Flowers & Monks
by DM Stith
A year after Fata Morgana was released, DM Stith looks back at a special moment in his writing life, his song-writing settling into a classic confidence. His third solo album, and first working with producer Thomas Bartlett (Yoko Ono, Florence + the Machine, St. Vincent) reveals a confident songwriter, grounded yet still authentically mystic.
In the words of Michael Stipe, “DM Stith whispers with hypnotic, bone-deep authenticity, somewhere between Nina Simone, Perfume Genius, PJ Harvey and Leonard Cohen.”
“Flowers & Monks” collects 3 additional songs from that period as well as a rearranged and orchestrated take on Fata Morgana standout “The Oracle“, evidence that this truly was a fertile moment in which his songs grew as naturally as grass.
Watch it here.
Dodges and Feints
co-written & co-directed by Kelly Robinson & Mathew Baynton
music by DM Stith
From the artists:
Kelly Robinson and Mathew Baynton
We’ve been fans of David from the opening seconds of his debut album Heavy Ghost and have followed him ever since. We met the day after he played his last London show at King’s Place in 2022. We found we were kindred spirits and the idea of working on a video together came up in that very first conversation.
Fata Morgana is some of his best work yet and, though the album is full of standout tracks, something about the energy of ‘Dodges & Feints’ appealed to us to work with.
The song is full of propulsive motion and we started to dream around how this might manifest visually.
We talked about early examples of the moving image, like Eadweard Muybridge’s pioneering experiments and the first films by W.K. Dickson. We also thought about Bill Viola’s work in slow motion, the uncanny sense of movement arrested and scrutinised. Initially presuming we would have to shoot separate elements to David, we conceived an idea of projecting his face onto a figure under a sheet, inspired in part by some of Ken Currie’s work. Though it was subsequently possible to shoot with David here in the UK, the image stuck. Finally, we kept returning to the lyrics, the invocation of children’s games, hide and seek, tag.
Ultimately, the concept blended all of these things: David caught in a perpetual game with a figure under a sheet, a figure that turns out to be himself. The final twist came when David suggested that Mathew be in the video too, an idea that unlocked more readings. Who are these men to each other? Lovers? Enemies? Two sides of the same person? We hope people enjoy the video and, most of all, if they haven’t heard David’s music before, we hope it might be a gateway to discovering more of his incredible catalogue.
DM Stith
We met up at a pub near King’s Place where I had played a show the night before, performing the songs on Fata Morgana in front of an audience for the first time. (For me, a primary goal of that record was entirely unrelated to reception, critical or commercial — I’d always written songs primarily built to exist in headphones, for private listening. With this album, I wanted to disrupt that habit by making sure the guitar and vocal parts were simple enough to play by myself, alone on stage in front of an audience.
It sounds obvious – this is how most folk music is composed, however complex the final recordings end up being, a song is the main course.) Playing those songs for the first time after submitting the album to mixing and mastering meant the fulfillment of a goal I’d been eyeing for most of my career, and it was in that envelope of bliss that I met Kelly and Mat.
So it’s natural, then, that Kelly and Mat’s invitation to be physically in the music, me, myself, on a black stage, reduced to black and white, should feel so correct to me. They developed a concept around this elemental figure of fabric in air, ghostlike but common, sending me test shots from their home in London. In the end we’ve captured the moment of “aha” in a game of hide and seek, the hunter frozen before the strike, the hunted deploying their flourish to allow for escape.
