Texas indie pop outfit Shivery Shakes formed over a shared affection for escapism. Blending members from Austin bands The Bubbles and International Waters, their surrealist jangle rock have earned them opening spots for the likes of Surfer Blood and The Soft Pack. Last year the mayor of Austin even awarded the band with their own “Shivery Shakes Day”. Now, they’re prepping to release their full-length debut, Three Waves & A Shake, out October 21st via Punctum and Austin Town Hall Records.
Shivery Shakes’ latest single, “Swimming”, sees the band delving beyond indie pop and taking on surf rock. “I wrote the beginnings of this song about four years ago when I was in a different band, but it was a little bit too rockish for what they were going for,” drummer and songwriter Marcus Haddon said in a statement. “I tried to re-write it a couple years later as a woozy shoegaze song, which was a bad idea, but that’s when I wrote most of the lyrics. I forgot about it until I joined Shivery Shakes, and I sent [Will Glossup] the demo and he was like ‘What if we take all these guitar hooks that are going at the same time and split them up into different parts of the song?’ and that was pretty much it.”
The song opens with sharp and bouncy guitar riffs, setting the track’s upbeat tone. Even as the guitars tone down, the snappy drums keep the lively feeling going. With the slight echo on the vocals, there’s still brief glimpses of the shoegaze influences Haddon mentions. Though it may feel too soon to get nostalgic for summer, the reverb-tinged guitars make it hard not to recall sanguine beach days.
Listen in below.
