Long time locals are likely already familiar with the Austin Music Video Festival but what you might not know is that festival co-founder Jeremy David Roye also has his own solo musical project entitled Shimmer Island. When AMVF got postponed due to the pandemic, Roye sent his eight-year-old daughter back to her mother in France, and unsurprisingly he was left in distress with little but his own creativity for comfort. Fortunately Roye got some much-needed relief when he joined forces with arranger Nathaniel Earl and instrumentalist Shane Wood and began crafting Shimmer Island’s sophomore album.
Where Shimmer Island’s 2021 debut Violet Waves developed a diverse set of styles, No Man Is An Island commits itself to themes of emotional restoration, love, and connection across a handful of intimate indie-folk originals, like a lovechild of Bon Iver and Sylvan Esso. No Man Is An Island drops tomorrow and Shimmer Island celebrates with an EP release show that same evening at Far Out Lounge along with Chucky BLK and our July 2021 Artist of the Month Daniel Fears. As you could’ve guessed from a music video afficionado, Shimmer Island also has a real knack for tantalizing visual counterparts, so if Far Out’s not in the cards this weekend, you can tap into nature without suffering through triple digits by visiting the McKinney Falls scenery of “Starkville (When You Breathe)”.
–Jack Anderson
