In late 2019, Sea Caves released Across the Water and received glowing reviews and a dedicated fanbase in the Pacific Northwest. As momentum was building and they were set to embark on a West Coast tour, the pandemic brought a quick halt to their plans. During this time, as some relations frayed and others grew, Sydney Rohrs and Shiloh Halsey kept meeting at the park and writing songs, and a new album began to take shape. The result is a set of heartfelt songs colored with rich instrumentation, lush harmonies, and catchy melodies, all interwoven with Rohrs’ dreamy vocals and themes exploring the disconnection from community and family and the longing for things past and yet to be known.
At its heart, Sea Caves is a collaboration. “We all bring something to this work,” Shiloh explains, “whether it’s me bringing the basic framework of a song, Sydney bringing a notebook of lyrics and ideas, Jason relaying new rhythms, or Cameron lifting the mood through harmony, it all gets bounced through the Sea Caves universe and comes out as something far different from what was put in.”
It’s this partnership that creates the sound of Sea Caves, where distinct atmospheres and the dichotomies of raw exposure and layered intensity combine to make something truly unique.
Today, Glide is excited to offer a premiere of the band’s new tune, “Turning,” which features a dramatic indie rock build that is almost orchestral in its layered textures. We get vocals that immediately grab you with their emotional resonance and twinkly guitars that gradually give way to a steady groove to support the vocals. Warm harmonies dance over the soundtrack of folk-rock that sweeps and sways with dreamy power before ultimately moving into an impressive and sprawling crescendo that makes this song truly soar. Like many Sea Caves songs, “Turning” is a melding of two worlds. The framework of a song from Shiloh joining the lyrical intentions of Sydney.
Sydney highlights the background of the lyrics for Turning: “The lyrics were born out of this experience of a relationship ending abruptly and that feeling of being lost and not tethered to any sense of self. And, at the same time, it’s about growing into yourself and finding something new to work toward. It’s that inflection point of seeing a new road in the midst of feeling so lost.”
Shiloh explains the origin of the circular guitar part that creates the pulsing foundation of the song: “On my way up to a lake-side campground in southern Washington, I was listening to a biography of Keith Richards, and the author was talking about this strange tuning that I’d never used on my guitar. As soon as I arrived at the campsite, I hopped out of my car, sat down at this picnic table overlooking an alpine lake, tuned my guitar to this new tuning, and immediately started playing the opening lines of Turning. It just grew from there.”
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