Shep Treasure is the project of songwriter and multi-media artist Sabrina Nichols, which should come as no surprise to listeners of her new track "Ripoff." This shoegaze-adjacent romp through childhood, family, loss and the defining moments of a young life is both utterly precise and deeply improvised, combining what feels like an inevitable guitar figure with a chaos-driven drum performance and a vocal performance that is understated and pure. This emotional and cinematic catharsis benefits from a starkly raw production aesthetic, and finds Sabrina widely exploring her own personal experience for this signature combination of playfulness and cerebral specificity.
Finding a sweet spot between brooding and fantastical indie pop, Sabrina depicts these memories through lyrical storytelling, and at many times features artifacts and sound recordings pulled directly from family videos and objects found around her family’s home.
I mostly taught myself guitar on a toy guitar that my sister got but didnt use much. It is a small nylon string guitar that I later painted green I wrote a lot of these songs on that small green guitar. I love how it sounds, so we used it a lot on the album. Any acoustic guitar you hear is that toy guitar.
All of "500 dead or alive" was self-recorded, mixed, and mostly performed by Nichols, along with the help of Kitchen’s James Keegan who serves as co-producer and mixer on many of the tracks. Sabrina is especially proud of how their work together sounds 'warmly homespun and infinitely expansive,' and we couldn't agree more.
"Ripoff," from Shep Treasure's new release "500 dead or alive," is a unique and layered brew of drums, guitar, and bass, working together to infuse a wistful series of observations on the meaning life with a sense of purpose and infinite movement.
All on my own now, Im in the zone now
Taking it back to 96 before either of us were sick
Dont have to go now, you really dont know
How you got into this mix, but yeah whatever lifes a risk
Fuck what you said, now Im not ok
Better off dead than trapped in this place
Ill go away
Visit Shep Treasure on Instagram.
