While most music can be enjoyed all year long, we’re firm believers in so-called “summer songs.” Perhaps they were written and recorded during a different part of the year and, yeah, they can absolutely be listened to anytime, but “summer songs” just seem to exude the warmth, optimism, and vibrancy that’s synonymous of summertime. On Thursday, June 20 (coincidentally, the first day of summer), a new project called Shorelining will release its debut EP, which consists of six—you guessed it!—full-fledged summer songs.
Shorelining is the aural endeavor of Jesse Harmon, a current member of “horror psych” band Zang! and the former guitarist/vocalist of great post-punk project Piles. When Piles quietly called it quits last year, Harmon says he “was bored” and wanted to learn how to record his own material. Essentially, Shorelining served as a vehicle to let Harmon experiment in his home studio at his own pace.
“It was a liberating experience in some sense because it gave me lots of time to mess with different sounds,” Harmon tells Milwaukee Record. “It also gave me a newfound appreciation for talented and skilled recording professionals I’ve worked with before.”
Though it’s technically a recording project above all else, Shorelining’s self-titled EP is downright dazzling. Harmon’s hushed and delicate vocals on light and breezy tracks like “Reason” and “Forever” are almost indistinguishable from the dark and dour lyrics he applied to much of Piles’ material. Aside from some drum accompaniment from Josh Evert (who also mastered the album at his Silver City Studios) and Andy Worzella on two songs, Harmon played everything, sang every song, and wrote the entirety of Shorelining himself. If the Shorelining EP was a means of testing his recording abilities, Harmon passed with flying colors.
Over the span of just under 20 minutes, the shimmering, atmospheric, and indie-leaning EP manages to permeate warmth, possibility, and sun-soaked emotion that can transport listeners to the shores of Lake Michigan on a pristine June day. Before Shorelining’s self-titled debut is officially released on June 20, welcome summer a few days early and listen to it in its entirety below.