For WTSH, a new Spotlight Kid release is
a big deal. In our eyes the Nottingham, England quintet has played a leading
role in the resurgence of shoegaze—if not in terms of massive renown, then for quality
and sheer perfection of the genre. It’s been a very long time since the band’s
last full-length, Ten Thousand Hours, came out on Saint Marie Records in 2014. So of
course we’re thrilled—not just to premiere a new Spotlight Kid track and video,
but also by the news that the single in question, the utterly lovely “Shivers”,
will feature on a forthcoming digital EP release, the first of a series of
three EPs to be collected in a vinyl edition in the fall.
The clip for “Shivers” was directed by the project’s
drummer, Christian Davis. “When
I’m not drumming,” Christian tells us, “I like to make films, music videos and
documentaries. The
video for ‘Shivers’ had been in my mind for a while. It was originally part of
a short portmanteau horror film script that was gathering dust. I always think
a great way to get things moving is to turn basic short film ideas into music
videos, giving you the limitations to condense every idea into four minutes or
so.
“With limited
time and budget,” Christian continues, “I gathered together my longtime friend
and stand-up comedian Duncan Oakley, his son, my son and five of their friends,
a mountain of snacks, a drone and a pocket camera and we headed into the
freezing January countryside for a day of filming. With the TV series Black
Mirror and The League Of Gentlemen very much in my mind, we battled the cold
conditions and the gloomy light and managed to put this together in about six
hours—with one small interruption while I explained to the land owner of the
private property we had stumbled on what we were doing! (She was very
accommodating as it happens.) I hope this is the start of a trilogy of videos that will accompany the next two singles as well as 'Shivers'.”
A three-track EP led
by “Shivers” will become available February 15th on Spotlight Kid’s Bandcamp page, while
“Shivers” itself will also placed as a single across other platforms.
