Dumb Crush can’t see the forest for the trees in the claustrophobic and chaotic video for their superb debut single Witches In The Dark — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
As the old saying goes: You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. Based on their first (and so far only) release, this wet-behind-the-ears Toronto trio clearly get the concept — and know how to execute it. Casually cool and smartly spry, Witches In The Dark taps the sweet spot between indie-rock, power-pop and post-punk (with just a dash of goth) in its zesty blend of chiming melodic guitars, dusty vocals and a soaring singalong chorus. Looking for that elusive song to slide into a playlist with contemporary stalwarts like Vampire Weekend and The Strokes — along with The Cure and other vintage British bands that influenced them? Look no further.
Not bad for a track that was cut on the fly and off the floor barely two months after the band formed. In keeping with that time-is-fleeting, seat-of-the-pants aesthetic, the songs’s Blair Witch-style video is a masterclass in DIY simplicity, with a single POV camera following the bandmembers as they run frantically through the woods in the middle of the night. Are they in hot pursuit of someone/something or fleeing in terror? Only they know for sure. But here’s a secret they’re willing to share: As spooky as the whole affair seems, the song is really about an innocent mishap during a bad day in grade school.
“Witches In The Dark recounts a fifth-grade gym class I had where a substitute teacher showed up late and asked us to play a game of tag with the lights off — which the teacher called Witches In The Dark,” says singer-bassist Owen Hooper. “Naturally, I collided head-first with another kid and had a gushing bloody nose for the duration of the morning. Lyrically, I wanted to evoke the chaos that people face every day heading to work, and the emotional learning curve of pain, guilt and blame that we endure when coming of age.” Did he nail it? Read for yourself:
“Well isn’t this a funny kinda game?
Look so familiar but her face it doesn’t seem the same
But I’ll play it, yeah I’ll play it in the dark
I feel the blood is dripping down my chin
The moment after impact running through my brain again
It’s OK now I don’t blame you
’Cause we’re the witches in the dark.”
Games may be afoot — but the trio weren’t playing around when they tracked this punchy little nugget. “We recorded Witches In the Dark over the course of two hours,” Hooper says. “The time constraint and tracking without a metronome forced us to adhere to a raw, minimalist production approach. We did three or four takes live off the floor and ended up going with the second. We have pride in this song not because of its perfection, but because of its imperfection.
“The Dumb Crush ethos is to shed the expectation that we need to use technology to perfectly polish our performances. If you listen closely, you can even hear a mic stand on the drum kit get accidentally struck and wobble around. It’s these idiosyncrasies and blemishes that give the tune its character and show that we find comfort in chaos.”
Along with Hooper, Dumb Crush features tenured DIY drummer Liam Colbert (Rise Carmine) and guitarist Elliott Isaac (Cam Kahin, CJ Wiley). They have each played hundreds off shows across North America and Europe and collectively amassed over a million streams with various projects.
Now united as Dumb Crush, they make music in reaction to the mundanities of 21st-century decadence, according to their bio. Their songs “navigate a fever-dream of proto-apocalyptic shoebox condo capitalism and the devastating weight of the warm and fuzzy nostalgia industry… It is a call to get up from your desk, stick your head out the window and scream.”
Having just formed in June, Dumb Crush just might be one of the country’s best-kept secrets — for now. Get ahead of the game by watching their Witches In The Dark video above, listening to the track below, and professing your love on their website, Instagram and TikTok.
