Denver-based moody art-rockers shadow work make music that feels like your soul being pulled through a black hole, burst into trillions of tiny particles of dust and spread out through the universe. It propels the listener through the cosmos at breakneck speeds, the Earth a distant memory they carry in their heart because they once called it home. The band plays with tension so well that each note feels like stardust being pressed into something new and beautiful and alive. They exemplify this beautifully in their new single, “Idyll,” a powerful rumination on losing a loved one.
Released on January 31st, the song feels timeless, celestial, transcendent of the typical comprehension of time and space in favor of something beyond. Though it deals with themes greater than mankind, it is also deeply personal, an enigmatic study in the tension found within great loss that only shadow work is capable of producing.
303 Magazine recently spoke with shadow work about the new single, their many recent tours, the evolution of their writing process, the versatility of the human experience and much more.
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303 Magazine: Hello! So it’s been almost two years since we first talked with you. In that time, you’ve put out a ton of music and toured seemingly constantly. Do you have any stories or thoughts from the road you’d like to share?
shadow work: Yeah, it’s been a while! We’re glad to be able to catch up with you after so long! We had a very busy year. 2024 found us touring across the US and Europe and releasing a good chunk of music, too. It’s wild to think of how much has happened in such a short amount of time!
Our European excursion was definitely a highlight of our year. Navigating the cultural distinctions was a pleasantly novel experience, and the level of hospitality was humbling. We bounced from city to city, soaking up every bit of experience that we could (while barely sleeping). And to think, we were lucky enough to play our music amid stunning French architecture, breathtaking Swiss mountains, and the pristine Belgian countryside. We are so grateful for the experience, and we can’t wait to go back!
One thought we always seem to come back to is the universality of the human experience. Whether it was New York or Kansas City or Amsterdam, people are people. We are much more similar than we are different. And the throughline continues to be a humbling level of kindness and generosity afforded to complete strangers. I don’t think we’ll ever get over how cool humans are, wherever you go.
303: How would you say the band has evolved over that period of time?
sw: Well, I’d like to think we’ve gotten better at just about every aspect of the music game. We’ve refined our processes from composing to performing and designing to booking. It’s these incremental yet consistent evolutions that add up. We just keep on keepin’ on. It seems to work for us.
303: Your music tends to be a rather masterful demonstration of tension and release and “Idyll” is no different. The quiet moments have this uneasy peace to them that makes the louder, more confrontational feeling moments really feel cathartic. How do you build that tension and what is it about the sort of ebb and flow between building into these charged moments and catharsis that you seem to return to?
sw: Thanks! We’re glad “Idyll” is connecting with you on that level. We build that sort of ebb and flow by creating a lot of dynamic peaks and valleys in our songs. We don’t want things to feel repetitive, so we constantly progress at least one aspect of the composition to keep the ball rolling to a series of satisfying payoffs. And while we all have varying degrees of musical training, at our core, we are ‘ear players’ who judge the success of our songs by how they make us feel. We find this tension and release really satisfying and interesting. We really want our songs to be interesting and exciting to us, and if others appreciate them, too, that’s the icing on the cake.
303: Tell me about how the single first came together. How did the writing process begin?
sw: The song started as the massive guitar riff you hear at the beginning and end of the track. And like all of our songs, “Idyll” was born through a lot of jamming, listening, and critiquing. Lyrically, a death in the family set the stage for the bittersweet, anthemic intensity that permeates the track. This one is close to the heart.
303: Has your approach to songwriting changed at all over the years?
sw: It has definitely evolved. As our communication and personal processes have developed, so has our collective process. We try to play to our strengths. A notable change came in the early stages of our most recent writing process: we wrote nearly 100 musical ideas before whittling them down to 30, and then to 10 ideas. And we are still trimming down that number to create the best batch of songs we can. Giving ourselves this many options to work from has definitely improved our writing process, and we think our future releases will reflect that.
303: Can you tell me a bit about recording the single? Was it more difficult or easier than some of your other releases? Anything you could tell me would be great.
sw: We recorded this track at our home studio last winter. Being cooped up in a snowy Denver suburb made for a cozy recording experience. It was very interesting to compose and record the choir of voices found at the beginning and end of “Idyll.” Overall, the recording process was relatively standard.
303: Finally, is there anything else on the horizon for shadow work or anyone you’d like to shout out?
sw: We’ll be touring Europe in June 2025! Locally, we have two Colorado shows coming up: 2/20 in Denver at Hi Dive, and 2/22 in Ft Collins at Surfside 7. We also have somewhat of a “sister single” called “Kerosene” coming out this spring. It’s a rambunctious track to mosh too! This fall, we’ll be recording with Grammy award-winning producer John Scott in Boston for our first LP.
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