Secret Of Life

2015 release from The Vines' Craig Nicholls' side project, White Shadows. The band formed thanks to a chance comment. Nick Littlemore - member of Empire of the Sun, Pnau, and producer to many - had read an interview with Nicholls, in which the frontman said he'd one day like to make an electronic Fantasia record. Nicholls and Littlemore decided to reinvent the songs by blowing them up widescreen. We wanted to make a transcendental experience, says Littlemore, something that takes you out of the norm, which to me is what his voice does - make music to match that oversaturated feeling. Gathering an all-star cast of over 40 musicians inside Sydney's 301 studios, legendary British post-punk producer Nick Launay was brought on board to attempt the near-impossible - record every musician in the room jamming to Nicholls' songs at the same time. On first listen, if you're not paying attention, it's a very happy record, says Launay. Yet the lyrics are very dark. I hope people don't listen to it and think it's just a pop record. It's not, it's adventurous and actually the opposite to all those kinds of pop records. And I think that's what makes it very special.