Inspired #181 - SHRINK
Having already gained support from tastemaker Abbie McCarthy and named within Phil Taggert’s Next Wave on Radio 1 - SHRINK has just released his new single ‘Eraser’ along with news of his debut EP - coming February next year. He took a moment to talk us through the inspirations behind his music.
Who are your top three musical inspirations?
Hard to pick but I would say the people who I’m listening to who are impacting my writing and production the most are Juana Molina, Deerhoof and John Martyn. Juana Molina’s recent album has been a favourite of mine, I think her production is really interesting and always compliments the songwriting very nicely, I also like her use of repetition. Deerhoof I admire for their disregard for formal song structuring, it’s like they can fit in 4 different songs into one and play it off perfectly. I also love Greg Saunier’s attitude when playing live. John Martyn has always been a musical inspiration. My mum painted ‘Solid Air’ for my 21st birthday. His songwriting and vocal delivery are both amazing.
Is there a certain film that inspires you?
I’m more of a documentary person, I watched ‘cave of forgotten dreams’ and ‘little dieter needs to fly’ by Werner Herzog recently whilst set isolating, both were very inspiring, ironic considering the setting in which I was watching them,
What city do you find the most inspiring?
I have always found Lisbon is the one city that blew me away, it’s hard to describe why but it was just very beautiful and welcoming. It also has a very interesting art scene there, I love Braulio Amado and Manstrate who are both there at the moment.
What were your inspirations when writing your new track?
The main inspiration behind the tracks I’ve written recently has been my family, mainly my brother but my mother aswell. My brother went through a spell of quite bad depression, which he’s been very open about. He recently came out the other side of it and that impacted my life a lot so I feel it’s something that I draw a lot of information from.
How would you like to inspire people?
I’ve never thought about this but if there was one way it would be to offer some sort of reassurance or distraction from the current goings on.