Words: Karl Johnson | Photo: Kai Marks

---

---

---

We haven’t heard from Sunnbrella since last year, in August they dropped the ethereal ‘Pauline’, a single which brought together a driving instrumental backbone with heavenly vocal harmonies. Today, the London outfit share ‘Fever Dream’, a track that earns its “dream-gaze” stripes and balances on a tightrope between the gloomier side of shoegaze textures and baggy-trousered drumming and bass that screams rave music and the 90’s.

‘Fever Dream’ feels as though it’s orchestrated by external forces, a collection of complex moods haunt the instrumentation, akin to walking against heavy wind on sludging coastal sands. David Zbirka’s vocal acts somewhat as a grounding emotional force, time seems to stand still as he brings a subtle melodic energy to his gut-feel lyricism. The track suspends us in a thought-provoking freefall.

Songwriter David Zbirka states, “Fever Dream is about feeling yourself for the first time in a long time. It’s about embracing the night at a club or a party instead of standing in the corner on your phone. It’s about overcoming your fear of the dancefloor and talking to strangers. I thought of it as “dream rave” at the time that I wrote it, as I was listening to a lot of 90’s dance music. Lots and lots of Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and even trancy stuff like Children by Robert Miles – on top of the more obvious influences and inspirations that people might pick up on when listening to the song.”

Sunnbrella play The Shacklewell Arms, London on March 10th, support comes from World News and Crimewave.

---