In The Ocean Party and Pop Filter, Jordan Thompson’s tracks always seemed to stand out due to the sense of raw honesty that anchored the tracks. That’s not to say his bandmates’ songs weren’t equally as earnest, but you could always pick a Jordan song thanks to his impassioned, yearning vocals, or the fact that more often than not his tracks were buoyed by expressive instrumentation that centred around his weapon of choice, the keyboard.


His music as Timeshare seems to actively lean into and defy his previous tendencies - on Red, the keys feel like less of a home base, and instead, each of the six tracks are built with indie-rock guitars, punchy rhythm sections and sniping melodies. On the other hand though, these tracks feel as confessional and emotive as ever; ‘Pressure’ plays as a rumination on aggression with its soaring hooks and driving groove, ‘Story Song’ feels emotionally exhausted despite its frenetic instrumentation, and ‘Miracle’ sounds especially at odds with itself as it darts haphazardly between tenderness and chaos.

Our highlight is ‘Twin Flame’, a track the neatly combines Jordan’s eye for turbulence and his ear for hooks - sounding as anxious as it is optimistic, the track progressively builds over its near four-minute runtime, feeling more expansive and poignant as the tension builds before eventually running out of a steam at the conclusion.

To get to understand Red a little better, Jordan kindly walked us through each track on the EP.

Jordan: This collection of songs remembers a time of cerebral stoicism. Nihilism is a tantalising theory and a destructive practice for a young man. Attempting to heal wounds of disappointment and loss by renouncing beauty and passion indiscriminately is worth a try, but not a long term solution. Still, the poles need to be explored and these song reflect that time of exploration for me.


Pressure

There was a time in my late 20’s where some inner frustration kept manifesting itself in the form of smashing things. Eventually I realised that all the things I had “accidentally” smashed over the past few months were all symbols of communication, things that I might use to be heard by others. They were fairly mundane occurrences, but were obviously connected to something deep and significant for me. This song is considering a moment where I smashed a phone through a wall as if it were a renaissance painting - a crystalised moment of eternal significance and gravity.  

Story Song

This deals with the shifting roles in romantic relationships: heroes and villains, victims and opressors, romantic bile and romantic elation, that sort of thing. Sometimes I could get so wrapped up in the romantic notion of a gesture I couldn’t tell if it was callous or affectionate, all I knew was that it had weight. I guess there are times when anything that stirs emotion will do, and if positive affection isn’t available, then a more negative excitement can move you too. The singer sounds like he thinks he’s the hero here, but by all accounts his actions are fairly deplorable.   

Did I Say

There is no guarantee that anything will find resolution. You won’t necessarily “figure it out” or “get over it”. Chasing up loose ends is an exhausting task and finding any sort of absolution is impossible. The best you can hope for is to forget the worst things you’ve done as you cram your head with new experiences and rewrite a clear ledger for yourself - maybe?

Miracle


This one has something to do with that sickening sweetness that glosses over abusive and manipulative relationships. It’s like you have to work twice as hard to convince each other that you are in love because everything is so terrible all the time - so you are either dripping with honey and sugar or it’s poison and mud and shit and stuff. I wanted to have both sides of the coin of passion in here, so that’s why is jumps back and forth so erratically, but maybe that’s thematic and fully intentional. 

Twin Flame

I wanted to consider myself as a community rather than an individual as if everything were happening at once, to talk to previous models of myself about what they are going through. I found a common strain of memories where I felt a sense of regret and I wanted to make a visitation on myself during those times and absolve his sins. The music is simple and repetitive, which hopefully evokes something of an autobiographical whirlpool.

Still Here

I worked at a dog kennel in Vancouver on the graveyard shift, so there was tons of time to talk to myself and the canines until I eventually figured something out and came home. I had to work through a mythic rendering of myself - a juvenile technique of considering the events of my life as prosaic and mythic, thinking I was the hero of the story etc. So in this song I let myself partake in the stories of Orpheus and Euridyce, Medusa and Perseus, and Apollo and Daphne.