slice of lime

Read The Full Interview Here…

“I think one element that we really value in our music, especially being a three piece, is that wideness, that washiness, and all that texture. “

I would pair them with the dark, encompassing elements of Deftones’ Koi No Yokan in a playlist. They pull daker indie elements into their music, thick like molasses and allowing room for the vocals to build in the songs. These vocals add a layer of tension to the songs, pulling into the heartfelt groans of indie rock. I enjoy the most that shadow work hasn’t boxed themselves into anything definable, but that does my work harder. They swish dark bass elements into songs like “Severance”, the texture and energetic drums a fingerprint of similarity amongst most of their songs. This lightweight, sand in the fingers quality seems to be an imprint of the members of the band themselves. Sitting down with them to talk about their latest releases, the members dance between eyebrow furrowed sincerity about the connection found within music to a playful joke in the next second. Their rising popularity, expanding tours, and growing discography seems to be air beneath their wings for exploration and passion. Shadow work is a local band I am certain to keep an eye on, the aftertaste of their music following you within your days and making them stick out in a lineup.

“When we are doing something as intimate as we do with music, the more trust you have between the people around you the better the music is going to be. In the quest of honesty, us trusting each other has made our music develop in certain ways.”

Interview

You guys moved to Denver in 2021, is that when the band started?

Raf: Yeah, that is when the band started. I had known the guys previously from another band we were in, but this arrangement of shadow work started when we all moved to Denver. We were all living in Idaho and doing separate things, then the pandemic happened and everything kind of blew up in everyone’s lives. We all love music and wanted to give it a shot.

Why music? You’ve mentioned doing some visual art stuff in the past, what drew you to music?

Joe: When I was in high school, I was kind of in theater and stuff like that so it was a natural progression. Theater was fun, but there’s something very organic and spontaneous about music. Something creative as well because you’re writing these songs and you’re getting to fulfill them emotionally on stage. So, I think that’s really awesome. I play a lot of music in my life so that’s something that means something very real to me. So does visual art, but there’s something pretty special about music.

Raf: I don’t know. I’ve just always done it. In the sense of making melodies and bullshit songs, the art of crafting that and making that out of nowhere then it’s there in the world now and always. That’s been interesting to me and the spark and the match of it. It always energizes me and puts a smile on my face if I get a good line or write a cool hook. I heard a fighter say, you never want to go into a ring if you’re not nervous, and music gave me that little ball of anxiety and it was good. It’s never ending. It’s fun.

Did you guys decide on your current sound or was it a natural progression of self?

Raf: It’s natural. That’s just what happens when us three specific people come together in a room and play. I’ve never felt like, I’ve got to write this style of music, it’s all out of nowhere. Joe adds some cool bass tone like that and it creates a whole different vibe to the song. It’s like painting and you add a couple colors and out of nowhere a couple others get added, and the mix between those you can never expect. What is created in between that is the beauty.

Joe: I definitely second that and that’s what makes, to me, this band and this whole project really special. It’s organic, it’s not forced, it’s all natural truly. I feel like I can come to the table with anything and any idea and these guys are just awesome and can write to anything. I never feel boxed in, like we have to write a certain kind of song.

Raf: Let me clarify, we can write to anything but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be good.

Joe: There’s some songs that didn’t make the cut for sure, some stuffy that we were like ‘yeah that’s alright’ but I can always rely on it being unique and interesting. It’s always something that the three of us can rely on, and I couldn’t do it myself.

So, it’s been a couple years since the creation of the band, how have you seen your style progress and evolve?

Joe: It’s interesting because I don’t think about it too much, but it’s happened for sure. For me, it feels like the way our style has progressed is through composition and the way we write a song. Taking all that raw energy and creativity and honing it into something that’s really an interesting package.

