BIO

YOU AND I MUST BE OUT OF MY MIND is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Dietrich Strause. The Boston based multi instrumentalist has spent over a decade weaving timeless melodies with heartbreaking narratives using his “virtuosic command of imagery” and “his knack for vivid, almost literary lyricism” (WBUR, Boston NPR) - and he is now setting up shop in London. His songs have been described by Americana UK as “captivating and evocative” with his latest collection no exception. Each one is an exploration and discovery of loss, hope, desire, and disillusionment through images of love-worn soldiers, scrambled weathervanes, listless sailors, and drifting satellites lost in an open heart. 

Strause co-produced the album with engineer Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens), Sam Kassirer (Josh Ritter, Lake Street Dive) and Shane Leonard (Anna Tivel). They recorded at Great North Sound in Parsonsfield, Maine where Dietrich frequently works as an engineer, session musician, and handyman. The production style reflects Strause’s relationship with Great North Sound, a converted 1800’s farm house. Experimental and playful, open and warm. Muted pianos, synth trumpets, vibraphone, marimba, analog tape delays, and dream-like vocals stretch across the eight track album in an adventurous collaborative effort. 

He is a veteran of the indie Americana scene in the US, as well as having performed extensively throughout the UK and EU, Americana Fest, Green River Festival, and as support for an eclectic range of folk and pop artists such as Anais Mitchell, Sarah Jarosz, Darlingside and Lake Street Dive. In his time in New England, Strause has applied himself beyond songwriting as a session musician with artists such as Rose Cousins, Kris Delmhorst, and Session Americana. He works as an illustrator, carpenter, and as an apprentice luthier at Outlier Workshop. Strause spent his childhood in Lancaster, Pennsylvania practicing the trumpet. He is the son of a Lutheran preacher and public school teacher and first gained glimpses of the world outside classical music and academics while playing with bands in bars and biker clubs.