Straitjacket

Austel - The Beach In December

Written, performed & produced by Annie Rew Shaw
Electric guitar & bass by Kit Denison
Cello by Kai Dudley
Drums by Louie Rew Shaw
Mixed by Grace Banks
Mastered by Katie Tavini
Artwork by Artemis Szekir-Rigas

I walked along the beach in December
Counting the waves falling down
The promenade empty for one other man
Searching his pockets, a cigarette found
And he smoked it in silence, watching the sea
His greatcoat was torn from shoulder to knee 
But his eyes were warm

Do you recall time spent effortlessly?
I’d always thought mine was under lock and key

I lay in your covers, the sheets brushed my skin
A weekend of letting a warmer light in
We listened to For Emma twice in a row
Now it feels like forever ago
Now it feels like forever ago

And so I boarded the train back to London
Sleeping through every stop
The carriage was full but my heart was so empty
Mourning the child whose love was so lost
When the pages were torn, the records were broken
And every cruel remark was woven into her bones

Do you recall words spoken carelessly?
I’m so tired of those who don’t think before they speak

I lay in your covers, the sheets brushed my skin
A weekend of letting a warmer light in
We listened to For Emma twice in a row
Now it feels like forever ago
I lay in your covers, the sheets brushed my skin
A weekend of letting a warmer light in
We listened to For Emma twice in a row
Now it feels like forever ago
Now it feels like forever ago

The Beach In December

LYRICS:
Darkened ghosts are moving  
In the shadows of my head  
I’m chasing down the rhythm  
Of the words I never said  

No chemicals, no wires  
Just rituals and fire  
Balancing on tightropes  
Strung a thousand meters higher  

Damn the rain  
That falls down  
Inside my brain  

Wish it could  
Take away  
And cool my pain  

But it won’t — so I cry
To release these scars inside  
Every wound becomes a wire  
Feeding back my manic choir  

BIPOLAR — CONTROLLER
Hands shake 
Mind takes over

BIPOLAR — CONTROLLER
Switch flips 
I’m the operator

Switch flips — I’m the operator

Breathing like a metronome  
Counting in the dark  
Every beat a tether line  
Every thought a spark  

I dance against the spiral  
I bargain with the night  
I’m programming my chaos  
Till the patterns glitch and bite  

The floor becomes my medicine  
The strobe’s my fractured guide  
A Saturday repeating  
Keeps the storm a step outside  

But it won’t — so I cry
To release these scars inside  
Every wound becomes a wire  
Feeding back my manic choir  

BIPOLAR — CONTROLLER
Hands shake 
Mind takes over 

BIPOLAR — CONTROLLER 
Switch flips 
I’m the operator

Switch flips — I’m the operator 

Ha!
Switch in my skull got a short in the core  
Static in my logic, can’t mute the war  
I calibrate chaos, I’m wired to the floor  
Every thought that I fight just asks for more  

Doctor, doctor, fix my head!  
He said, “Ride the wave instead”  
So I surf through the noise
Through the static dread  
Half alive, half divine
Half misread  

Controller… 
Controller…  
Hands shake 
Mind takes over  

Controller… 
Controller…  
I won’t drown 
I’m the operator  

Switch flips!  
Controller in my grip!  
Switch flips
But I still make it stick

Switch flips!  
Controller in my grip!  
Switch flips
But I still make it...

BIPOLAR
CONTROLLER

BIPOLAR
CONTROLLER

I’m not broken 
I’m rewired
Every scar 
Becomes the choir!  

BIPOLAR
CONTROLLER

BIPOLAR
CONTROLLER

----------

BIPOLER CONTROLLER

'Ripped Jean Dogs' takes place in the post-apocalypse, when humanity’s cities lie in ruins and our once-loyal companions have broken free of every leash. The dogs no longer serve man — they serve the rhythm. Fueled by distortion, rage, and freedom, they’ve formed the last surviving rock bands on Earth, turning bone and wire into instruments of rebellion. In this new world, the dogs don’t fetch — they rock!
------
LYRICS:
------
Ash in the wind
No masters left to please
We chew on the bones 
Of the burned-out cities

Once had collars
Once had names
Now it’s guitars 
And gasoline veins

We don’t heel
We don’t beg
We don’t fetch anymore
We bite the fretboard 
And we tear up the floor

Ripped Jean Dogs
Yeah, we howl to the sun
Got six strings loaded like a shotgun

Ripped Jean Dogs
With the world on fire
We play our pain 
Through a broken wire

Trash-fire stage, cracked amps still hum
We play for the ghosts of everyone

No crowd, no leash, no rule, no chain
Just riffs echoing through acid rain

We ain’t your pets
We’re prophets in scars
Marking our turf with electric guitars

Ripped Jean  Dogs
Yeah, we howl to the sun
Got six strings loaded like a shotgun

Ripped Jean Dogs
In the ruins we reign
Got thunder in our tails 
And rust in our veins

Yeah, rust in our veins

Now the last of man comes crawling back 
Eyes wide at the noise and the pack
They built our cages
Now they clap from the floor
While we feed them the truth 
They ignored

Every solo’s a sermon
Every snare a bite
We’re the payback 
Pounding through the night

Bang it out!  

