This I Know

Taken from the album Golden Doubt.

Melbourne-via-Tasmanian four-piece Quivers first released their 2018 debut We’ll Go Riding on the Hearses as hand-made cassettes. The album dealt with singer Sam Nicholson’s loss of his brother in a free-diving accident, and “trying to not think about that, and often coming back to ghosts, benders, water, and pissing in the snow.” When demand for the album grew, it received a vinyl release and led Quivers to tour the US, film a KEXP session, and be selected by NPR Music for both the Austin 100 SXSW preview and as a ’Slingshot’ artist to watch. Their life-damaged but hopeful jangle pop has only sharpened since then, and while 2021 follow-up Golden Doubt conjures up REM or The Clean there is a lyrical directness that sets this record apart as always its own.

Golden Doubt is carried by shimmering guitars and the harmonizing vocals of members Holly Thomas and Bella Quinlan. Elevated by the production of Matthew Redlich (Holy Holy, Husky, Ainslie Wills), the record explores what comes after grief, and how we throw ourselves back into love. As Nicholson explains, the album tries to bottle “the rush of feelings and fears when you give in to falling for someone. It’s also an album in love with other albums, and the other bands around us.” Before each take at Woodstock and The Aviary studios in Melbourne, Australia, the band would imagine a scene together (a waterhole for “Laughing Waters”, an overgrown carpark for “Videostores”) and then dive in to capture live group takes.

Quivers need to get words on the page and sounds out to keep moving on. Both Sam and Holly lost their brothers in the same year, and through that shared vulnerability they all have together that runs deep. Golden Doubt is also a love letter to playing music as a band and processing it all together rather than just carrying it as a weight. The cancellation of a 21-date US tour they had slated for 2020 has left them undeterred; Quivers plans to continue being a band and get back out into the world as soon as it’s possible.

Of the title, Sam says: “Golden, because musically we daydream with the guitars of Teenage Fanclub and The Cure, the singing of The Roches’ sisters, the basslines of Another Sunny Day, and the drums of Lower Dens or Car Seat Headrest. Golden Doubt, because hitting your thirties
after losing people knocks you off balance for a while, but no longer caring what the world thinks is always a breakthrough feeling.” Quivers may have created the antidote to existential dread by embedding it in songs that feel so present and alive, we might not find firm ground, but there’s bliss in swinging from hook to hook as they sing “we stayed out ‘til there was glitter in our lungs.” Sooner or later you wake up and the doubt has long gone.

Quivers - Chinese Medicine

Buoyancy

Produced by ACER
Mixed by William Crann
Mastered by Philip Shaw Bova
Lyrics & vocals by Connory Ballantyne
Guitars, synths, programming by Kyle Gottschalk
Acoustic Drums by Evan Smith
Cover art by cB (@connorytheballantyne)

Lyrics:

you’re high
and tired of the fearless now
you’re seeing in a circle light
in towers of a cocaine strike

you’re not
a felling of the forest: stop
in candles, how you forget walks
i don’t know why but i do know how
you’ll say you’re finding out

you’re finding out

hang fire in a case
oh this tower’s in the blaze 
no powers of the world
but powder on her taste
 
in days i get fired up
get straight out the way    
no stillness for the pain
no still is for the play
you’re boy is heading out of
tell him you’re falling out of [patience]
you’re falling out of service now?

you’re better [so far away]
you’re love [so far today]
you save him: going far away [feds on the way]

honey honey take it slow
they can only hurt you if you don’t know
honey it nots your fault
its so funny when you say you’re gone
you’re not alone

Baker St.

Swallowing The Water You Walk On

Second single from the forthcoming second album HYMNS, due later this year. 

FFO: Manchester Orchestra, Frightened Rabbit, Arcade Fire. 

Recorded in West Wales by the band. 

Produced in Toronto, Canada by Matt Lederman. Mastered by Ryan Morey (Arcade Fire, Half Moon Run). 

Laid back Death Cab-esque drum patterns and cool americana guitars, the new single from Broken Fires makes you want to roll down the window of your getaway car (a 1967 Pontiac by the way) and drive off into the spring sunset. Except it’s a song about the morbid human fascination with serial killers… 

Sharks is written looking down on a convicted man in the dock of a Swansea courtroom. Guitarist and singer Gareth explains: “I think I had been watching too many Netflix real crime series… but there has always been something curious to me about what runs through the mind of those that find themselves standing in the dock looking out at the jury”. 

The final guitars were layered up over beers in Earlsfield South London but keys, violins and vocals added in living rooms separately during the lockdowns of 2021. The tracks were sent to Canada for finishing touches with mixing by Matt Lederman (Rural Alberta Advantage, !!!) and mastering by Ryan Morey (Arcade Fire). 

The laid back groove in the first half of Sharks reveals a different side to Broken Fires. But with what is becoming a trademark move, the song builds to a shattering crescendo with layered violins and enough guitar tracks to make Trent Reznor twitch. 

If you like a killer melody this is for you.

Sharks

Sharks - Edit

Love of Her Life

Dont be afraid to go die
Together we can fly

Put your hand into mine
And hold it down real tight

Please dont turn out the lights
I just get scared at night

Notice that i call you my wife
I say it all the time

And sometimes it gets so real
i know just how it feels

Together we can go steal
our love just so real

Dont be afraid to go die
Together we can fly

Put your hand into mine
And hold it down real tight

Please dont turn out the lights
I just get scared at night

Notice that i call you my wife
I say it all the time

Don't Be Afraid To Die (Prod. Waves)

I Like It When You Smile

Tall

DUMMY is back with another hard hitting intimate single. "Fragile" tells the story of a bitter-sweet affair begun in a summer haze. A hopeless romantic undertakes risky endeavors with his newfound lover to make the best out of a chaotic time in his life. The opening riff sets the bar for the overall mood of the upcoming album with fast-paced drums, low end bass lines, and a cinematic synth.

Fragile

LOK! - WELCOME TO THE SHOW (Prod. LOK!)

The only truth is that music gives us a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything

Follow the IG for updates 😬 -  __ddddavid__

Don't Be Afraid To Die (Prod. Waves)

DDDDavid