About this item

'Surprise Wish' is the sophomore album from Burlington, Vermont indie-rock project Dari Bay and the band’s first release for Double Double Whammy. Following the cult-favorite debut 'Longest Day of the Year' (2023), songwriter Zack James sharpens the project’s sound into something more immediate and visceral: scuzzy guitars, hypnotic rhythms, and conversational vocals that feel both intimate and unguarded. Raised in Brattleboro, Vermont in a musical family, James has spent years immersed in the region’s DIY scene - playing with artists like Lily Seabird and Greg Freeman, writing in the band Robber Robber, and touring as a member of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. With Surprise Wish, he distills that experience into his most focused songwriting yet. Written largely alone over the course of a year while James finished college and balanced multiple projects, the album embraces a raw, homespun approach. Rather than chasing genre aesthetics, James leaned into instinct and immediacy, building songs around ideas that arrived suddenly and refused to leave. The result is a record that blends ’90s alt-rock, indie, and slacker rock into something both familiar and newly restless. Across its nine songs, 'Surprise Wish' captures the strange emotional terrain of young adulthood - a life shaped by the internet, isolation, friendship, near-disasters, and flashes of fragile hope. Tracks like the fuzzed-out rocker 'The Joke', the spiraling character study 'Chevy', and the cathartic single 'We’re Gonna Be Okay' pair distorted guitars with lyrics that feel searching, self-aware, and quietly funny. At once scrappy and assured, Surprise Wish is a portrait of a person coming into being.

TRACK LISTING

1. Finder
2. Video
3. Chevy
4. The Joke
5. How Can You Tell
6. We’re Gonna Be Ok
7. On Your Side
8. Bet On The Feeling
9. Background