Originating as the solo project of singer and guitarist Christian Dimick but gradually evolving into a five-piece band, Auckland‘s Awning introduced themselves last year with a self-titled full-length. The record added folk and shoegaze flourishes to its indie rock sound without ever feeling cluttered, resulting in a flowing, instinctive style which stems at least in part from Dimick’s background as a visual artist. “I’ve studied painting, and I still paint all the time in a really intuitive and playful kind of way,” he explains. “I think that way of thinking about creating, making, and composing something has trickled into the way I think about writing music. Ideas come and you interact with them. If they don’t work, it’s not about trying to hold them and squeeze them and strangle some sort of juice out of them.”
Having now signed with Winspear, Awning have returned with ‘Little Green Book’, their first new music since since their debut, which builds upon the foundations it set out. Again spontaneity feels like a big part of the track, as Dimick pairs soft pop textures with sharp post-punk edges. The bittersweet result is marked with a twitchy energy that feels reflexive in an almost literal sense, as though we’re listening to the track unspooling before us for the very first time. The song is “cryptic in its lyrical imagery,” Dimick expands. “I like the way children write poetry. This song is about taking the perspective of my childhood self from a lyrical space and watching someone struggle with grief. But this is not necessarily for the audience to understand. They can pull what they want from it.”
Watch the video directed and edited by Damin McCabe below:
‘Little Green Book’ is out now via Winspear and available from the Awning Bandcamp page.