Douglas Dare will release his new album via Erased Tapes in February, titled Milkteeth.

The 11-track album is produced by Mike Lindsay—founding member of Tunng and one half of LUMP with Laura Marling—in his studio in Margate, United Kingdom in just 12 days. It’s said to see Dare becoming confident and comfortable enough with his own identity to reflect on both the joys and pains of youth.

Dare grew up on a farm as the youngest member of a large extended family, where he was often found in his own private world, dancing in his mother’s pink ballet dress. “Only now do I feel free to express my inner child again, and am giving myself permission to play dress up,” says Dare of Milkteeth’s cover shot, in which he wears soft makeup. “I never felt like I fit in. I was different, odd. I wanted to dance and sing and dress up and on a small farm in rural Dorset that really stuck out.”

Where previously he has been known as a piano player, for Milkteeth, Dare picked up a new instrument, the autoharp, and as soon as he sat down with it, songs poured out. He wrote the album’s first single, “Silly Games,” in under an hour. “Instinctual feelings about childhood and innocence were the catalyst,” he explains. “Then with the autoharp, it all just clicked—I could see the album laid out ahead of me.”

Dare’s two previous albums, Whelm and Aforger, came in 2013 and 2016 respectively, both via Erased Tapes.

Tracklisting

01. I Am Free
02. Red Arrows
03. Heavenly Bodies
04. The Piano Room
05. Silly Games
06. The Joy In Sarah’s Eyes
07. The Stairwell
08. Whereever You Are
09. The Window
10. The Playground
11. Run

Milkteeth LP is out February 21 via Erased Tapes, with “Silly Games” streaming in full below.