Download Keep Your Friends Close at the above link or on the homepage of this website!!! Wooooo, finally available. For free. For you. So happy to be able to say that.

Included in the .zip folder which should directly begin downloading is all songs from the record, a full lyric booklet, the front and back covers, special thanks inside panel, and creative credits inside panel.

The responses to the EP thus far have been incredible. I honestly can't thank my listeners enough. Please keep letting me know your feelings on it, please keep spreading it, and most of all, please keep listening to it. You rock for being here.

Keep Your Friends Close on Goodmusicallday
Keep Your Friends Close on Freshnewtracks
Keep Your Friends Close on The Kollection
Keep Your Friends Close on Camelbackmusic

With love, and onto the future.
Dylan

Sunday, January 22nd. Keep Your Friends Close comes out, for free, right here.

I'm laying on a cot not much higher than the floor, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, writing this blog instead of sleeping. Today I climbed a mountain with my friends. Up on top, we saw this city from a once-in-a-lifetime perspective, and watched the sunset. It was raining, but it was beautiful. We're in a good place.

A million miles away, there's a team of people working hard on a project that's been a long road in the making. Some in Goshen NY, some in Miami FL, some in Ithaca NY, some in Long Island, NYC, Colorado, Rhode Island, New Zealand, etc. The list goes on and on. Because I don't have a working phone here, I hustle back to my computer. Check updates on mixes, coordinate the release of a new promo video, continue blasting "January 22nd" on every social network I've got, align urgent audio files and bounce them, send text to a designer, etc. The list goes on and on. I finally fall asleep at 6am New York time and get up a couple hours later to do it again. Every night getting more and more excited.

Thematically, I'm not even surprised at myself. Ever since I first dedicated myself to creating and completing the Keep Your Friends Close EP, I feel like I haven't stopped running. From laying on the floor of Nico's basement this past summer to spontaneously recording at 5am over winter break, to heading out on a mini-tour to promote during my weekends at school, to adventures and new discoveries all throughout the course of KYFC. Juggling three semesters of college while making this badboy was intense, and I bet you did something similar, and have been on your own journey too. Well, deep breaths, coffee fixes and focus. Just mad focus. Thank god for my friends, my team, and every single one of you for listening, or else the conclusion of this wouldn't have been possible. I can't wait to hear what you think about these songs. January 22nd, it's coming. So then, be there. And be ready.

I'll be posting a link right on the home page of this site for you to directly download the EP on Sunday afternoon. There will also be a link on my facebook fan page. The download will consist of a .zip folder containing all associated files. You can also click Keep Your Friends Close facebook event and join this as a FB reminder the day of the event, if you'd like..

In addition, I will be posting all lyrics from songs on the EP on the LYRICS tab of this site sunday night as well. You can read along as you listen and even nod your head if you're feeling really wild. You can make a huge impact on the effect of this release by simply spreading this free project to your friends, your family, to a stranger that you've met, or anyone in the world that you'd like to. That's why it's free, for you to have that ability. Word of mouth really does make a big difference. And I will thank you and love you forever for your support. Promise.

The inside artwork will contain a list of the tremendous people who helped with this thing, but I'd like to give a special thanks to Nico Marchese, Devin Arne, Mike Falb, Tom Flynn, Joe Owen, Kia Rogers, DJ Grumble, Pat Capriglione, and Eric Ko for their help these past couple weeks with finalizing the project. You guys killed it. In a really good way.

With love, see you guys all Sunday night.

Till then,
Dylan

If I could put the past year and a half of my life into the form a letter, it wouldn't be something I could simply write and deliver. Here's a sneak preview of those thoughts, as I journey to mail them to an old friend. It's been a long and dusty trip, but I'm glad I can finally say the "Keep Your Friends Close" EP is on its way. Much love and thanks to everybody who has supported me thus far, this is just the beginning.

Around the same time a fake doctor cured me of my senioritis...

With love,
-dylan.
http://www.facebook.com/dylanowenmusic

Directed by Isaac Green
http://www.facebook.com/isaacshoots
http://isaachughes.com/

"Keep Your Friends Close"
The first release off my upcoming new EP.

Written and Performed by Dylan Owen
Produced by Nico Marchese
Music by Nico Marchese, Joe Owen
Engineered by Devin Arne
Keep Your Friends Close EP, 2011
Inspired by the coldest breakup season of my life

This time last year, I took my red velvet seat in Psychology 101, held in Cornell University's Bailey Hall, along with 1200 other new students.

This Friday night, September 16th, in Cornell's Bailey Hall, I'm performing on the stage that I watched from my red velvet seat, and closing the evening for the A Cappella United concert. If Psych 101 didn't teach me better terms to articulate this: I'm incredibly stoked, slightly nervous, and also, incredibly stoked.

The A Cappella United concert of last year featured the "winning team" performers (and writers of hit song, "Airplanes") Kinetics and One Love, who closed the show with an energetic and unforgettable set.

This event is open to the public, starts at 7pm on Friday night in Ithaca, New York, and is only $8 for entry. Tickets and more details are available at the following links:
Bailey Hall 9/16, A Cappella United & Dylan Owen event on facebook!
Purchase Bailey Hall Tickets Bailey Hall tickets for sale!

