Today, Yotam Ben Horin (Useless ID) shares "Santa Monica Pier," the third single off his forthcoming album, Young Forever, due next Friday, May 20 via Double Helix Records.

Speaking on the track, Yotam wrote:

"In late 2019, I was living in Sherman Oaks, California with Fat Mike in his punk rock compound, along with some other interesting people. We would work nonstop on recording and producing music—trying to get a full-fledged production team going. I was so wrapped up in work that I forgot to take a break sometimes. When I did sleep, I would crash on a bunk bed in the hallway. There were people coming in and out all through the day and night.

When Paola (then my girlfriend, now my wife) came to visit me, and saw what was going on, she knew that I needed to step away from work, even for a night. She kindly asked that we go to Santa Monica Pier. I told her that I was too busy finishing up a record, and that I couldn't afford to leave, but she asked again—and I decided 'why not?'

When we got to Santa Monica Pier my eyes opened up: I saw families together in the sand, the sunset, and everything. Paola and I went on the Ferris Wheel, which suddenly stopped for 10 minutes while we were at the very top. At first, we sort of panicked, but then I noticed how both of us were sitting there looking out at the beautiful purple-ish sky and the waves—and everything suddenly felt much smaller than it is. I decided then and there that I was closing the chapter of living in the punk house and opening a new one."

Yotam Ben Horin is currently on the 'Young Forever' World Tour, including European dates with Lemonheads. Tickets are available now.

YOTAM BEN HORIN LIVE
^ with Lemonheads

Apr 18 - Berlin, DE - Kiki Sol
Apr 19 - Hamburg, DE - Booze Cruise Records
Apr 20 - Nijmegen, NL - De Opstand
Apr 21 - Neil, BE - Brewerij De Klem
Apr 22 - Wiesbaden, DE - Tagwerk
Apr 23 - Coburg, DE - Toxic Toast (Matinee 3 PM)
Apr 23 - Nuremburg, DE - Muz (Evening)
Apr 24 - Munich, DE - Backstage
Apr 26 - Emilia-Romagna, IT - L'asso Di Picche
Apr 27 - Zurich, CH - Kir Royal
Apr 28 - Hamburg, DE - Gruenspan ^
Apr 29 - Bremen, DE - Kulturzenitrum Lagerhaus ^
Apr 30 - Berlin, DE - Columbia Theater ^
May 1 - Erlangen, DE - E-Werk ^
May 3 - Zagreb, HR - Vintage Industrial Bar ^
May 7 - Seattle, WA - The Kraken Bar
May 8 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Hideaway
May 9 - Boise, ID - Lost Grove Brewing
May 10 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Heavy Metal Shop
May 11 - Las Vegas, NV - Cemetery Pulp
May 13 - Venice, CA - BeachLife Festival

Yotam Ben Horin Bio:

When Yotam Ben Horin says, "I was pretty much born into music," the Useless ID frontman isn’t stretching his storyline so much as revealing his roots in light of his latest solo LP Young Forever.

After all, Ben Horin’s mother was a multi-instrumentalist/music teacher and started taking him to concerts at a very young age. Most were classical performances, but one night in 1983 happened to feature his favorite band at the time: Musical Youth, the reggae group widely recognized for the cast-iron classic "Pass the Dutchie." (Ben Horin’s mom must have known it’s not, in fact, about marijuana.)

To understand where Ben Horin’s own songwriting lies on the pop-rock spectrum, it’s best to start with one of his earliest memories—a second grade yeshiva class, not long after his family moved from Israel to Brooklyn.

"I had this teacher who used to bring a parakeet to class," explains Ben Horin, "and he had all these tricks up his sleeve which made school more interesting. On top of that, he had this little AM radio on while we were taking tests. The Beatles’ 'Michelle' used to come on every now and then, and it struck me what a beautiful song it was."

Right around the same time, Ben Horin and his younger brother, Ari, discovered a splintered drum set—just the snare and tom—in their family’s apartment and proceeded to "make quite a racket" alongside Ari's manic Casio melodies. The connective tissue between Ben Horin's earliest sound experiments and decades of vastly different bands—everything from the aforementioned punk acts Useless ID and SPIT to glimmers of grunge (Superdrive), folk (Tommy and June), and pop (sessions with Israeli icon Danny Sanderson)—was actually a friend's bat mitzvah.

"I remember the DJ—another kid from class—playing Nirvana’s 'Lithium,'" says Ben Horin. "When it started, I thought it was The Beatles, but then the chorus kicked in and it was like, 'This is crazy!' From that moment on, I wanted a guitar and became obsessed."

Ben Horin got his first guitar at 14 after working for his dad’s construction company. He "picked it up pretty quickly," often learning and building songs by ear as the axe "became [his] best friend." When Ben Horin’s family returned to Israel in the summer of '93, his guitar filled the silences of lonely nights and afternoons. Starting over in a new country with a new culture as a teenager was less than ideal, but one person made the move a little bit easier.

"He was the first kid to talk to me and be super friendly," Ben Horin says of the kid described in "Boy With Glasses," a brittle Young Forever ballad that ends with a sucker punch sequence about his passing. "We hadn't kept in touch since that year.... One day, I looked him up on Facebook and noticed that there weren’t many photos, so I started digging and found this long post his best friend wrote, which turned out to be a eulogy. I felt so bad that I went and wrote the whole song in 10 minutes."

Young Forever is full of moments like this—deeply personal diatribes that put Ben Horin’s long career in perspective alongside the relationships that have shaped his private life. This is especially true fo rPaola, Ben Horin’s partner; her presence hangs over the album’s smartphone spreads and many of its massive hooks, including the revved-up rhythms of "In Between the Highs and Lows," the delicate, guitar-guided verses of "Here With Me," and the Frank Black-inspired, curtain-closing minor chords of "Across the Sea."

As has been the case since Ben Horin’s solo debut (2012’s Distant Lover album), each tightly edited track provides a welcome contrast to the wild and wooly records of Useless ID without sounding like a scrapped MTV Unplugged shoot.

"I try to take my solo material as far away from punk as I can," explains Ben Horin, "so I don't just sound like a punk singer playing chords on an acoustic guitar. I leave room for any influence that may enter and just let it happen."

That explains why the album’s title track features sun-baked Springsteen vibes and a fierce solo from Jimmy Eat World frontman Jim Adkins, while "Leopard" reflects the female perspective of rock ‘n’ roll icon Joan Jett. (It was originally written for Jett, but that ultimately fell through.)

"My solo albums kind of write themselves," says Ben Horin. "That's what I like about them; I’ve learned to not only listen with my ears, but with my gut as well. If something feels off, I'll address it right up until we print the record."

Young Forever LP - Credits:

Produced, Engineered, and Mixed by Bob Hoag
Recorded at Flying Blanket Recording (Mesa, Arizona) in April 2021
Acoustic Guitar on "Here With Me" recorded at John Carey’s Studio
Mastered by Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room

Yotam Ben Horin – Vocals, Guitars, Bass
Bob Hoag – Drums, Mellotron, Keys, Percussion
Danny Torgersen – Trumpet on "In Between the Highs and Lows"
Jim Adkins – Guitar Solo and Arrangement on "Young Forever"
Angus Cooke – Cello on "Go"

All songs written by Yotam Ben Horin, except "Leopard" written by Yotam Ben Horin, Ishay Berger, and Bob Hoag

Art direction by Yotam Ben Horin and Paola Cascioli
Front cover photo by Ian Fisher
Additional photos by Paola Cascioli
Available on DIGITAL / LP / CD
©&℗ 2022 Double Helix Records