“It could snow when you come to New York," he tells me. I don't remember the last time I saw snow. It’s kind of a foreign concept to me, that the world can get so cold that the properties of matter are affected. How do we as natural beings deal with constant change, lithification, and the extreme? During these times, do we immediately call on the moment to end or do we hope that maybe time will also freeze over so that we may savor something that will be gone soon? Whatever your interpretation might be, both are as existent as the other, and thinking otherwise is almost like trying to distinguish truth from faith. 

See here, Chanel Beads live in both worlds as he awaits his upcoming debut albumYour Day Will Come.

Ahead of his ​​April 19 release via Jagjaguwar, Shane Lavers of Chanel Beads shares his new single, “Idea June,” where he finds harmony in the natural ebbs and flows of desire and detachment. A dense sound wall of erratic yet sweet strings ​​navigates a realm that oscillates between detached observation and close sincerity. Lavers says, “I always love stuff that feels like it's the wrong mix or something–like you uploaded the wrong file and it’s missing something. Or it’s drowning itself out or fighting with itself.” 

And it lies true within “Idea June.” There is a conflict of longing for something just beyond the reach of our fingertips. Like a chorus or maybe a humble prayer, frequent collaborator and live bandmate Maya McGrory sings: I want to be with you / I want to see if it’s true. Only staying long enough to send a message and nothing more, it feels as if the 90-second track shows a quick moment of tenderness amongst an overwhelming act of strength.

This comes after 2022 singles “Ef” and “True Altruism” and his latest release and first single off of YDWC, “Police Scanner.” It is here where unfiltered strings play and gentle introspection lay against bursts of distortion and unconventional instrumentation leading to eventual emotional resonance. With time it seems as if his debut offering builds off the same world but a slightly different dimension from what we know—playing off what-ifs, recurring dream sequences, and deja vu, wherein we are only limited by what we consider reality. It is in this blurred state where our intentions meet our yearnings and where the things we usually keep in the dark are foretold. 

Lavers confesses, “I’m really into the idea of writing music that doesn’t really show yourself in a great light. So there’s a little bit of inspiration to ‘Idea June’ of trying to be really real.” But maybe it's through this distortion that what's contrived becomes real, as layers of grand strings and synthetic instruments intertwine to act as perspective and idiosyncracies built from ambiguity. Perhaps, in the same way a picture can replace a person over time, music can replace or feed into a memory or feeling.

So, does everything need to be explained or have context to hold meaning? Can we find a home in the mystique and leave space for interpretation? He answers, “Sometimes I’ll get overzealous and start telling someone what a song is about, and I’m like, ‘but it’s not really about that or is it?’ And I’ll realize I’m leaving out a pretty important thing because it’s personal.” But the roots of our unconsciousness seep through even when we don't mean for it to–in the same way thoughts can lead to actions. Every day we are in constant tension with the unseen and what is already known. And while it can be easier to say what you mean and mean what you say, maybe it will still be lost in translation only to succumb to interpretation.

“If it existed perfectly as an idea that I could say, then I would’ve just said it; I wouldn’t have made it into a song,” Lavers explains. “It could’ve only existed as a song because it’s an idea that I had that could only be put down that way or filtered that way.” And there is some beauty in knowing the finality of the circumstance that this is the only way a feeling could be transposed into something tangible and absorbed or passed on. With all life’s choices and variabilities, I think we call this fate. And sometimes with fate, it’s all about waiting for the right moment and message. “If I’m on stage I have to say something that matters,” he shares, “Being able to stand on stage, patiently wait for the verse to arrive, where I can sing it and mean it while being empty handed for a while.” 

We are constantly melting, freezing, condensing, breaking, crushing, and bending to feel anything close to real sincerity. “Ideally, [music] is the most honest reflection of how you feel throughout the day and throughout your life. Always knowing that another season is coming.” He concludes, “Something really simple and pure is actually incredibly hard to find. I’m not able to find that very often, so it doesn’t really find its way into my music.” 

I think we were always taught that there was one right answer, but nothing in life was ever made to be predictable. Except maybe the weather, where in this case he was right; it’s snowing in New York today. I can see it, feel it, taste it–so I know it must be true.