Raf: My answer might be a little more philosophical. I think it’s a sense of trust, and the more you’re with somebody the more you trust them. When we are doing something as intimate as we do with music, the more trust you have between the people around you the better the music is going to be. If you can write a really great song then it’ll be a really great song, whatever that is sonically or lyrically. In the quest of honesty, us trusting each other has made our music develop in certain ways. For the good or the bad. I think it’s dope, and all I try to do is make everything dope.

Writing songs, are you doing an expression of self? Are you looking to connect with others? Do you have an image in mind when going into writing these songs?

Joe: I think it’s a combination of all those things in a way. When I’m sitting in my room and writing something, that’s definitely an expression of self. Also, what makes a song good is an element of connecting with other people. Without the people who listen to our music it would be a different experience. There’s definitely an element of that in there, so I would say it’s a combination.

You guys just released a single “Peek-A-Boo”, how long have you been working on that?

Raf: We probably completed that 6-7 months ago.

Joe: It’s still kind of evolving as we play it live some things change. How it sounds in the single is definitely a version, but how we play it live is its own version too.

Raf: Yeah, I think that’s the cool thing about writing new songs. Just by playing it live you change it a little. Then you record it and add these pieces that overdub and adding other parts, but then you get done with that and it makes you want to play the song live differently. There’s all these evolving pieces that make up this song, that’s why it can never be ‘done’ it changes so often. In two years, I bet we will be playing it differently. It’s cool, because the song never stays stagnant. That’s just life you know what I mean. It just slowly shifts and moves.

Where’d you guys record that?

Raf: We recorded it in our basement. We love recording in our basement. We get to take as many takes as we want and feel at home and comfortable. Really just going into that comfortability aspect. Chris Voss, out of Denver, does audio engineering and they helped us with recording the song and then we sent it out to John Scott. We’ve been fortunate to run across him in our path, he did the mixing and mastering.

One of my first thoughts on the song was how wide it feels, it is a very all encompassing song. What were your thoughts on the soundscape there?

Joe: It kind of turned into a bit of a dance tune in a way. I think one element that we really value in our music, especially being a three piece, is that wideness, that washiness, and all that texture. I’m glad it came through in the actual single too, because it can be hard to recreate the live sound and feel in the studio. I feel pretty happy about how that turned out.

You guys are from Denver and play in Fort Collins, so you know a bit about each music scene. How do you feel they compare? Do they feel hooked into each other or separated?

Raf: This is my first experience, I’m from Georgia. I lived in Idaho and smaller communities with not too many musicians. Obviously, Boise is blowing up now but when I lived there it was different. So, this is my first time I’ve been in a state that has multiple cities with multiple scenes. At least from my personal experience, it feels like they’re interconnecting. Everyone is super helpful. Everyone is nice about helping with venues and other bands and telling you tips. No one is gatekeeping. There are always going to be people out there but it’s been pretty receptive and nice. Even this event right now, it’s this buddy who got all these bands in the community, these badass bands, and everyone was down. You should see the group chat about it, everyone is like ‘of course of course’. It is killer band after killer band, and so many people who just put out killer records as well. Horse Bitch and Bitchflower and Ash Redhorse himself. At least in my experience, it has been a very receptive and loving community. I literally drive up here on weekends that I have off at work, just cause I want to see my friends.

Joe: Definitely. I think it’s also very passionate even just for the people coming to listen to music as well. Especially in Fort Collins, people are wanting to show up for bands they’ve never heard before. They want to hear new music. They want to have this experience, so that’s been really awesome. That’s given us an opportunity to show off our music, build friendships, and have a good time while doing it.

What do you guys feel is one of the important qualities that makes a good music scene around here?

Raf: Support. People coming out and seeing their friends. Seeing what they’re putting their life and work into. The scenes I’ve seen that aren’t the healthiest is the ones that aren’t willing to lend an arm or give a little information. It’s very DIY, but everyone is helping each other and we can all get to whatever place we want to get to in this. I think as artists, we all just want to live off our music and be expressive all day every day. I don’t think that should be such a wild dream. I might be a little privileged for saying that. I think we can create a society with the type of community that Fort Collins has and I know there’s other communities that are exactly the same, so trying to bridge those gaps a little.

