by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)

Camp Counselor is the nom-de-plume of St. Louis songwriter Mickey Yacyshyn who creates music somewhere between twee and lo-fi bedroom pop. Having released their debut EP, Rose Ceremony, back in 2017, Yacyshyn is ready to release another EP, Scabs, due out January 15th via It Takes Time Records (Space Mountain, Squirrel Flower, Russel The Leaf). Their songs are personal and bare, with an emotional tone that never hides itself in production or abstraction on an EP that deals with “letting your wounds heal and leaving behind the ones you no longer need.” We all pick scabs from time to time, but it's always best to let them mend in due time.

Lead single “Cotton Mouth” most definitely captures Yacyshyn with their heart on their sleeve, but there’s also a groove to it, one that toes the line just between sunshine pop, mechanical pulse, and ominous lo-fi noise. The vocals bounce between clean and effected as the verses lead into warped hooks and the “white noise whispered in my ear” is in turn whispered back into ours. It’s a lovely bit of texture that breaks from the song’s simplicity to put a degree of unease into it, something to leave you just unsettled enough that you want to listen to it again, if only to dig deeper.