Exclusive: The Dig Release the Synth-Laden “Million Dollar Man,” Announce Combined LP

The Dig have been having a big year and more is yet to come. The latest EP from the band, Moonlight Baby, was released last month and Afternoon With Caroline is forthcoming. The band reveals today that their pair of EPs will be combined for a vinyl LP, due out Oct. 19. The band’s last full-length album, Bloodshot Tokyo, was released in February of 2017.

The band went to Outlier Inn in upstate N.Y. last year to make these two new EPs, and it was en route to this studio that their new release “Million Dollar Man” was written. The song stems from a rehearsal discussion that a million dollars isn’t actually that much money, despite the band members not having that much themselves, nor knowing many people who did. It revolves around the idea of specifically making a million dollars and nods to the wage gap in America.

“It’s a juvenile and naive fantasy that we all had as young’ins. The prospect of making a million dollars would be life changing,” says The Dig’s Erick Eiser (keyboards/guitar). “I think the song could be a representation of some of our more endearing adolescent dreams as individuals growing up, but also as a band.”

“Million Dollar Man” is not only the first song to be released from Afternoon With Caroline, but it is also the EP’s opener. The song leads with the chanting of, “Gonna make a million dollars,” as some spacey synth sounds rise and fall around the rhythmic vocals—a contrast to the more guitar-oriented sound on Moonlight Baby. The lyrics begin with the story of working to achieve the goal to make a million dollars—“Gonna work through the blood and the sweat and the pain”—but toward the end they gravitate to a darker place (“I lost my mind”) and seem to reference the lore of making a deal with the devil, mentioning the embodiment of evil directly at one point: “Felt the touch of the devil on my cold hard spine.” The track ends with breathless panting, tying into the speed constantly at work in the song and capturing the theme of movement that ties the two EPs together.

The Dig are also giving its listeners the opportunity to involve themselves with this release. The LP package will have eight different artwork options that can be interchanged for a more customizable look. Beyond the fun options with the cover, the band is engaging through a playlist titled “El Dig: A Year of Music.” The band is progressively compiling the music from the two EPs into this playlist and will be sending cool things like colored double vinyl and hand-numbered single artwork prints to some of those that follow the playlist and join the newsletter, which you can do here. You can also preorder the LP here.

Before its official June 21 release, you can listen to “Million Dollar Man” below, exclusively at Paste, and check out a performance by The Dig from the Paste archives while you’re at it.