Joe: I definitely think it’s people. Without people showing up and building that community and being supportive, there’s nothing. You can write songs, but to have people actually show up and connect with them is special. I don’t think every place has that. Fort Collins does. We’ve toured all over the US and seen a lot of different places and places like Fort Collins stand out as a gem. It exemplifies a lot of those qualities of a thriving art community.

You bring up touring, I saw you guys recently went to Belgium, Germany, France, and a bunch of other places as well?

Joe: Yeah, it was great. It was such an adventure. It was fun to feel like such a stranger in a place and take it at face value. I would go back in a heartbeat for sure.

Raf: I feel like since we got back, a few people have asked me that and for a while I didn’t really know how to respond. Life is just moving and you can’t slow down to see what you’re doing. I feel like the more it sinks in its more of a feeling that I’m so grateful to see another page in a book that not everybody gets to see. Most people just stay in their hometown or stay in their state. I have family from different parts of the world, so going back to some state of ancestry of mine touched the heart. We went on tour to Mississippi once, that’s another place that’s a childhood home to me, and being back on the same ground specifically for music, something I loved as a young boy, there’s not words you can put to that. I was crying to the boys at certain points of that. Just super meaningful and special.

Is there anywhere else you went that really connected with you?

Raf: The Belgium countryside for me. I went on this walk, just walking through and in the middle of the hill there’s this walkable path and its pouring down rain, I was trying to grab food, and it was like an hour walk and it was gorgeous. I was looking around and it felt like I was in a Harry Potter book or some forest-fairy land. That was probably the most visually striking.

Joe: I’m definitely a sucker for mountains so Switzerland was so pretty. Being able to walk around there and really take it all in was great. I was surprised with how much I liked France, it was really pretty and the architecture there is fantastic. Also, I love architecture. I love buildings, I’m a sucker for buildings. Amsterdam was very cool. As far as cities go, that one felt like some kind of city slightly in the future compared to a lot of places I’ve been. It was very cool. I can say that honestly about most of the places we visited, there’s a magic and interesting vibe in Europe that I haven’t experienced in the US. Again, I’d love to go back.

What do you guys feel like inspires you and your music the most? Whether it be music or non-music?

Joe: Honestly, we experiences this on our last west coast tour and I was talking about it. The other bands and people. The chance encounters you have where you might not see them ever again, you get to connect with them on a human level. In another case, seeing a bunch of amazing sets from these bands that are really doing it. They are just masters of their craft, it makes me really inspired. So, basically, the connection with random people and how awesome and gracious they are to people they don’t know. Just us, people who show up in their town for a random night, to all the awesome bands who are making true art. It’s very inspiring.

Raf: I feel like it’s a multitude of things with that on top of the excitement you get from creating and being a creator. I used to like architecture as a kid, not like drawing a fake building but trying to build fake little clubhouses. I was creating, I was using my mind to create something that wasn’t there before. Music does that. I feel like with music, people sometimes get so career driven with it, but if you stick to the true bases of why you liked it as a kid I think it’s always going to be something that can give and keep giving.

Joe: To his point, I think creating a song is some sort of puzzle. It’s an equation, but there’s no right or wrong way to do it. There’s these little themes and tricks that you might learn but they also might apply to this or not apply this time. It’s always a unique experience. That’s also very inspiring.

What would be your desert island album? If you could only live off one album for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Joe: It would probably be, it won’t always be the same but for now, What Kinda Music by Yussef Dayes and Tom Misch.

Raf: Why would you do this to us? This is hard. My mom would kill me if I didn’t choose this band, but let me pick which album. The Temptations. Back in the day, I feel like they did have some filler songs unfortunately so there’s only a couple bangers on one record compared to the next. So now I’m like okay I got to do an anniversary album that has all the bangers. Just ‘the greatest of The Temptations’.