SKORTS charge through an endless flux state on debut album 'Incompletement'
SKORTS CHARGE THROUGH AN ENDLESS FLUX STATE ON DEBUT ALBUM INCOMPLETEMENT — OUT TODAY
FIRST TOUR OF EUROPE BEGINS NEXT MONTH — SEE ALL DATES HERE
PAPER MAGAZINE: “I'VE SEEN PLENTY OF ROCK BANDS RECENTLY, BUT NONE HAVE TICKLED MY SENSES, FORCED ME INTO DANCING AND MADE ME GASP AT THEIR ENERGY LIKE SKORTS.”
Today, New York City’s SKORTS has released their debut album Incompletement. Migrating the magic of their live shows from the stage to the studio, the album was recorded live across three Brooklyn practice spaces with friend and producer Teddy O’Mara. These are the songs that have blasted for blocks off of rooftops, blown minds in bars and swept past bouncers to wow strangers on city sidewalks —at long last, pressed into permanence — Stream.
With the album’s title, the group references the evolving nature of this very humanity and the freedom that can be found when you give up on the idea of arrival and instead embrace a state of flux. “Incompletement is a word we made up,” SKORTS shared. “To us, it means allowing oneself to live and create in an ever-changing state of impermanence.”
SKORTS is a product of creative chemistry and sweet serendipity. Since starting to release music together in 2023, on the back of chance encounters at guitar shops and outside of bars, Alli Walls (lead vocals and guitar), Char Smith (lead guitar), Emma Welch (bass) and Max Berdik (drums), have continued cutting their teeth together ever since. At their first show, an amp exploded — call it a freak accident or a catalyzing prophecy — either way, from there was born a band that refused to arrive quietly.
Incompletement opens with “Burden,” a soaring, pulsing song from the band’s early days that was almost swept under the rug until O’Mara challenged them to bring it back. One of the band’s most beloved songs, “Bodies,” was built off of a guitar riff Smith created as a warm-up for himself. SKORTS said that “‘Bodies’ expresses the nervous vulnerability that comes with new love.”
One of the album’s most propulsive moments, “R4DR4M” started out as more of an anthemic rock ballad, but began to take on more of a dancey groove over time. Walls shared that she always views this song as the scene of a shipwreck. “Davy Jones’ Locker — that’s the scene — bizarre, hellish landscape, confused day and night, oracles showing the way through dunes of sand – then flipped into the ocean. There’s a Bluebeard type of archetype, a parasitic man holding you hostage and you know you have to go. He tricks you with love. There’s a feeling that you are running and getting away but you really have gone nowhere.”
The album’s title is taken from the lyrics of “Eat Your Heart Out.” A song about incels dating AI bots and the weaponization of fear, Walls sings, “She’s so exotic, she was made for Incompletement.” A heavier moment, “Steal The Night” took three different drummers and three different rehearsal spaces before finding the sonic force to appropriately match the lyrical themes of sexual assault.
SKORTS have yet to play “Lace” at a live show and it takes inspiration from Phil Collins and Blondie before an abrupt ending. Up next is the frantic and melting “Dizzy.” The song’s non-traditional structure lends to its topic of indulging in the more mischievous/evil side of yourself. “I Won’t Be The One” is the album’s romantic, anthemic, shout-along moment, something that feels timeless and important.
As we reach the album closer “Anyone,” SKORTS orchestrate a perfect farewell moment for their debut body of work all about impermanence. Alternate timelines, death and rebirth, the band shares that the song “tries to describe how the people that you meet, might have been the people you met before. Trying to tap into this looping life cycle of the people that you are intertwined with, the souls always reconnect with one another and you could be any of them, you can find yourself in anyone, and vice versa.”
Over the last few years, SKORTS has generated a frequency all their own when it comes to their live shows, first from word-of-mouth around New York City, and then outward ripples. In August, they supported The Velveteers on their North American tour, with a mix of their own headline dates interspersed. Following a handful of other dates around the US, SKORTS will head to Europe in November and December for their first shows across the continent. While there, they will join the lineups of Beautiful Vortex Festival and Viva Sound Festival. See all upcoming dates here and below.
UPCOMING TOUR DATES
EUROPE
November 14 - Pesaro, Italy - Circolo Arci Mengaroni
November 18 - Nantes, France - Black Shelter
November 19 - Rouen, France - Le 3 Pièces Muzik’Club
November 20 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Oedipus
November 21 - Paris, France - Supersonic
November 22 - Siegen, Germany - Beautiful Vortex Festival
November 23 - Kusel, Germany - Kinett
November 24 - Bamberg, Germany - Live Club
November 25 - Berlin, Germany - Schokoladen
November 27 - Sønderborg, Denmark - Mejeriet
November 28 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen
November 29 - Göteborg, Sweden - Viva Sound Festival
November 30 - Oslo, Norway - Goldie
December 2 - Kiel, Germany - Fahrradkinokombinat
December 3 - Hamburg, Germany - Muzikclub Hamburg
December 4 - Dresden, Germany - Ostpol
December 5 - Frankfurt, Germany - Hafen 2
December 6 - Schaffhausen, Switzerland - Rasa Radio
All tour info here
YOUNGSTER YEAR “In the New York City band’s short time together thus far, they have come to be known far and wide for an intense, unreplicable energy that cannot possibly be forced. Fittingly, the band formed almost entirely by chance, and with their upcoming release, they’re challenging the notion that lightning can’t strike twice.”
INCOMPLETEMENT TRACKLIST
1. Burden — Watch
2. Bodies
3. R4DR4M
4. Eat Your Heart Out — Watch
5. Steal The Night
6. Lace
7. Dizzy
8. I Won't Be The One
9. Anyone
For more information on SKORTS, please visit:
Website | Instagram |Bandcamp |Spotify | YouTube | Apple Music | TikTok
Press photo by Nick Charnas
