Pop Mutations present:
Sean Nicholas Savage
+ Special Guests
Saturday 13th May
Stereo

Advance tickets available at https://www.citizenticket.com/events/pop-mutations/

Traversing the spectrum of avant-pop, singer-songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage is renowned for his bittersweet ballads and beautifully raw live performances.

Shine
from Sean Nicholas Savage is a record about recapturing the will to live after a
period of sadness and stagnancy, and the return to positivity and hope wrapped up in
music that adds a sense of rhythmic guitar
-
based folk
intimacy to Savage’s hallmark
ebullient avant
-
pop.
Savage says he was leaning into his “Tatsuro Yamashita and Elliott Smith fandom” for
Shine, a mix that immediately comes through vividly on opener “Feel Like A Child,”
which was the first song he wrote f
or the record. The pandemic had taken both an
emotional and artistic toll on Savage, sapping his ability to be creative. It was after a
long stay spent alone on the island Crete, sitting and staring at the sea that he felt a
spark coming back to him. He sa
ng “a long joyful memo” into his phone as he fell asleep
one night, transcribing the words upon return to his home in Berlin and putting them to
music.
This reaffirmation of love and healing is at the heart of all the songs that make up
Shine
,
not only t
hematically but sonically as well. Shine was recorded in Los Angeles with
Savage’s longtime friend Mac DeMarco, who produced the record. “With [2020’s]
Life is
Crazy
, I was delving into the overwhelming emotional experience of life and with
Shine
,
I just w
anted to dive in and be more healing,” he says. The difference is apparent in
Savage’s vocals, which have a raw and intuitive feel to them.
Instrumentally, Shine differentiates itself from Savage’s past records through the use of
the guitar as the primary
instrument. While these are not straight
-
ahead folk songs, they
do borrow from that genre’s sense of closeness. On the title track, Savage sings of a
place at the end of the world where one can find the seed of an entirely new universe
within the gleaming
eye of a seagull, and how that can expand one’s sense of existence
within something greater
—
“Every night we’re still alive/ The moon sighs over you and
I,” he sings.