Hailing from the Northwest of England, Double You is the elusive DIY solo project of drummer/producer and composer Michael Whalley, active under various guises as one half of experimental post-punk duets Grave Diggers Union and Elektrisch Nonne, this latter along with Ist Ist frontman Adam Houghton, started during the lockdown as a cure for boredom, straddling the atmospheric and melancholic thin lines between shoegaze, post-punk, and dreampop.
Recorded in his small Brock n Broll recording studio/record label hub in Chorley, the third single, “Playing Out Together”, delves into the intricacies of friendship, growing up, and regret, set to the sentimental auras of bright nostalgic synth’s off-kilter lullaby chime, riddled in briskly-paced motorik rhythms, low pulsating bassline, and twinkling, sparkling guitar melodies around bittersweet fuzzy male vocals, that fall helplessly, cloaked in enveloping bursts of hazy wistful reverberations, into a lost and lonely longing, swept in reminiscent bliss.
Heartfelt lyrics unravel in a letter to childhood friends wherein lies intimate moments, shared experiences, and an unbreakable bond between lifelong memories.
The waterproof video, WL//WH is very pleased to premiere, records the rare joys of a young life caught playing in the rain with a dewy-eyed lens, that captures the beauty and simplicity of living at the moment, without adult issues looming in the wind.
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