Little Shrine take a shine to the apple of their eye in their lovingly devoted new single Baby It’s You — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The latest preview of the San Francisco indie band’s upcoming album Heart Instruction, the warm and welcoming piano of Baby It’s You delivers a beautifully melodic breeze of Elephant 6-reminiscent twee-pop — while its sweetly sincere lyrics are a testament to the genuine, unshakable romantic bonds that make everything in life just a little better (or at least more tolerable):
“When the world makes me want to laugh,
There’s no one like you,
To laugh with like we do,
‘Til I can barely breathe.
When it’s hard and I start to succumb,
You tell me to fight,
I know you’re right,
And so I do.
‘Cause baby it’s you
Baby it’s you
You feel it too,
I know you do.”
Unsurprisingly, love (or the lack thereof) is a rich vein that runs down the center of Heart Instruction. But perhaps not in the way you expect. While brainstorming the album title, Little Shrine singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jade Shipman was searching for an idea that encompassed those moments when you’re inspired in a new direction — not based on any habitual patterns, but on an intuitive sense of knowing what’s right for you. The record is an alternately rollicking and introspective meditation on self love, divine healing, and what it means to really care for your heart — to thoughtfully guide and nurture it; not shutting it down or telling it no per se, but being your heart’s steward and keeper.
“There are times your heart leads you down the wrong path,” Jade says, “when it guides you toward longing or loss. You can’t just let it run amok like a child storming the cockpit of an airplane and grabbing the controls — however much fun that kid might be having in the moment. Lately I’ve spent a lot of time in dialogue with all these different parts of myself. When my heart really wants something, I’ll ask it why — I’ll ask it to tell me more. And then the brain inevitably jumps in and starts asking a million questions. This new album reflects this struggle to get everybody together inside the self to make good decisions that feel aligned with the heart.”
Due Dec. 6, Heart Instruction is a diverse affair, spanning subgenres of rock, pop and folk. Opening track Take A Number is a hyper-catchy cannonball of an unapologetic garage banger — a song about trusting your instincts in life and relationships. A gorgeous, hopeful blend of fiddle-anchored Americana, indie folk and chamber pop, The Other Side explores artists’ mysterious and flawed relationship with their muse, while Knives is a theatrical indie-pop anthem about respecting yourself enough to honour personal boundaries. And the slow-burning Butterflies — the artistic and thematic centerpiece of this set — “deals with sadness, and being pulled out of that sadness by positive messages from some place outside the self,” Jade says. “It’s about a longing to ask God or some Higher Power for support, feeling unworthy to ask, and then in the midst of it all, being visited by a reassuring calm — an understanding that everything is going to be OK.”
Heart Instruction was recorded at San Francisco’s Different Fur Studios with producer Ben Bernstein — who worked on the two previous Little Shrine records — and mixed by engineer Beau Sorenson (Taylor Swift, Tegan & Sara, Death Cab for Cutie). The recording process was a completely fresh approach for Jade this go-round. She had a strong vision for the album and built much of what she calls “the backbones” of these songs herself. The process began with Bernstein setting up various stations (drum kit, bass rig, piano, vocal booth, etc.) and Jade alternating between them until each song’s framework was in place. “When I went into the studio this time, I knew I wanted to play exactly what I was hearing in my head as a starting point,” she says. “It was so much fun, probably the most fun I’ve ever had making a record.”
Next, Jade brought in Little Shrine guitarist Tony Schoenberg and violinist Ryan Avery, who fleshed things out, adding texture and nuance. Having already put her stamp on the sessions, she gave them only the most basic instruction and encouraged them to run with their own ideas. “Talking about it less divorces you from intellectual conceptualizing, which I think can be very freeing,” Jade says. “Tony and Ryan’s contributions were essential — they really elevate the songs and make them sparkle.”
Jade confesses that when she writes music — and the songs on Heart Instruction are no exception — she feels almost physically ill, as if she’s a vessel and something is about to be birthed. Her songs aren’t so much crafted as received from beyond. It’s a practice of channeling, then chiseling things down. “I can feel a song coming on,” she says. “It’s like a download, a transmission. It doesn’t feel like it’s mine, to be perfectly honest. They come quick, in a torrent for about 10 to 15 minutes, and it’s usually the whole song. Sometimes more than I need — seven verses, a chorus, melodies, drum parts, bass lines, guitar accents. So from there it’s a matter of subtracting and refining things.”
Always on Jade’s mind when working on a new song, is the question of what’s intended for her personally and what’s for everybody else. “I never want to be prescriptive in my music, as if I’m telling other people what to do with their lives,” she says, “because I don’t know what’s right for them. So I’m always walking this fine line of receiving these messages I feel are meant to be communicated outward, but then figuring a way to do that while still respecting people’s agency and life choices.
“With my lyrics, I used to enjoy when things were super vague — I would hide there a little bit. One of the older songs on the record, Family Crow, for example — the refrain was “I don’t know what I’m doing.” But these days I do feel like I know what I’m doing. That stress and anxiety of not knowing where you’re headed, while it’s not completely gone, it doesn’t dominate my life the way it once did. Now I’m more interested in trying to understand what the Universe wants me to say, and then communicating in the most direct way possible.”
Check out Baby It’s You above, hear more from Little Shrine below, and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
