Upon signing with Mint, Larissa Loyva (P:ano, Kellarissa, The Choir Practice) and Elisha Rembold (Lost Lovers Brigade, Shimmering Stars) looked to label-mate Jay Arner to produce their debut album. In just a handful of sessions, they built on top of their existing demo tracks, fleshing out their dual microKORG playing using Jay’s collection of analog synths. The result is Nightshifting, a radiant collection of sparkling electro-pop that is simultaneously spooky and infectious, nocturnal and pop-friendly.
“Second Wind” captures the band’s combination of dark and light, as a tambourine-ratting dance groove is layered with glittering synth hooks and ghostly, impassioned pleas of “Do you want me? / Do you care?” Elsewhere, “Night Box” and “Uncanny Valley” are urgently sinister, while “Rite of the First Night” anchors its classic teen movie keyboards with a slinky R&B swagger, and “Small Fires” is a serene, heavy-lidded lullaby.
When making Nightshifting, Elisha and Larissa drew on their wealth of songwriting experience, penning material separately and then tying it all together with tight harmonies that act together like a single voice. “She writes, I write, then we bring them together and work them out,” Larissa explains. “There’s the songs Elisha’s written, there’s the songs I’ve written, but we make them our own.”
Elisha chimes in, “We ended up being totally on the same page.” Tellingly, all of the songs are credited jointly to Fake Tears, and it’s impossible for listeners to tell who composed which song.
This is the key to Fake Tears’ success: separately, they have distinct and beautiful voices, but together, they seamlessly combine to make something that’s even greater than the sum of its parts.