Shit Present release new single ‘What Still Gets Me’ - “Yet another song about complete mental collapse”
Shit Present release the title track from their forthcoming debut album ‘What Still Gets Me’
featuring guest vocals from Georgia McDonald (Camp Cope):
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The album is out 5th May via Specialist Subject:
The title track from emo power pop trio Shit Present’s imminent debut album has been released in anticipation of the full length. The track ‘What Still Gets Me’ features guest vocals from Camp Cope’s Georgia McDonald. “It’s not always a stranger in the dark / It’s the person you trust that goes too far,” the pair yell in a call-and-response style that showcases the strength in allowing yourself to finally feel angry. “I wrote this riff in 2019 and still couldn’t play it when we recorded in 2021,” says vocalist and guitarist Iona Cairns about that complex opening series of musical notes. “I spent those two years repeatedly trying to get better at it but it is too hard and I can’t wait to embarrass myself playing it live. This song is pretty self-explanatory and expresses a lot of feelings I have about men that I haven’t talked to people much about so it is kind of scary for me to think about people hearing it. I felt like it needed another female voice in this song and so I asked my friend Georgia from Camp Cope if she would sing on it. She replied ‘yes’ then emailed her parts over like two days later.”
‘What Still Gets Me’, the album, is set for release 5th May via Specialist Subject Records. It also features ‘Unravelling’ which serves as a disconcerting representation of a “complete psychotic breakdown”, the lyrically nihilistic ‘More To Lose’, “I’ve been to therapy” song ‘Voice In Your Head’ and the boldly brilliant ‘Fuck It’. Shit Present’s previous EPs ‘Shit Present’ (2015) and ‘Misery + Disaster’ (2016) have been repressed too and are available to order now. The releases garnered acclaim for Cairns’ fervent vocals, exploring themes of anxiety, depression and solitude.
While ‘What Still Gets Me’ doesn’t shy away from the heavier topics, there is a playful reprieve, a kind of comfort among the chaos. “I was trying to let my 13-year-old self out, the one that loved all the embarrassing pop-punk,” Cairns explains. By leaning into the joy that made her love music in the first place, ‘What Still Gets Me’ urged Cairns to express herself more freely than ever before, with the help of bandmates Thom Weeks (guitar, bass, vocals) and Ben Cottam (drums).
“The first song on this album was the first song I wrote after a period of about three years struggling to write anything at all” Cairns explains. “I realised that it still felt good; I do want to write an album.” Opener ‘Cram The Page’ is a propulsive release, starting with a collage of looped, crunchy feedback. Through detached, driving strums, Cairns details the strains of coming to terms with her bipolar disorder. “She’s lost all her friends, doesn’t blame them at all / They watched her climb to the edge and couldn’t bear the fall,” she sings, commanding and steady. But this isn’t an introduction to an LP about the constraints of mental illness; instead, it’s a cathartic statement of perseverance, shedding the stigmas of stiff upper lips and embracing the vulnerability in sharing your story, even if it helps just one person. Power-pop banger ‘Beyond Tonight’ is a snappy, ear-worm chant, as Cairns sings “Trust me I can’t fall apart, I’m too strong now I’m so enough,” while ‘Crossed The Line’ barks “What a colossal waste of time, Reassuring you we’re fine” over booming guitars.
‘What Still Gets Me’ deals with weighty emotions, but it’s not an album about helplessness or intimidation. Through Cairns’ exorcising vocal delivery and the band’s relentless sonic arrangements, there’s a kind of rebirth that announces she is not a victim of herself nor anyone else. It’s a surrender to the feelings that make us uncomfortable, pushing them to the forefront instead of hiding them behind a curtain. By owning the messy, ever-changing landscape of our interior worlds, Shit Present offers up a collection where we can find solace in even our darkest, scariest moments.
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