Dan Bejar’s prolific Destroyer project returns March 28 with its 14th album, Dan’s Boogie (Merge), which is led by the single “Bologna.” Bejar stars in its accompanying David Galloway–directed video, which also features Fiver’s Simone Schmidt.
“I haven’t written many songs like ‘Bologna,’” says Bejar. “I struggled singing the first and third verses — the most important parts of the song. They needed gravity and grit. The threat of disappearing needed to be real. So I called Simone.”
Bejar’s signature sense of wordplay is apparent even on the new album’s song titles, which include “The Ignoramus of Love,” “Hydroplaning Off the Edge of the World” and “Cataract Light.” The latter two songs were written after Bejar made a New Year’s resolution to practice the piano everyday for an hour — a conceit that he says only lasted about four days.
Musically, Dan’s Boogie bounces from piano balladry to fanciful, pop-tinged concoctions to moody songs with a cinematic flair. As for the album’s title, Bejar offers, “A boogie is a hustle. A scam that doesn’t quite work. The moves we make when we’re up against it. I think of spy work, double agents, sleeping with one eye open, an eye on the exits. But I also think of petty street-level victories and losses and improv.”
Destroyer will be on tour throughout February supporting Father John Misty on a run of dates beginning Feb. 13 in Atlanta. He will also perform at the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona in June.