Credits
Director Mathew Baynton
@matbaynton
Director Kelly Robinson
@kellyrobinsonofficial
Producer Martina Amoretti
@ma_rtina_amo
Director of Photography Domizia Salusest
@domisalu
Editor Tamsin Jeffrey
@tijjfilmed
1st AC/DIT Isaac Bokoko
@kokes_tv
Gaffer David Moga
@david_moga13
Production Assistant
Youssef Nasra
Gaffer David Moga
@david_moga13
Production Assistant Youssef Nasra
Spark/Production Assistant Cadence Jade Dela Cruz
@cadence.jjade
Spark/Production Assistant
Cadence Jade Dela Cruz
@cadence.jjade
Thanks to:
Residence Pictures
@residencepics
Big Creative Education
@we.are.bce
& Fully Focussed – MYM
@ukfullyfocused
…and to Rosa Powlowski & Alexis Michaelides
Listen
Lyrics
The Oracle
Time is not an arrow
Time is a grenade and
You’re holding it the wrong way
Feels like moving backwards
Even as you stand in place
Oh, ask the oracle anything
How will I know
How will I know
How will I know
How will I know
A fair fight is a fair fight
Almost, but not quite
So what do I do
What do I do
What do I do
What do I do now
You become a superstition
A symbol of regret
A stone we kiss to make a wish
Permission to forget
And you click your heels together
Have you even tried that yet
You had lightning in a bottle and
A promise to collect
At least that’s what you thought it meant
In a circuit-guided vessel
Retracing your mistakes
Every day is the same day
On a merry go round
merry go round
merry go round
merry go round
Just holding it down
Holding it down
Holding it down
Holding it down
You become a superstition
A symbol of regret
A stone we kiss to make a wish
Permission to forget
And you click your heels together
Have you even tried that yet
You had lightning in a bottle and
A promise to collect
At least that’s what you thought it meant
Time is not an arrow
Time is a grenade and
You’re holding it the wrong way
______
Written by DM Stith and Thomas Bartlett
Viola by Marla Hansen
All other instruments performed by DM and Thomas
In Flowers
Words don’t drop me know
I am wrapped up in cross words and telephone wires
And I have shut myself up in
The smallest apartment I could find in upstate New York
Boy, where have I been
Up to my knees in
Up to my knees in
Up to my knees
In Flowers
Turn me inside out
Inside out
Old man failed the draft
Peerless and powerless
Just stay still
Just stay still
Just stay still
Fell too far to laugh
Stuck in the briar patch
Just stay still
Just stay still
Just stay still
Out of my hair you built your nest
How do I ask you for forgiveness
As sudden as summer ends
Flushed with the lilacs and
Just stay still
Just stay still
Just stay still
And i’ll never understand
I’m a-flop on dry land
Just stay still
Just stay still
Just stay still
Gathering up my pile of sand
How do I ask you for forgiveness
Words don’t drop me know
I am wrapped up in cross words and telephone wires
And I have shut myself up in
The smallest apartment I could find in upstate New York
Boy, where have I been
Up to my knees in
Up to my knees in
Up to my knees
In Flowers
______
Written and performed by DM Stith and Thomas Bartlett
Inchworm
Something’s in the air
Trying to peddle down
All that beauty
Falling down on you
Reaching my toes
Nothing below
Purple bruise is looking good today
Can you feel it change
Reaching my toes
Nothing below
Reaching my toes
Nothing below
______
Written and performed by DM Stith and Thomas Bartlett
Fiery Burning Monks
The vents are humming like monks
Wreathing incense over
Two statues in a stone sedan
AC coming on
I put you there
You’re a vision in my blood
To keep you there
You’re a vision in my blood
After the fireworks fell
And we set off home
My hand smoothed your hair
Just to say hello
Heaven waves
Sighing through the night
Hello
______
Written and performed by DM Stith and Thomas Bartlett
About DM Stith
DM Stith’s unique voice bridges, in seemingly effortless ways, the expanse between quailing sadness and featherlight joy. A singer-songwriter and visual artist currently living in Rochester, New York, Stith has explored his expressive range on a variety of projects including three solo albums (Heavy Ghost, Pigeonheart, and 2023’s Fata Morgana), a full album collaboration with John Mark Lapham of The Earlies (The Revival Hour’s Scorpio Little Devil), two orchestral song cycles with composers Sarah Kirkland Snider (Unremembered) and Judd Greenstein (My City), as well as a slew of collaborations with Son Lux, My Brightest Diamond and Sufjan Stevens.
As a visual artist, Stith follows the same roaming interior curiosity through pencil, ink and watercolor, forming maps of an intriguing austere topography.
“…Stith creates musical friction in a way that’s brilliantly compelling… shimmering with impressionistic beauty.”
– The Guardian
“Stith orchestrates lush, pitch-dark soundscapes that writhe under his religion-provoked introversion.”
– A.V. Club
“There’s a time between sleeping and waking that’s occupied by DM Stith – weaving our sleep with hypnotic spells, wild chorals, plucked strings and primitive keys.”
– N.M.E.
