Shadowman - 'Flowers'
Shadowman announce their arrival with fiercely assured debut ‘Flowers’.
Shadowman, a new trio born from shared inspirations and creative freedom, unveil their first offering, ‘Flowers’. As debuts go, this one is a complete knockout. Which makes total sense once you understand who Shadowman actually is.
Made up of John J Presley, Ben Hillier and Danielle Perry, Shadowman weaves three unique threads of experience into its sonic tapestry. Ben Hillier, a multi-hyphenated musician and producer, has been producing for notorious artists for the past thirty years, with monikers such as Blur, Depeche Mode, and Howling Bells on the list. His expertise, as well as the backing of his own Sussex-based label, Agricultural Audio, brings creative charge to the project. Danielle Perry brings a background that spans national radio, the Mercury Prize jury, and years spent exploring the bonds between sound and image, as she fits effortlessly into a project built on nuance and sonic detail. Lastly, but by no means least, John J Presley comes battle-tested, with three acclaimed records and subsequent Best Rock Album nominations across mainland Europe, under his belt. United by a Venn diagram of musical influence, these three creative heavyweights make up Shadowman, leading to one of the most intriguing debuts to land this year.
Their first offering, ‘Flowers’, thrives in the murky depths of post-rock production. As frontman John J Presley puts plainly, “the music is a pure experiment with an 80s delay, a recently acquired synth, and a drum machine”. The result is an immersive three and a half minutes, fuelled by insistent drums, sprawling rock swells, and jazz-leaning piano motifs. It’s a tightly spun web of influence, where the grandeur of rock build-ups meets intricate motorik drum machines and subtle atmospheric shifts.
Claustrophobia haunts ‘Flowers’, seeping into John J’s lyrics: “I’ve been dreaming of you / In this air-conditioned room / Trapped in the ember / Of this moment.” It’s felt, too, in the song’s dense sonic world, made all the more poignant by Pete Wareham’s frenzied saxophone interjections and head-tightening textures. The chorus crashes in with lightning intensity, thunderous and booming, whilst John J Presley’s intense and poetic vocal delivery on the verses subdues the instrumentation beneath him.
Speaking on the lyrical themes of ‘Flowers’, John J Presley shares:
“I wrote the lyrics for 'Flowers' after seeing a friend in the street who had just parted ways with his partner. Moments later, I saw the ex-girlfriend with her new man, looking very much in the throes of the early days of any new relationship.”
The video, directed by Laura-Mary Carter, widens the world of ‘Flowers’ into a fever dream. Built on contrast, colour only appears when the flowers are in frame. They burn bright against the monochrome shots of empty country roads and John J’s lone figure. With a strobing pulse, the film flickers between the flowers’ vivid oranges and pinks and its shadow-drenched, film-noir vignettes.
As Shadowman’s debut single, ‘Flowers’ feels less like an introduction and more like a statement of intent. They’re a collective already fluent in their own sonic language, arriving with a sound that’s equal parts intuition, vision, and expertise. With ‘Flowers’ as their starting point, the road ahead looks wide open for Shadowman.
Words by Sasha Renn
