Premiere: The Shakes, ‘Talking to Strangers’

Kevin Bronson on November 8th, 2019

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Simple conversations can sometimes become out-of-body experiences, especially when you suddenly don’t recognize the words coming out of your own mouth. “Talking to strangers / Boy, I’m in danger / I become someone I despise,” Sean Perry confesses on the Shakes’ new single “Talking to Strangers.”

The song is the last from the rising O.C./Long Beach indie-rock quintet’s “From the Bedroom Vol. 1,” a collection of tunes recorded in their living room and produced by Perry and keyboardist Syd Tagle. The songs echo with nostalgia and yearning as Perry casts a line into the ocean of his emotions hoping to reel in some degree of optimism. “Talking” taps into the tender melodicism that’s been at the core of the Shakes’ music so far.

“Talking to Strangers” took root this past summer just before the Shakes’ memorable set at Echo Park Rising. “I wrote this song in the green room before our set,” he says. “We were struggling deciding on what song to release for the last song of ‘From The Bedroom Vol.1.’ Following up on our previous single ‘I Just Want To Feel Something,’ it was a completely opposite direction but something about it felt right.

“This tune might be one of the most personal songs I’ve ever written. I bring up certain anxieties I deal with on a daily basis, especially being in large crowds. I hate it. My hearing is bad enough already, and when people try to converse with me while there’s loud music/people talking in the background I tend to turn a bit awkward.”

Perry explains that recording and producing a song proved a challenge as well. “We wanted to take a chance with it to the best of our abilities and make it still feel like a ‘bedroom’ demo,” he says. “I asked our friend Billy Wilson if he wanted to bring over some obscure instruments to add some different elements throughout the song, he killed it.”

The band — Perry and Tagle along with guitarist Cameron Pearson, bassist Tanner Henderson and drummer Levi Matullis — have a new EP in the works for the new year.

||| Stream: “Talking to Strangers”