Battling with chronic anxiety, Trevor Powers stood before a decision. A decision which may very well have been decisive of his entire future. Working on his debut album, the anxiety almost got the better of him and he went to see a counselor. But, with all struggling artists, his funds were soon drained. Trevor’s choice was either finishing the album he was working on, or continuos meetings with his counselor. He chose the album.

The Year of Hibernation was released in 2011 when Trevor Powers was only 22 years old. It’s often described as spell-bounding, dysphoric and minimalistic in all its glory. It’s indeed something unusual to come out of a 21 year old from Idaho with severe anxiety. Powers’ high voice resonates off that album like a kid trapped deep down in a cave, a voice crying out for help from a darkness surrounding him. It’s the atmosphere of the songs that make the music of Youth Lagoon so interesting. Music became a tool for Powers to replace the counseling he’d been seeking for the initial process of the album. An album where less is more’ is quite a befitting epithet.

The follow-up Wondrous Bughouse found Powers digging even deeper, exposing himself to an even greater extent than on his debut, which was pretty naked and raw to begin with. When his second world tour is making a stop in Stockholm on November 18th, Debaser Medis is bound to be captured by the alluring, dreamy electronic pop which Youth Lagoon has established, carried and conquered the world with ever since the debut in 2011. I’d say not being at the show tonight would be the biggest mistake you’d make this week.

Words by David Johansson