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Shoot the Pier announces a new album of ten tunes entitled Chill - written and recorded over the past year and a half during the lock down. Writing this record was our therapy during a time the world was seriously hurting. The album is important to us too, because it will be the last Shoot the Pier record for some time. Ellie gets married in two weeks on June 12th, and shortly after that heads back to the University of Edinburgh to begin her studies for a PhD in Creative Writing. In January of 2012, Ellie and I gave an interview with Cousin Mary on KFJC just after our second record was released. Mary asked Ellie what she hoped to be when she grew up. Ellie was 15, (and already a pretty good bassist and keyboardist I might add), and she told Mary she loved writing and hoped to one day be a novelist. She has always been determined to be good at whatever she does once she sets her mind.
We decided to call the album Chill because we could only write more surfchill-ish tunes during the dark period we were all experiencing. And we thought, as we all get through this, maybe everybody will just want to take a breath and chill. Some of the sections we liked in a few tunes we purposely left redundant. We were playing and really liked a section and said, "just play it again''... and we left it all in. As always, we only did a couple takes on each instrument, trying to capture what we believe to be the "early soul" (and mistakes) for all to hear. Two of our favorite tunes on the record, Swimming Naked with Amphitrite and The Ghost of Edinburgh, we just let them take us to what we think are still pretty cool places. The last tune on the record, My Spanish Lady, is a simple Spanish classical guitar piece that just came to me one night. We recorded it in about an hour, and Ellie said she wanted it to be our father/daughter dance at her wedding in two weeks. One other thing, my Spanish wife Maria played the castanets on that tune, because not even the devil himself can play the castanets without that gene.
The record is now available digitally everywhere. We didn't print CDs, because very few seem to want them anymore. We do recommend the album from our bandcamp site, if you don't have a preference. Because, I seem to constantly play with the mix and master and am able to upload the latest versions on bandcamp. But, all sites are good.
Thanks everyone for your support over the past almost twelve years. It's been a blast. We will see what the future brings. Stay safe, and much love.
Bill & Ellie Sims
Shoot the Pier