Huge shoutout to all of Cornell's incredibly talented A Cappella (researched the official spelling of that word to write this) groups that will be performing, and props to Bailey Hall for hosting us. Me, Kia Rogers, and DJ Earmuffs are back at it again. Rock on rock on rock on. Hope to see you out there.

Much love,
Dylan

p.s. I'm performing a new song off Keep Your Friends Close called "Ghosts".
p.p.s. Updates, very very soon.

@dylanowenmusic

Things have changed since we last spoke. And as of over 6 months ago, I decided it's time we talk about these things, on record.

This time last year, I was packing my bags to be a freshman in college, leaving behind my hometown, a slew of warm teenage memories, and my perspective on the world at seventeen. I was jumping headfirst into an entirely new place in my life, as I'm sure many of you can relate to from one direction or another. Senioritis had both prompted me on my way, while forcing me to reflect on everything I was detaching from. Change is a part of life, and we know this, so we adapt, adapt, adapt, and carry on.

Weeks later, months later, and as I sit writing this a year later (in fact, at each step of the way), I recognize that my life has fallen subject to turbulence. It feels like I haven't stopped traveling. My relationships have changed, my mind and my goals have lost and since rediscovered themselves, I've met a million and one strangers who I may never get to know as well as I'd like to, and I've learned some valuable lessons, in and out of positive, negative, positive, negative, inevitable moments. One or two of these moments big, a lot of them small. Some lonely, some fulfilling. All of them redefining.

You could say I'm a perfectionist, but let me honestly admit that the first documentation of this new collection of songs occurred around last November. It didn't dawn upon me to begin writing a new CD, the inspiration didn't come as a result of researching the modern music industry or observing that other rappers release material a lot more frequently than I do, but rather, it struck me, in response to writing off quite a few thoughts I had bottled up inside. Since that first moment, I've been carefully putting together what I'm going to present to you a little over a month from now. So, over half a year and over 30 rough songs (including beats..) later, I'm settled enough to share the biggest lesson from this past year, whatever you take it to mean, with you.

Keep Your Friends Close.

In technical terms, this is an EP. Between me and you, this is a lot more than that. In fact, the number of tracks alone is controversial in the "EP" (EP = half-album) world. So we can call it what we will. In terms of content, these are my most personal, most honest, most sincere and most heartfelt songs to date. I really really hope you like them, and I really really cannot wait to share them with you. I love and am so beyond grateful for anybody and everybody who supports my music. And I feel for anybody and everybody who shares their emotions with others. Rock on. While many of you may have heard some of these songs at live shows, I promise they've all been revamped and I promise there's quite a bit you haven't heard. Even better, perhaps the best news of all, is that this is going to be a FREE release. My first, at that. So you can show your friends who can show their friends, and.... you get the point.

In a funny sort of way, things haven't changed since we last spoke. I'm still writing my story with confident hope that you will relate to it. So my purpose now, now that I've written this story down on paper, is to share it with you. Keep Your Friends Close.

Don't forget:
1. I've got a new, free EP coming out a little over a month from now.
2. There will be an advance version on iTunes.
3. More information coming soon.
4. Keep Your Friends Close.

Thanks for reading. Much love.
Dylan

"Paperback Novels" is my solo feature on producer Devin Arne's upcoming album, set for a September 6th release.

I wrote and recorded these lyrics up in Ithaca, New York about six months ago. I had always been fond of this beat, originally named 'Harmonique' (hence the shoutout in the beginning of the track...Harmonique, I'll always love you). The song was actually in the works years ago, as I've been working with Devin since A Living Inverse EP, so the whole paperback novels theme holds nostalgic value for me. About a year ago, upon revisiting the unfinished track, me and Dev decided to revive and rewrite the beat, and thus what you're hearing now developed.

Hope y'all like! Be sure to check out Devin's album on September 6th:

Credits:
Drum & synth live performance by Thiago Pinheiro, background vocals by Adam Beckwith, production by Devin Arne, and all lyrics & performance by Dylan Owen.

Download "Paperback Novels" at any of the below links:
Good Music All Day
The Kollection
Dirty Mexican Lemonade Music

Me and the infamous DJ Grumble kick it on a rooftop in Manhattan mid-interview. Now is that what those plastic cups were for?

It's been awhile...


But I've been working hard on some really, really great things for you
And I'm going to start blogging again so that I can keep YOU posted.


Hope your summer's been rockin',
D.O.

Check out "The Book Report"! Live video and interview, from The Ithaca State Theatre show with Mac Miller and Tayyib Ali.

Shot and Edited by Jon Kilmer
http://JonKilmerStudios.com
Sponsored by Life Changing Apparel
http://LifeChangingApparel.com/

The opening track off the debut, full-length album, "Senioritis"! Available now on iTunes.
Produced by Nico Marchese & Devin Arne.

Filmed in Ithaca, NY on May 1st, 2011. Shoutout to DJ Grumble and Kia Rogers.

Much love.
-dylan