George Lewis Jr. (a.k.a. Twin Shadow) is a storyteller. He brings the scope and sensibilities of a filmmaker to his music. You can see it in his music videos, you can hear it in the big, bold, 80s-inspired tunes he penned for his last record Confess.
Lewis was born in the Dominican Republic, raised in suburban Florida, made his way to Boston then Brooklyn where he made some DIY solo recordings that caught the attention of Grizzly Bear‘s Chris Taylor. He helped bring Twin Shadow’s 2010 full-length debut Forget to fruition. The record brings 80s post-punk and new wave synth pop into the 21st century. He even gets a little funky on tunes like “Shooting Holes.” Lewis spent the bulk of 2011 touring, and ran himself pretty ragged. “We had a lot of hard touring, and I really indulged myself,” said Lewis in a July 2012 interview with Pitchfork. “I had to go to the hospital a few times during our [2011] U.S. tour, and it was scary. I don’t really know what happened to me. I just thought I was going to die.”
He took a different tact when he set down to make his sophomore record. “Making Confess was a very sober experience, almost in a hippie-ish way,” said Lewis in the Pitchfork interview. “I was doing yoga. Music’s always been a sobering place for me. I know it’s a cliche, but I get high off music.” He also decided to produce the record himself. The first single from Confess was the booming “Five Seconds,” and, from its quick, unrelenting beat, dramatic synths, and serrated guitar tones, it sounds ripped from the soundtrack from your favorite 80s movie. But before visions of montages bounce through your brain, Lewis makes the old new, and imbues the song with scope and drama without one iota of kitsch we (here in the 2010s) sometimes associate with a decade not exactly known for its subtlety when it comes to pop music. It’s anthemic, it’s cinematic, it’s Twin Shadow.
You can catch Twin Shadow at Fun Fun Fun Fest 2013:
Sat, Nov 9, 11:45 p.m. at ACL Live (official Fun Fest Nites show)
