Twin Shadow performs in The Current studio
by Jade
April 13, 2015
George Lewis Jr., better knows as Twin Shadow, is an ambitious person. "I hate feeling stagnant," he says. "It's this thing that kind of torments me a little bit."
In an example of that ambition, Twin Shadow recently moved from 4AD Records to Warner Brothers, which put out his latest album, Eclipse, on March 17 of this year.
Perhaps also indicative of his drive is the fact Twin Shadow and his entire band loaded into The Current's studio at 8 a.m. today — practically nocturnal by the standards of the music industry — just so they could be ready for an in-studio session with Jade ahead of their live show at First Avenue in Minneapolis tonight. "I enjoy playing music for people," Twin Shadow tells Jade. "It's probably one of the greatest things. If you can do it and make a living doing it and do it every night or every other night, you're very blessed in a way to have that. That keeps me going. … It's kind of profound how great that is."
Here are additional highlights from Twin Shadow's interview with Jade:
On the name Twin Shadow:
"I kind of have two brains: I have this very traditional, singer-songwriter brain, and then this producer brain where I'm obsessed with soundscape in general. It's a constant a battle between the two: I actually think 'Twin Shadow' is a pretty good representation of the two fighting each other all the time."
On the origins of his musical fascination:
"One thing I always talk about is listening to Paul Simon's Graceland when I was four or five years old and being blown away by all the sounds because there are so many instruments that you don't hear every day in pop music on that record, and there are so many voices you don't hear in American pop music. … I immediately wanted to know, 'What is that drum sound and how do you play that?' and 'What is that bass sound and how do you play that?'
"My lifelong obsession with instruments got started there. I'm not great at any of them, but I'm obsessed with learning how to do them enough to communicate something."
On the selecting the title track for his album:
"While thinking about the record, I think the lyrics in this song ["Eclipse"] best represented the album as a whole: The chorus is very much about the push and pull of everything and things passing each other and creating shadows, creating light, creating a spectacle when light appears. That's how I felt about the sound of the record and the content of the record. It just immediately made sense to call the record that."
On giving others creative input on the album, Eclipse:
"I never saw it as giving up control; I'm always interested in doing what I haven't done before, so if that means allowing more people to be involved in the music and given more input, [so be it]. I hate being stagnant, so I felt like it was a way of just shaking things up for me a little bit."
Songs Performed
"Turn Me Up"
"Eclipse"
"Flatliners"
All songs off Twin Shadow's album, Eclipse, out now on Warner Bros. Records.
Hosted by Jade
Produced by Derrick Stevens
Engineered by Michael DeMark, Zack Rose and Henry Ingber
Web feature by Luke Taylor
