A songwriter based in North Carolina, Django Haskins has fronted the pop-noir band, The Old Ceremony, since 2004. He also forms one half of the psych-folk duo Au Pair with the Jayhawks' Gary Louris. He has toured. He has been written about. In 2016 he received the NC Arts Council's Artist Grant in recognition of his extensive creative exertions. He has been a part of the traveling circus known as Big Star's Third since its inception in 2011. He has released a thirteen albums of his songs in various guises.

SHADOWLAWN began as a series of experimental recordings in his newly built studio, and eventually evolved into a kind of late-summer song cycle full of meditations on death, love, fear, wanderlust, and exploration of interior worlds. The 1966 Nancy Sinatra recording of "Bang Bang" and Angelo Badalamente's work with David Lynch provided sonic touchstones for the album, with their extensive use of negative space and simultaneously lush and spare atmospheres. As twenty-some songs were whittled down to eleven, banjo and baritone guitar alternated with piano in accompanying the unusually exposed vocals, leaving plenty of space for listeners to fill in the spaces with their own imagination.

In 2022, Haskins released a pair of self-produced EP’s, Beforetimes 1 & 2, which featured friends Syd Straw, Skylar Gudasz, Phil Cook, and Matt Douglas, bringing a feeling of community to the bedroom folk-pop songs.

Haskins has been writing a song a week since the onset of the pandemic, resulting in over 100 new songs and counting.

Lost World, out 7.27.23, is the first release of this pandemic body of work, and it’s also Django’s first collection of piano songs. He recorded alone at his Chapel Hill studio, Calvander Sound, bringing in old friend Matt Douglas (Mountain Goats) to add sax on one song, and doing some post-production with the dB’s Chris Stamey. Since the onset of the pandemic he has been writing a song a week as a way of continuing to develop creatively in the face of a complete shutdown of live performances. Even as the world is partially reopened, he’s kept up the practice, currently up to 115 new songs, and from these he selected a coherent group of eight piano songs to form LOST WORLD. The mood is dreamlike, ethereal, and melancholy, a reflection of that difficult period of time. Touchstones included the minimalist work of Erik Satie, the dark theatricality of Kurt Weill, Bill Evans’ harmonic painting, and Sinatra’s thematic albums of the Fifties. It is a record you can put on and sink into like a hot spring, watching the steam rise as you begin to float. 

Mortality and loss figure heavily in the lyrics, from “Lost World,” which explores the ways that we hold on to our own idealized personal golden ages, to “The Woodpecker,” in which a seeker arrives at their dream city only to find it long abandoned; to “I Dream of Cities,” where the singer “didn’t recognize my neighborhood/they’ve paved over the park.” In fact, the obituary pages provided inspiration for several songs, including “King of Hearts,” the story of a troubled street artist in downtown NYC; “Man in Sea,” a first-person tale of Charles Lindbergh’s surviving son who became a deep sea diver; and “Will There Be Time,” a meditation sparked by the story of late North Carolina architect Phil Freelon and his surviving family. And yet, there is an enveloping comfort in the melodies and soundscapes that balances the dark themes. 

News & Updates

Read the new INDY WEEK **** review of LOST WORLD, out 7.27.23!

New Single: The Woodpecker

NEW SINGLE: STRANGE BIRDS

Check out the new single, “Strange Birds,” about a lonely plague doctor. Stream it here:

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

NEW SOLO ALBUM IN THE WORKS! Django is wrapping up a new solo record, which includes sparkling guest appearances from some amazing friends: Skylar Gudasz, Phil Cook, Matt Douglas (Mountain Goats), Syd Straw, Chris Stamey. Stay tuned for release info!

Check out the official video for "Blink," the opening track from SHADOWLAWN!