Premiere: DD Island Shares New Single “Setting Sun”
Debut Album Setting Sun is Out on July 10th
Jul 09, 2026 By Caleb Campbell
Brooklyn-based indie rock outfit DD Island began as a personal recording project for singer/songwriter and producer Brandon Rhodes, but later expanded in scope with the addition of bassist Andrew Stader, guitarist Jeremy Batt, and drummer Zach Litchman. The band debuted in 2023 with their EP, Flowers, and followed the next year with another new EP, Runnin’. Since then, the band have been steadily sharing new singles from their forthcoming full-length album, Setting Sun, conjuring up a style that moves between dusty psych rock, cosmic Americana, and twangy indie rock. The full album is out tomorrow, and ahead of the release DD Island is sharing an early listen to the record’s title track, premiering with Under the Radar.
DD Island sound laid back and charmingly loose on “Setting Sun”, leaning into heady guitar grooves and woozy vocal harmonies. Rhodes says he wrote the song on a summer road trip and the final track sounds tailor made for a winding open road, lacing the band’s guitar licks with hints of wiry grit as the melodies blur into a bleary, sun-scorched haze. The track could easily work as a stripped-back folk tune, but the band bring it a unique collective chemistry, especially in the moments when they lock in together for a roadworn instrumental jam or guitar solo. Meanwhile, the lyrics find Rhodes feeling forlorn about a lost love, but assured that they’ll eventually find their way back together: “Gone, gone my setting sun / Gone, gone my light / You go my way and I’ll go mine, but I won’t be hard to find / When you change your mind.”
Rhodes says of the track, “I wrote the song ‘Setting Sun’ on a West Coast road trip a couple summers back. I’d been riding through western Oregon listening to Garth Brooks all morning, and when I arrived to the coast later that day, first thing I did was just plop down with my guitar on the beach, and it just sorta came out. The song really says a lot about what I was going through at this point in my life and reflected the passage of time in a bittersweet way, the way it is most of the time.
“You go your way, and I’ll go mine, but I won’t be hard to find, when you change your mind.” I mean that first bit’s just classic folklore; Bob Dylan said it. Whether or not I was even conscious of it, it’s really just a folk tune. But I think I’m at a point in life where changing your mind is really important. We could get stuck in our old ways, or we can learn to adapt and grow. We can also lose ourselves in all the mess of life. And so getting back to yourself, rediscovering who you are over and over again, that’s what it’s all about to me. Life, this record, music… But really it’s up to the listener to decide what any of this is about.
All I can say is that me and the band and a lot of our friends have been putting in a bunch of blood, sweat, and tears into this record for the past few years, and that we can’t wait for you to hear it. Our drummer Zach Litchman put it into 3 words - ‘It’s yours now!’ Hope you enjoy.”
Check out the song below, along with the band’s upcoming tour dates. Setting Sun is out everywhere on July 10th.
Tour Dates
July 10 -Chapel Hill, NC – The Cave
July 11 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
July 13 – Cincinnati, OH – The Comet
July 14 – Chicago, IL – Color Club
July 15 – Pittsburgh, PA – The Gov. Center
July 16 – Kingston, NY – Tubby’s
July 17 – Burlington, VT – Radio Bean
July 18 -Portland, ME – Apohadion
July 23 – New York, NY – Alphaville (Album Release Show)
English (US) · 