YAWN’S (JULIA MCDOUGALL) DEBUT LP, WISH I COULD’VE OUT JUNE 13, 2025
LISTEN / SHARE “COLOURED LIGHTS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “COLOURED LIGHTS” HERE
TOUR DATES BEGIN JUNE 18
Photo Credit : Eleni Nikoletsos // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Julia McDougall’s project Yawn unites her far-ranging sensibilities into a supercharged core of misty dream-pop and electronic haze. Today, she shares the latest single from her upcoming debut LP, wish i could’ve, out June 13. “coloured lights” is a “party song for existentialists,” says McDougall. “It’s a song dedicated to the lonely and the weary, for everyone who’s ever wondered if they might always be alone—even in a crowd.
“In the song we meet some familiar characters at a party; the loud guy joking and telling stories on the balcony with a lit cigarette in his hand, the best friend who knows something is wrong. Ultimately, we realize that some things never really find a resolution - you can be left questioning the same things forever and sometimes there’s nothing else you can do but dance.”
LISTEN / SHARE “COLOURED LIGHTS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “COLOURED LIGHTS” HERE
MORE ABOUT YAWN + WISH I COULD’VE
For the past several years, McDougall has been holed away working on her debut record for Yawn; what’s come out of the clouds are twelve carefully crafted songs that have been developed as inspiration struck from all around her. With a composition degree from Simon Fraser University and a mainstay presence in underground venues and festivals across Western Canada, McDougall’s intricately-layered pop stylings emerge in stories of longing, nostalgia, loss, and hope.
Primarily produced by Jo Hirabayashi (Jo Passed), wish i could’ve is a record about getting older, about losing track of dreams, and being met with feelings of futility and failure. It’s a record about wanting more but not getting it, about loving and losing people, how we move forward, how some feelings never leave us, and how more often than not in life there is no tidy resolution. “I like to write songs that pin down all the feelings that are left floating around, the ones that, even years later, we can’t really make sense of,” McDougall writes. And while many of the songs touch on heavier subject matters, there is still room for lightness and humour in her work.
WATCH / SHARE “HELP MYSELF” HERE
BUY / STREAM “HELP MYSELF” HERE
wish i could’ve is a record that was made to make you simultaneously laugh, cry, sway and dance and it holds a universality that reaches out and holds the listener’s hand. Amongst this panorama of emotion is McDougall’s distinct voice, laid out across Yawn’s spectrum of melodies as the melancholic heart of the project. With cues from Beach House, Haim, Mitski and Caroline Polacheck, Yawn’s sound and vision will linger with you like fog on a spring morning, lifting with the heat of the sun to reveal the buds finally opening.
LISTEN / SHARE “BROKEN BABY” HERE
BUY / STREAM “BROKEN BABY” HERE
TOUR DATES
Jun 18 - Cumberland, BC - The Green Room
Jun 19 - Nanaimo, BC - The Vault
Jun 21 - Vancouver, BC - Green Auto
Jun 27 - Wells, BC - Artswells
WISH I COULD’VE TRACKLIST
01 help myself
02 broken baby
03 coloured light
04 wish i could’ve
05 you & i
06 let it all go
07 i deserve better
08 wading in the water
09 back in my head
10 world is burning
11 wasting time
12 take your time