Twin Shadow’s Nostalgia
Singer Spends Time with Haim on "Saturdays"
The new single from singer/songwriter and record producer Twin Shadow (whose real name is George Lewis, Jr.) shows off his skills in the recording booth just as much as his skills behind a mixing board. As a songwriter, he worked on a few singles for California Indie Pop trio Haim. To return the favor, the Este Sisters appear on his new single “Saturdays,” which is on his new album, Caer.
The song is the perfect throwback to synth hits from the late 80s and early 90s, while paying homage to pop culture from that era in the music video, which is directed by Twin Shadow himself with Aaron Hymes. “Saturdays” is a good mixture of Prince’s more lowkey jams like “When U Were Mine,” but could almost appear on a Haim album as well. It really shows how well Twin Shadow and Haim work together as recording artists with the same pop sensibility to make it a mainstream hit, with lyrics like,
“Saturdays
When we dance in the dark in the room
Where it all gets real
I know you know how it feels
Saturdays
When the moonlight lit up your face
And let love spark.”
George Lewis Jr. is a music producer and singer/songwriter from Bushwick, New York. He now resides and works in Los Angeles, where he’s released four albums since 2010 under the moniker Twin Shadow. A real Renascence man, he appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto V; composed a few songs for the movie Paper Towns in 2015; wrote a novel titled “The Night of the Silver Sun” in 2012; and has collaborated with the likes of Lady Gaga, Neon Indian, and, of course, Haim.
“I want it to have this kind of nostalgic feeling,” Twin Shadow told Vice’s Noisy music vertical. “I wanted it to have this sense of, you’ve woken up after the disaster and things are clear. And the idea of that song is just, we’re all looking around us right now and thinking, ‘Is this the end?’ Like, this really actually could be the end. And we’re all beyond the point of denial.
Because we actually are powerless. We actually cannot do anything to stop the juggernaut. It’s just spun out of our control, and we want to, and we should, continue to try to keep it all together. But it’s out of our control, and this song is about bringing your emotions back to the important things, the things that actually do connect to the things that you had control over at one point, and there was joy, because you had control of something.”
“Saturday” is available on Spotify and Apple Music. Caer is out now.
