Shiv’s ‘Always Watching’ Album Debut Revealed
Toronto punks Shiv and the Carvers are ready to deliver a potent dose of digital dread with the announcement of their debut album, Always Watching, set for release on October 29 via Twin Fang.
Accompanying the album is their new single, “Screens,” a track that immediately dives into the anxiety of the modern age. The band has framed the new work as their “firstborn, our perfect little angel,” a reflection of their struggle to find meaning within the chaotic realities of contemporary existence.
The album is, in essence, a sonic depiction of the environment they inhabit. Shiv and the Carvers describe their music as a perfect fusion born from their collective experience, aiming to represent the pressures and struggles of living in what they term the “technofascist hellscape.”
To achieve this visceral sound, the band pushed themselves far beyond familiar structures. They experimented by layering tracks and pulling heavily from diverse genres, introducing new instrumentation that gives the album its unique texture. On the track Executionary, Shiv explored the sounds of her grandad’s fiddle, while other instrumentalists brought in elements like the trumpet and the theremin, injecting a wonderfully strange dimension into the soundscape.
The single “Screens” is a particularly sharp commentary on our reliance on technology. It addresses the psychological burden of our devices, exploring the idea of the “horrifying adult pacifiers” we use to cope with the world. It’s a stark look at how we are conditioned to rely on these digital screens for everything, creating a dependency that feels both marvelous and deeply unsettling.
Beyond the music, the band uses their work to explore broader societal anxieties about connectivity and attention. They observe how modern smartphones, while offering access to the world, simultaneously manipulate our attention spans and flood us with images of war and commercial advertising. They articulate a pervasive feeling of unease, reflecting on how we process information and struggle to disconnect in a hyper-connected world.
By weaving these personal anxieties into a complex musical tapestry, Shiv and the Carvers offer more than just catchy tunes; they offer a raw, urgent meditation on the digital age, reminding listeners that even in the glow of the screen, there is a profound and unsettling reality to be observed.
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