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Artist
Shy Around Strangers is a great band name in its own right, but what makes this three-piece’s namesake even more apropos is their mission to make the music itself the public face and persona of the band. Co-founded in 2011, members Emily Powers, Saric and Michael Dawson shared a disdain for the current superficial trends in the recording industry, and starting recording their first EP as a collaborative protest against the importance placed on physical aesthetics. Intentionally blurring themselves to the public eye focuses the attention where it belongs – on the personality within the songs. Their bodies are mere vessels to project musical imagery, instead of billboards attempting to sell a pre-fabricated image. The sultry grit in Emily Powers vocal delivery is enough alone to entrance an audience. Her voice breaks with the sincerity of a wolf in sheep's clothing, luring you in with a sinister wink, and leaving you excitedly ill at ease somewhere between fear and sexual tension as you ponder her clever wordplay. When amplified by the hypnotic grime-laden grooves provided by drummer Mike Dawson and brought to life in cinematic fashion with effected mastery by Saric, the result is a hybrid-genre where the eccentric meets the accessible. The opposite spectrums create a dance of melodic discord with a subtext of complex atmospheric textures underneath the surface of easily digestible song structures. The songs possess both the nostalgic romanticism of early 80s New Wave, Goth a