Draft:Dustin Payseur

Dustin Payseur (born February 7, 1986) is an American musician, best known for being the founder, frontman, and principal songwriter of the indie rock band Beach Fossils.

Early life
Payseur was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on February 7, 1986. His parents, Daisy and Jim Payseur, are both musicians, the latter once having been in a band called the Pompous Fuckheads.

After a brief stint at community college, Payseur moved to New York City in 2008 to pursue his interests in music. He worked at Urban Outfitters until he was signed by Captured Tracks.

Career
Known for his lo-fi vocals and reverberating indie rock, Payseur formed Beach Fossils in 2009 as a vehicle of expansion for a solo project. That same year, bassist John Peña and guitarist Christopher Burke were recruited, followed by Zachary Cole Smith on drums. After signing to Captured Tracks and quickly pulling together a live band, they took off playing countless shows across the U.S. gathering a slew of devoted fans in their wake. Their debut single, Daydream/Desert Sand was released in January 2010 through Captured Tracks. In May 2010, their self-titled debut Beach Fossils album was released, and met with favorable reviews.

In a retrospective interview in 2014, Payseur commented on their first album saying, "The writing process is at its strongest when you don't even feel like you're writing the songs yourself... That happened when I was writing the first Beach Fossils record. I'd come back a day or two [after writing] and it would sound like I was listening to somebody else's music."

In 2015, Payseur and his wife Katie Garcia — a former label manager of Captured Tracks — founded their own independent label, Bayonet Records.

Musical style and influences
Payseur's work with Beach Fossils has been described as dream pop, melodic punk rock, and shoegaze. He says his biggest musical influences are groups from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, such as The Byrds.

Personal life
Payseur married Katie Garcia in April 2014. In an interview with Forbes in June 2017, when asked how she and Payseur met and eventually started their own label, Garcia commented, "Dustin and I met when I was interning at Captured Tracks. He was coming to pick up his very first seven-inch, and then we ended up going on our first date a couple days later. Fast forward four years and we got married. All these things started to line up, pointing to us starting our own label. He asked me to be a part of it because I know the ins and outs of how to work a label. That's how we started Bayonet."

Discography
Studio albums


 * Beach Fossils (2010)
 * Clash the Truth (2013)
 * Somersault (2017)
 * Bunny (2023)

EPs


 * What a Pleasure (2011)

Compilation albums


 * The Other Side of Life: Piano Ballads (2021)

Singles


 * "Daydream" (2010)
 * "Face It" (2010)
 * "Plastic Flowers" (Gruesome Flowers: A Tribute to the Wake with Wild Nothing, 2011)
 * "Shallow" (2012)
 * "Careless" (2013)
 * "This Year" (2017)
 * "Saint Ivy" (2017)
 * "Down The Line" (2017)
 * "Tangerine" / "Social Jetlag" (2017)
 * "Silver Tongue" (7" split featuring "Enter Still" by Wavves, 2018)
 * "Vacation / "Time" (Beach Fossils 10th anniversary reissue, 2020)
 * "Don't Fade Away" (2023)