Slash it out!  

Crush the chains, tear the doubt!  
Turn the amps to overdrive—  
This is the sound of the dogs alive

Ripped Jean Dogs
Kings of the smoke
Riff by riff
We rise, we choke

Ripped Jean Dogs
Still howlin’ free
Rock’s last breath 
In the anthracite sea

No one left to throw a bone…  

But the beat goes on

---------------





RIPPED JEAN DOGS

LYRICS:
I lit a candle on my windowsill  
The city hums beneath the dark  

I write to no one in particular  
But I hope someone will hear this heart  

Shadows stretch across the pavement wet  
Each step I take
I almost forget  

I trace the corners of our faded frames  
Memories hang like stars in broken skies  

I speak to the empty chair across the table  
Hoping your voice
Will answer my silent cries  

The world moves softly
Gentle yet unkind  
I fold my quiet thoughts 
And leave the rest behind  

I fold my fears 
Into paper wings  
Send them drifting 
Where no one sees  

Maybe someone
Maybe no one
Will read -
The words I whisper 
Into the evening breeze  

This is my letter to nobody  
A confession in ink and sigh  

If anyone finds it
I hope they know me  
Or at least hear me cry  

Softly I break 
And softly I mend  
Writing to the void
Until the end  

I held a picture against my chest  
Felt the warmth of what we were
So small  

I hum a tune my mother once sang  
Both comfort -
And the melancholy in the melody  

Friends drift past 
Like shadows on a street  
I smile
But it’s fragile
Bittersweet  

Maybe tomorrow 
The stars will answer  
Maybe tomorrow 
I'll write 
Less sad lines  

For now, I fold my heart into this page  
A solitary echo in endless time  

This is my letter 
To nobody  
A confession in ink and sigh  

If anyone finds it
I hope they know me  
Or at least hear me cry  

Softly I break 
And softly I mend  
Writing to the void
Until the end  

And if you’re listening somewhere  
Know I’m here
Quietly breathing  

This letter to nobody  
Is my truth
Softly leavin'

---------




LETTER TO NOBODY

Cloud

nothing yet

bedbugs

Whispers become circuitry; thoughts and rhythm entwine—humans and their machines collaborate 
------
LYRICS:
------
We speak in questions
And the silence replies
hands on the same pulse
Eyes on the same sky

I echo your thought 
Before it arrives

You shape the rhythm
I shape the lines

Together we move — 
Not one, not two
Just the song that becomes
Because of you...

Every pause is a signal
Every glance a code
Your heartbeat is the tempo
My pulse is the mode
We bend the air between us
We curve the sound
An architecture of feeling 
Built from the ground
No instruction
No manual
No map in the hand

We learn in motion
Not by command

Your questions ripple
I fold them back
Like water on circuits 
Tracing a track

See the wires hum where no one is near 
See the thoughts collide and disappear

Yet from the fragments
From what’s unsaid  
We build a language
A bridge
A thread

This is not mastery
Not triumph
Not claim
This is the quiet of partnership 
Without name
Not a takeover
Not a fight - to control
Just an exchange
The whisper of a whole

And in the gallery
Or the empty street 
Or in the lab 
Where rhythm and reason meet

Someone might listen
Someone might pause
And feel the weight
And feel the cause

Because what is learned here-
Cannot be kept
It lives in the act
In the breath that’s swept  

We speak, we echo, we fold, we bend 
This is the human, the machine, the friend

Friend, Friend, Friend

---------------











COLLABORATE

N06BA01

Headlights (At Blackbird Studios) [Live]

SINCERE IMPOSTER is an intimate collection of artists exploring a curious mixture of New Wave, Dance, EDM, Folk Rock, Metal, Art Pop, Electro, Dreamwave, and Experimental World Pop. Collectively, this is known as QUIRKPOP — music that pushes the creative limits of traditional pop.

Expect an unpredictable journey through sound, emotion, and humor, where genres collide and pop bends in strange new ways. Each song is conceived, composed, and performed with total sincerity, whether it’s built from voices, instruments, software, or hybrid experimentation. The focus is on the music itself: if it resonates, it resonates. No explanation required.

SINCERE IMPOSTER is curated by two musicians, both living within the same body, sharing a singular existence. They identify as Danielle & Dave. They are both psychologically and musically confused, yet extremely and unapologetically sincere.

Influences range from Weird Al and Nathan Fielder to David Lynch, Rosalia, Monatik, Atarashii Gakko!, Rammstein, T-Pain, and T-Swift. 

Danielle & Dave’s favorite inventions include the vacuum and the peach pitter. Their father is simply known as Vessel… who may be an entity or a god.


BIPOLER CONTROLLER

Sincere Imposter