The SHIVAS, LEFTIES @ SODA BAR For The SHIVAS, the show has always
been the thing. That thing being a bombastic, explosive and thoroughly
communal live rock and roll experience where barriers between the
performers and their audience seem to dissolve into the sweat and
sound. It’s the stage—or the basement, or the living
room—that’s the Portland band’s true element. It’s their
raison d’etre. It’s their religion. Recording, though, is less
instinctive for The SHIVAS. Where live shows are ethereal products of
the moment, albums last forever. It’s a lot of pressure. Which is
one reason it took three full recording sessions to finish their
ambitious and mature new LP, Dark Thoughts (the band’s first release
for the Tender Loving Empire label), but when the stars aligned they
took the opportunity to face their insecurities—one of the many
reasons the album is called Dark Thoughts. Working with Portland
producer Cameron Spies (Radiation City, Night Heron), they learned to
stop worrying over the finite nature of an album, drummer Kristin
Leonard says. “Now I try to think of an album as this cool little
snapshot in time. It’s never going to be perfect, and it really
forces you to face your demons. It’s like therapy, where all of a
sudden you can’t avoid them anymore. You put it all on the table.”
Putting it all on the Table, confronting your demons, the growth that
comes from fearless self-examination—those are the themes that
resound throughout Dark Thoughts. It is a sweet and sinister album,
and it can be hard to tell where the light ends and the darkness
begins. The album is a defining sonic achievement for the band, which
began booking their own tours in high school. The group blasted their
way through Portland’s storied and unsanctioned mid-aughts house
show scene. Since then they have played over 1,000 shows spread over
25 countries, meeting new fans and friends from Belgrade to Mexico
City. But The SHIVAS—guitarist/singer Jared Molyneux, bassist Eric
Shanafelt and drummer/singer Kristin Leonard have all been with the
band since its earliest days; guitarist Jeff Boyardee joined in
2017—still speak about their project with a DIY humility that sounds
like their native Pacific Northwest. They talk up their own favorite
bands, play all-ages shows whenever possible, and they bring a sort of
blue-collar humanism to the live performances they relish so much.
“We just want to make people feel good,” guitarist/singer Jared
Molyneux says. “We want them to forget they have to work
tomorrow.” Dark Thoughts is the sound of a tight-knit band whose
members have learned not just how to trust each other, but how to grow
together. “Being adults now,” Leonard says. “We’re starting to
talk a lot more philosophically about why we do what we do. Some of my
favorite music came from people needing to find a space. Music is just
such a visceral place to find a release.” That’s what The SHIVAS
ARE HERE FOR: to help people get free, if even just for an hour. If
they drop a few great albums along the way, so be it.
https://theshivas.com [https://theshivas.com]
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27/01/2020 Last update