Track By Track: SHEARS – WE ARE BUT CHEMICALS

Edinburgh-based SHEARS brings an unexpectedly textured and soulful side to electronic music with a dance sensibility on her new LP.  

WE ARE BUT CHEMICALS is adventurous and accessible, quietly radical but with lyrics that are relatable, as each song on the album is blessed with a voice to die for. Röyksopp, Ionnalee, and Robyn come to mind, as SHEARS often leans into a pop milieu on a confident and cohesive collection of tracks that warrants close attention to the lyrics.

A big thank you from us to SHEARS for taking part in our Track By Track feature. Be sure to check out the videos, a collaboration with designer Genevieve Ryan.

BAD DREAM

Bad dream…wake me

BAD DREAM is about dealing with sexism in the music industry – feeling stuck by others’ thoughts and ideas about you, reading the awful things some people say and feeling like you’re caught in a bad dream, and you’ll wake up eventually. I get it – it’s the story we’ve been sold for so long, but I also don’t – everyone should be able to see that sexism is incredibly outdated.

ARCADE MACHINE

When the pressure won’t make a diamond out of me

This song is about control. Someone was giving me unsolicited advice on who could help ‘boost me’ in the music industry without knowing that having someone else control my music and actions was my worst nightmare. I imagined being controlled like an arcade machine.

SLOW BURN

Own the truth, or you’re gonna find the slow burn coming after you

Don’t lie to people, because it will catch up with you eventually. I also can’t force you to tell the truth; you have to come to that conclusion yourself. It’ll burn away at you slowly.

BONES

Cause I’m just a nasty woman

This is about the side effects of hormonal birth control and what women have to put in their bodies from an early age. In the book ‘Nasty Women’ I read so many bad encounters with the birth control pill that I related to. It’s about the lack of research into women’s health.

FEEL IT

Can you feel it lifting out of your system, clearing your mind

This is about the feeling of any negative emotions leaving your body, and becoming at ease with your decisions and what makes you comfortable. It’s having the strength to do things your own way, potentially without the validation of others…but doing it anyway!

DIVE FEET FIRST

Hide in the shade and shut out the world

For me, this is what warm weather and jumping feet first into water sounds like – or at least that’s what I was going for! It’s about freedom, safety, warmth and security, with a hint of nostalgia.

ANTIDOTE

Living for the haze, slowly disappears, everything’s so clear

I had this daydream of murdering all of my insecurities, so that I never again questioned my capabilities. I would slip them a fatal dose of poison, but whoops, I don’t have the antidote. BYE.

IN THE DARK

Do you think I’m crazy? Did you think I wouldn’t break?

This one’s about defining yourself from the inside out, rather than from the outside in – not trying to carve yourself into something that everyone else will like, just to be where you think people think you should be. Also, the realisation that nobody knows anything for sure! So just enjoy the company of the people you love and have fun.

WE ARE BUT CHEMICALS is available in red vinyl on Bandcamp and is streaming on YouTube Music and Spotify. To tie in with the LP, SHEARS hits Glasgow twice in the next few weeks: The Old Hairdresser’s on the 18th of October and The Hug & Pint on the 26th of November – head to TikTok or Instagram for more info.

Header photo by Laura Prieto Martin