PREMIERE | BAYEM, "Malibu"

Serenity, sentimentality, sun & the sounds of BAYEM; cover art from the single “Malibu”.

If the unforgiving passages of time has taught us anything is that all we truly need in this life is one another. Specifically a certain someone that can turn rainy days into rays of sunshine, someone who meets bleak moments with a sense of comfort and commiseration, someone who can turn around the perils of destitution with a strong show of support, reversing the drain circling spirals into upward springs of transformative jubilation. These folks can transport us from being landlocked and engulfed within a bone chilling winter blizzard to the most gorgeous crests of the earth’s awe-inspiring edges that span across the Pacific Coast Highway. The power of an unmatched degree of affection can cause the cold winds of autumn to transform into a summer breeze that casts away the gloom to reveal warm sandy beaches as far as the eye can see.

Delivering seasons of sun to brighten up our sullen solstice is rising Indianapolis artist BAYEM with the debut for the California dreaming coastal cool of “Malibu”. Recently bringing the torch song suave of “No Regrets”, to the retro neon pop steeped maximalism on “Avalanche”; the artist ventures into the azure oceans of deep introspection on the enchantment found with an elevated empathetic connection. BAYEM turns the creative dial to the emotive expressions found on the AM stations that our mothers and fathers and their mothers and fathers were raised on. The wave streaked beaches of romantic sentiment are dearly blended with tightly crafted production reminiscent of post-disco dilettantes with a sophisticated, windswept, and sweetened atmosphere of fantastical futurism rooted in the retro modernist of the latter twentieth century.

Complete with visuals from Taylor Blythe and Absorb, BAYEM’s heartfelt balladry is brought to the brilliant heartbeats of life. The mystique of spending the day watching gulls and the ebb and flow of tides at El Matador State Beach can be seen through the lenses of an old Super 8 camera like the home tape highlight reels depicting the recorded scenes of nostalgic sentimentality. While it is all too easy to pine about those bygone days of yore, BAYEM presents a song that celebrates the supernaturality of how love can takes us to some of the most beautiful places on earth (both figuratively and literally).

Bringing us an unabashed full immersion of absolute summer as we begin to embark upon what feels like will be a very long, long winter; “Malibu” is a fever dream to remind us of those special people we all have in our lives, and those meaningful places that create memories to last multiple lifetimes. BAYEM introduces a sound, state of mind, and feeling that is more than the short sighted escapism that arrives from the reactive need of immediate dissociative diversions from trying situations at hand. Instead “Malibu” entertains the the ideas of manifesting the construct of a paradise on earth, places we can inhabit together with those rare angelic individuals that bring about a refuge from everything as the surrounding world melts away into the ether of a felicitous day spent beneath the beaming Southern California sun.

BAYEM shared the following reflective introductory meditations on the inspirations and influences of the song’s namesake, Malibu, and more:

“Malibu” is a track about the glow we feel when we’ve found that connection. Not just a flutter of seeing someone attractive, but the warmth that comes from vibing with someone special.

Traversing the coasts and canyons with BAYEM; photographed by Owen Thomas

“Malibu” was chosen as the comparison because standing on El Matador Beach as the sun sets feels like one of those wonders that reconnects you with your humanity.

“Malibu” will be available everywhere November 19.