Nightshifts is the recording project of Toronto based songwriter Andrew Oliver. He works his magic across vintage synths, groovy guitars and drum machines during late-night recording sessions to create soulful and cosmic pop tunes. Nightshifts delivers slow-building progressions of phased synthesizers and delay-coated guitars to create powerful atmospheres that feels close-at-home. The project is both exciting and complex with a fast-growing reputation for kaleidoscopic production and soulful songwriting.
His music carries an underlying theme of imbalance and the challenge to stay present, with the musician confiding, “I very often get caught up thinking about past situations, and looking towards future ones. I write a lot about this imbalance.
And ironically, the times I feel most in the moment is when I’m working on music.” Aiming to create music to teleport you to paradise, even if it’s just for three minutes, Nightshifts creates a space to both boogie and feel introspective, whilst learning and feeling something new with each and every turn.
“Rest” is a place of euphoria and peace. The single gives off a scent of calmness, entering with striking, swirling synths and muffled, hazy guitars, giving us the atmospheric dreamland of Nightshifts. Beginning with a slow burn, before kicking in with carefree, liberating indie juice, “Rest” features woozy guitar solos and spacey backing vocals, creating an escape and transporting us into the tropical, indie whirlpool that we’ve come to love.
The narrative of the track stems from an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion and the inability to sleep, after returning home from a long tour. The songwriter shares, “I was playing over moments in my head, thinking about past missed opportunities, and times when I should have expressed myself, just worrying about things which were outside of my control.
I was feeling overtired and sentimental.” After waking up the next day with mental clarity and relief, he wrote this track to signify the importance of getting rest. He continues, “I have always had a rocky relationship with sleep, I wanted to use this song as a reminder to myself, that whenever I’m feeling a bit funky, I may just need some rest.”
