Watch Dawes Debut New Songs ‘Surprise’ & ‘What It Takes’

Dawes landed in Ridgefield, Connecticut for a performance Tuesday night at The Ridgefield Playhouse. The audience was treated to the premiere of two new songs, “Surprise” and “What It Takes.”

“Surprise” was the first song to make its debut. Frontman/guitarist Taylor Goldsmith went acoustic for a solo rendering of the new tune to kick off the evening’s second set. Goldsmith remained onstage alone for a subsequent solo acoustic offering of “Million Dollar Bill,” which he recorded with his Middle Brother project that includes Deer Tick’s John McCauley III and Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez.

The rest of the band came out for the remainder of the set, kicking things off with “Ghost In The Machine,” a single off their expansive 2022 album, Misadventures of Doomscroller. The set progressed “The Way You Laugh” and “God Rest My Soul,” the latter of which Goldsmith noted was off their 2009 debut album, North Hills. Goldsmith introduced the next song, telling the audience:

“We can jump from that and go all the way to the newest song we have. This song has yet to be released into the world. If you don’t mind hearing a new one real quick? We’re doing something together tonight. I feel safe with you guys. I feel like this is the right place for a brand-new song.

If anyone’s familiar with the Leon Keys EP that Lee [Pardini] put out, I guess it’s a year or two ago, this might sound familiar to you. This song’s called ‘What It Takes.’”

“What It Takes” takes from Dawes’ keyboardist Lee Pardini’s Leon Keys instrumental track “Theme from “Lou”” and adds vocals sung by Goldsmith. Check it out below: