You would never imagine the most beautiful day of your life becoming the beginning of your deepest trauma. That is what happened when Dustbowl Revival leader Z. Lupetin brought his wife Taylor to the hospital to give birth to their daughter July this past January. That experience, and the subsequent events, are what inspired Lupetin to complete and share Dustbowl Revival’s most intimate and personal song to date, “Be (For July)”. Watch the moving new video HERE.
Lupetin explains, “One minute I was tearfully texting the grandparents across the country, IT’S A GIRL! …and the next thing I knew, our lives became a horror film wrapped up in an episode of House MD inside an outtake of The Twilight Zone.”
Immediately following the delivery of a healthy baby July, Taylor began experiencing severe, undiagnosable symptoms and was rushed into emergency surgery. “At first, they had no idea what was happening to my wife – and in the process, Taylor’s kidneys completely shut down and her blood began clotting everywhere,” Lupetin recalls. “They couldn’t transfuse her fast enough. Even in Cedars Sinai, one of the best hospitals on earth, I saw the fear and confusion on the doctor’s faces.” The situation was dire until they were able to stabilize her for the time being.
Over the next five weeks, Taylor would wind up on a ventilator three different times, often unable to move or speak. An infection filled her lungs. At one point, the doctors told Lupetin that he may need to start thinking about his wife not coming home to him and their newborn. “When I sing ‘Didn’t I bury your body, and write your epitaph’ – it’s hard for me not to picture that exact moment,” says Lupetin.
After several weeks of testing, observation and a multitude of life-threatening curve balls, Taylor was diagnosed with a rare condition called Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Disorder (a-HUS), currently only diagnosed in around 400 people in the United States. The odds of childbirth activating the condition were a million-to-one. A life-saving medication (that didn’t exist several years ago) was administered – and she responded. It’s been an intense battle, but as you can see in the video (where she is hiking with the baby on her back) she is winning.
“This song is important to me,” Z. Lupetin goes on – “Because in some way, it tries to tell the story of how we got here. I would go home after spending grueling days at the hospital watching my wife battle this sinister sickness, and when little July finally fell asleep, I’d play this song over and over on our old 1918 Steinway piano. It got me through. The chords comforted me. It is about the fear I was experiencing but more about all the hopes I had for my daughter and the time we could spend together as a family – if my wife could come home to us.”
The verses unfurled over days, weeks. Lupetin dreamed of his daughter becoming a great pianist, singing along to Billie Holiday. “I also thought about the place that is most special for my wife and I – Yosemite National Park – and the last time we went, when we were still trying to bring the baby into being.” The recovering family went back with their little one in early summer to shoot footage for this video.
Today, Dustbowl Revival share “Be (For July)” and hope it raises awareness of a-Hus and inspires those struggling with their own hidden conditions to never give up.
CLICK HERE to stream “Be (For July) at your preferred DSPs
The track will appear on Dustbowl Revival’s forthcoming digital EP, Set Me Free (out on October 28th via AntiFragile Music).
For a full list of upcoming Dustbowl Revival tour dates, visit DustbowlRevival.com
For press information on Dustbowl Revival, please contact Jim Flammia jim@alleyesmedia.com at All Eyes Media