New Audio: Portland’s CHAD Releases a Shimmering and Slow-Burning Social Distancing Ballad

CHAD · Isolation

Emerging Portland, OR-based indie act CHAD  — founding members Sarah Lane and  Trevor Greely along with Zach Whiton and Alex Widner — can trace its origins to the split up of its founding members’ previous band. Now, as you may recall, the Cameron Spies-produced “I Got Time” found the band quickly establishing a signature sound with Lane’s gorgeous vocals effortlessly weaving through layers of shimmering guitars, a sinuous bass line and boom bap-like drumming. Of course, beyond that, the song was centered around a delicious and playful irony: the song’s narrator may be saying that she has time but in there’s a tacit recognition that in reality, she doesn’t; time is rushing by — and she’s sort of dithering around.

“Isolation,” the Portland-based act’s latest single is a slow-burning bit of 80s inspired,  dream pop centered around shimmering and and arpeggios synths, a sultry, Quiet-storm like bass line and Lane’s come-hither cooing. And while revealing a band that has been expanding upon their sonic palette in a way that recalls Beach House, the song as the band mentions via email is “the social distancing ballad we didn’t know we needed” — with the song evoking the unease and profound loneliness that so many of us are suffering through right now.