Over the past couple of months, I’ve written a handful of posts on the mysterious indie rock act Essx Station, and as you may recall the duo’s debut single “Can’t Go Back,” revealed a self-assured, hook-driven song that reminded me quite a a bit of Snow Patrol. Winter and Blunda, the duo behind Essx Station followed “Can’t Go Back” with the swooning and atmospheric “Awake or Dreaming,” a swooning and sincere track that still managed to sound as though it drew from Snow Patrol but with enormous, arena rock-like hooks. But underneath the slick production and big hooks of their two earliest singles, the duo reveals an uncanny ability to craft sincere, pop-leaning, radio friendly indie rock.
“Submarine,” the up-and-coming duo’s latest single, much like its immediately predecessors will appear on their soon-to-be released debut EP will further cement their reputation for sincere and enormous, hook-driven indie rock. But interestingly, it may be one of the more muscular and shoegazer-like songs they’ve released as shimmering yet angular guitar chords are paired with downtuned, rumbling bass chords, boom-bap like drumming, hand clap-led percussion, alternating boy-girl vocals and dual harmonies; in fact, the song strikes me as being a fair meshing of Snow Patrol, Pixies and Lightfoils with an overwhelmingly positive message. As the duo explained to me via email “like all the songs of the EP, this was written and produced by us and is about choosing to follow your own path and be who you are without listening to what others have to say. You disappear for a while into your own world, to figure out what you want and need. As the song says:
“We can be anything
No one can see us dream
Float in a submarine
Going underground”
