Hadley and Mia are best friends. They formed Shutups together in 2015 after a brief period of disconnect; Hadley moving home with his parents as Mia moved to Oakland in 2013. They began primitively rehearsing songs Hadley had written before releasing their first EP in March 2016. Shutups would release three more EPs before their debut full-length, Every Day I’m Less Zen, in July 2019. For its start-to-finish perfection and explosive energy, Zen received a healthy serving of critical acclaim from local press, including Alt 105.3, KALX, and The Bay Bridged, as well as national coverage from Billboard, Talkhouse, and a wide array of praise from across the English-speaking world.
Shutups immediately followed the release of Zen by recording their sophomore album, which was ultimately delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Stuck in quarantine, Hadley wrote a handful of new songs, recorded them in a blanket fort vocal booth, tracked Mia’s drums on an iPhone and titled it “5”. Shutups 5th EP is their most reserved and mature release to date. Occupied by themes of isolation, family and distancing from friends, 5 is both gloomy and hopeful. “I feel like we’re operating two different Shutups trajectories now, the EPs and LPs both having two distinct flavors”, says Hadley. “The EPs are slowing down, with more emphasis on chord changes and accessible hooks, while the LPs are catering to a more riff heavy, cinematic sound”.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the group’s video for their new single “Can You Dance To A Feeling?,” which finds them doing their own oddball interpretation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In this case, the knights wander the sunny California streets, encountering strangely comedic characters while rocking out to their catchy, pop-infused punk soundtrack. Reminiscent of acts like Adult Books, Happy Diving and even early Flaming Lips, the song carries a frenetic energy with plenty of tempo changes and flourishes of synth that give it a soaring, almost euphoric sound. Of course, the music and the video reach a climactic finale that adds a twist to it all.
Hadley Davis describes the inspiration behind the song:
I had been sitting on the phrase “can you dance to a feeling?” for a few weeks before I was able to work it into a useable melody. There’s a handful of voice memos with alternate melodies for the phrase, all of which haunt me by lodging themselves into my head more so than the final product. I had to edit around the sound of a nail gun being used below my room the day of vocal recording, pushing the session into the evening. Aiming to be as quiet as possible, I recorded the chorus falsetto vs my full chest voice and ended up with the super slick iTunes commercial chorus, the likes of which I worshipped in high school. Thank god for the nail gun.
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Photo credit: Kristy Benjamin
