Up and Coming: ‘Dazed & Out’ Represents Wanderlust For All

Frankenstein scared me to death as a child; an elementary school teacher showed us the original 1931 film, and I remember cowering in the corner of the classroom in fear as the braver kids laughed. I would quite literally lay awake in bed at night, unable to move or even breathe, due to the horrific nature of the conceptual character.

Similarly enough, Whitnie Escalante, the songwriting mastermind behind “Dazed & Out,” wrote her debut single “Frankenstein” while dealing with crippling bouts of sleep paralysis. The song itself is based on so many concepts; wanderlust (while the track was written in California, it was first performed in London, and the video, realized by videographer Francesca Blakeburn, was shot in Budapest), the desire to get out of the mundane and unsure, and moving on from the familiar. The song may not directly be about Frankenstein’s monster, like my irrational 3rd grade fear, but it deals with things that can be equally as terrifying.

“Dazed & Out” is, in itself, a product of wanderlust; one night in Rome, at a place called Harry’s Bar, Escalante decided that she would devote herself to pursuing music wherever her journey took her. Although her original and occasional guitarist Peyton Hoff is pursuing a degree, Escalante picks up any sporadic musicians willing to join her on her gallivanting journey as a one woman show.

As she sleeplessly wanders down her transatlantic path, “Frankenstein” serves as Escalante’s swan song.