follows: Fear Your Death One Dollar Ring The Quiet Sounds of Sewing Roger McClain Praying Sweet Virginia (Comes Again) Dennis Ira Magdelena Shudders If You Can't Be Good (Be Careful) Madison Avenue Would You Like to Come In?

The album is comprised entirely of live takes, performed alone with an acoustic guitar and harmonicas on a neck rack. There is no pitch-correction or "punching-in" on this album. This same batch of songs will be given the full-band treatment on "Pessimist Lunch", to be recorded late-spring of 2023 and a live-album entitled "Realist Supper", to be recorded at a show later this year.

1

Fear Your Death 3:14

0:00/3:14
2

One Dollar Ring 3:11

0:00/3:11
3

The Quiet Sounds of Sewing 4:02

0:00/4:02
4

Roger McClain 4:58

0:00/4:58
5

Praying 3:36

0:00/3:36
6

Sweet Virginia (Comes Again) 3:30

0:00/3:30
7

Dennis 6:52

0:00/6:52
8

Ira 2:15

0:00/2:15
9

Magdalena Shudders 3:54

0:00/3:54
10

If You Can't Be Good (Be Careful) 2:48

0:00/2:48
11

Madison Avenue 4:29

0:00/4:29
12

Would You Like To Come In? 4:11

0:00/4:11

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY

DEAN'S FULL GASTRAL TRAVELIN' EPISODE

Dean Batten Unplugged on Gastral Sessions

Dean rode his motorcycle down to Port Orange, Florida, for a chat, some good food and some music with the Gastral Travelin' podcast crew. Laughs were had, champagne was consumed and a good time was had by all. This video shows Dean's performances of "Would You Like to Come In?", "The Quiet Sounds of Sewing" and Matthew Fowler's song "Marianne", live in the podcast studio.

INDIEOCLOCK! BRAZIL REVIEW

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Given to rock interview

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Mystic sons interview

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Dean's Super Manly Diary (Blog)

Optimist Breakfast, Pessimist Lunch & Realist Supper - A Preview via Retrospective

If you want to understand the music I'm making now, compare it to Aries and the answer may become clear to you.

I've written and talked and sung about my struggle with depression and suicide ad nauseum. When I…

Still Breathing - a short tips tour retrospective

It's Dec. 12, 2022. 122222. I'm back home after a second week-long run up to Nashville through Alabama. The first one, in November, went pretty well. I managed to pick up enough spontaneous tips-gigs in coffee shops to keep eating…

How I Wrote "Dennis"

With many things, the reality is a bit more involved than we're ever quite able to reduce into language.

It's a conundrum that's confounded linguists and philosophers of language since those disciplines began to develop in earnest - my personal…

How I Wrote "The Quiet Sounds of Sewing"

My grandmother died unexpectedly.

I was living in Los Angeles. It was 2019. I woke up one afternoon, checked my phone and saw multiple missed calls, a voicemail and a text saying "please call me when you wake up", all…

How I Wrote "The Favor"

2018.

I'd just spent the last year or so pulling my hair out trying to finish Aries, a task I wouldn't complete for about two years yet. I'd also spent the last year or so pulling more of my…

How I Wrote "Sky Pink"

Things got weird in 2020, as we all remember. For me personally, that meant added complications for my then-long distance relationship with Alexis back in Florida, because I was still living in LA. I found myself hanging out in Florida…

How I wrote "Let 'Em Bleed"

I was walking around the guest bedroom of my mom's house in Florida, on a short trip back home while I was still living in LA. I had a small coffee shop gig the next morning at Gold Leaf and…