{"id":225554,"date":"2026-03-18T17:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225554\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T17:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:39:09","slug":"years-around-the-sun-aims-for-transcendent-beauty-in-new-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/225554\/","title":{"rendered":"Years Around The Sun aims for \u2018transcendent’ beauty in new album"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Two<\/a>L-R, Ronnie Dudek and Dylan Raasch of the songwriting duo Years Around the Sun. (Photo courtesy of Dudek) <\/p>\n

At a party in 2004, Ronnie Dudek saw Dylan Raasch, a bassist who was playing in bands within his friend circle. Dudek didn\u2019t know Raasch, but when he saw him play music he knew he wanted to create with him. So Dudek picked up a guitar and started to play a song by The Shins at the party.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[I was] Definitely trying to get his attention, which it did,\u201d Dudek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raasch immediately picked up on the tune and they started talking about music. They exchanged phone numbers and soon began writing music together. Since then the duo, which came to be known as Years Around The Sun<\/a>, have self-released three albums and are set to release their fourth, \u201cThe Other Side of Sound,\u201d on March 20.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Years Around the Sun started gaining notoriety when their music began appearing in surf films. Their drummer at the time, Chris Cote, was editor-in-chief at TransWorld SURF, connecting them with surf filmmakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Notably, award-winning filmmaker Taylor Steele \u2014 whose surf films gave early exposure to major artists like Blink-182<\/a> and Jack Johnson<\/a> \u2014 put their music in his film \u201cSipping Jetstreams\u201d in 2006. Steele then asked Dudek and Raasch to create the soundtrack of his 2010 film \u201cCastles In The Sky,\u201d featuring surfers like Dane Reynolds, Rob Machado, Craig Anderson and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a difficult challenge, but one we jumped at and it was an incredible experience,\u201d Raasch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From that project came the song \u201cMiles Away<\/a>.\u201d The track \u2014 which remains their most streamed song on Spotify \u2014 earned them an audience outside of San Diego.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really changed the trajectory of Years Around The Sun,\u201d Raasch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After \u201cCastles In The Sky,\u201d the indie rock band finished up another record in 2012 over Skype as Raasch took a job in Portland designing shoes for Nike.<\/p>\n

However, it didn\u2019t change how the two collaborated much. For Raasch it\u2019s always been the same push and pull when it came to creating Years Around The Sun records with Dudek.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now both go off for a while, work on another project, and come back and usually surprise each other,\u201d Raasch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019 the band started floating ideas for music again but this time Dudek\u2019s career took off in virtual event planning. It wasn\u2019t until 2022 that they finally worked together on a new song and the lead single off their upcoming album. The song, \u201cThose Days Are Gone,\u201d is a meditation on time passing and ultimately the change that occurs from loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After releasing \u201cThose Days Are Gone\u201d in 2023, Raasch and Dudek started presenting each other with ideas for more songs. The longtime creative partnership brings the best out of both artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Other Side of Sound\u201d spans 11 tracks, and like its lead single is more reflective than past releases by the band. For Raasch, that meditative sound, which is carried by various keys and synths and Dudek\u2019s vocals, is directly correlated with his season of life. Since having a daughter, Raasch has used the songwriting process to capture a feeling he describes as \u201ctranscendent sentimental beauty\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little hard to describe, but I have a feeling that I quite often find myself trying to capture,\u201d Raasch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said that feeling is directly correlated to his early days of music discovery. Music has an uncanny ability to transport someone back into a moment, whether it be to childhood, a painful time or a period of euphoria. Songs leave an impression that lasts a lifetime. Raasch wants to capture that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNot that I\u2019m always in that state of mind, but when I am, I immediately sit down to write in an attempt to capture that feeling,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The record is much more sonically open because of this. The guitar solo drenched in delay effects on the track \u201cKnow One\u201d bottles the essence of \u201ctranscendent sentimental beauty.\u201d Dudek\u2019s vocals and lyrics capture it as well \u2014 the chorus repeats things he and the subject of the song can do together, like sunbathe, kiss, laugh, drink and sleep late.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dudek said he\u2019s found in his songwriting process a way to cope with losses \u2014 particularly\u00a0 losing his father to cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of musical therapy,\u201d Dudek said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even as Dudek confronts this loss in his songwriting, creating music is still a viable distraction from the reality of losing someone you love.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting words to those feelings for me is really difficult to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I find it way easier to put it in a song.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album is steeped in all these things and more, but can be boiled down to a reflection on the crushing beauty of the human experience. Despite living on different continents with Raasch now in Amsterdam \u2014 Years Around The Sun remains dedicated to their attempt to distill loss and love in their music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dudek will perform Years Around The Sun songs alongside a full band at the Casbah on April 8.<\/a><\/p>\n

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