Songfacts®:

• North Hills is the debut album from Dawes, a California folk-rock band made up of members from the defunct post-punk act Simon Dawes. One of them is frontman Taylor Goldsmith, whose middle name, Dawes, inspired both bands' monikers. After the breakup of his first group, the singer-songwriter wrestled with the idea of whether he wanted to continue a career in music and what the path would look like. Those anxieties are present in "When My Time Comes," which ponders an uncertain future. The anthem immediately resonated with fans and became one of their most popular songs.
  
  "That song was about anticipation of what might be possible for my life and for our band," Goldsmith told Songfacts in a 2024 interview. "And despite being a little older now, it still resonates for me, especially when a room full of people scream it back to me."
• The band created the album's vintage sound by recording live to analog tape at their producer Jonathan Wilson's home studio in Laurel Canyon, the Hollywood Hills neighborhood that gained notoriety as a hub of counterculture music in the '60s and '70s. Some of its famous residents include Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Neil Young - all of whom Dawes counts as major influences.
• The album takes its name from the Los Angeles suburb where the band was formed.
• Dawes was still pretty green while they were recording their debut album - including Taylor Goldsmith, who was finding his footing as a lead guitarist and songwriter. "We had no idea what we were doing. All the solos on the record had to be composed, because I didn't really know how to think on my feet as a guitar player. I was learning guitar as the band was beginning, at least in terms of being a lead guitar player. I could write songs, but I couldn't really play solos," he told Variety in 2019.
  
  Also, for a band who often looks to the past for inspiration, they still needed to bone up on their rock history. "We were just discovering things that would eventually mean so much to us. When we made North Hills, I had never heard Warren Zevon, and I never heard the Grateful Dead. I had never heard of Jackson Browne," Goldsmith continued. "It's also that period of time where, because you've never done it before, some of the simplest approaches feel like the most you could do. Now, if we do something real simple, it's intentional. Whereas back then, it was like, no, these are our limits! And some of the songs feel a little bit sophomoric to me now. But I think that that's essential to being an artist at all. I feel that way frankly about every record, if you give me enough time away from it. And I want that to always be the case."
• The band performed this with Jackson Browne during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests when left-wing activists took a stand against economic inequality and corporate greed. Goldsmith was nervous about participating because the band had never done anything overtly political, but once he researched the cause, it put his mind at ease.
  
  "When I figured out what their goals were and what they were about, I became very proud to be a part of it and really inspired," he told Little By Listen in 2012. "To me, what was so inspiring about it is I grew up in a generation that you look at the idea of protest and someone hearing your voice and message and it's something that is nearly impossible. It's a very cynical generation and protest has this very negative connotation. But with Occupy Wall Street, it was really reforming a connection between the people's voice and the government, or at the very least, an attempt to do so."
• If the song sounds different live these days, it's not your imagination. Taylor Goldsmith's vocals have noticeably changed because he blew out his voice on the tour to promote their sophomore album, Nothing Is Wrong, and had to relearn how to sing. "People sometimes say, 'You don't sing 'When My Time Comes' like you used to,'" he told Magnet Magazine in 2020. "And my response is, 'I'm sorry, but this is the only way I can sing that hard and high at this point.'"