Mumbai-born, LA-based singer-songwriter SCayos (AKA Shaan Chhadva) has released his new EP, felt like forever.
Produced by legendary Seattle-based producer Phil Ek (Modest Mouse, Fleet Foxes, The Shins), SCayos wrote the short 6-track EP as an “ode to his Midwest boarding school.” According to SCayos, his feelings about his arts high school are complicated, full of intense pressure and trauma-bonding with friends and feeling forced to grow up very quickly.
Having since then enrolled and dropped out of Berklee College of Music, become an A&R, and having gone viral for his lo-fi, jazz-tinged musical stylings, Scayos has taken a new musical direction and voice for felt like forever to come out of the shadows and make a name for himself in the world of indie-slowcore. felt like forever is an intimate record about SCayos’ late childhood and teenage years.
“This EP as a whole feels like the sound and energy of youth in all the best and worst ways – when every emotional change in your life is the most drastic,” says SCayos. “The breakups feel horrible, and when you’re in love, it feels like you’re on top of the moon; everything is heightened. You’re dumb and you make stupid mistakes, but you’re also free. There are so many parallels and opposites that happen at this point in your life.”
The EP is blindingly short, clocking in at just under 17 minutes overall. SCayos has created a gentle atmosphere of quiet vocals and low-key indie vibes. My personal favourite “weight of the moon” is the upbeat exception to the more downbeat rules of the rest of the EP, with accompanying bright guitars and keyboards. This theme is somewhat continued by the following track, “Funny Life,” but this track has a much sadder edge to it that “weight of the moon” eschewed, especially through lyrics like “why am I still here/I’ve wasted all my time,” which is something anyone under a huge amount of pressure to succeed can identify with.
Fifth track “chest cavity” stands out as a perfect distillation of the mood of the EP; blurry but somehow still staccato guitars combine with an effectively simple drum beat and SCayos’ repeated vocals of “run around in circles ‘til my head pops off/I feel amazing/run around in circles ‘til my guts fall out”. It evokes the panicked, vibrating feeling of anxious youth, when you feel indestructible and frail all at the same time.
The EP is at its most straightforwardly gloomy on the tracks “i kissed her” and “anyways,” as well as main single “michigan”. In particular, final track “anyways” (featuring Roger Rosenberg) takes on a strange, otherworldly texture through its use of muted bass and its saxophone-forward layering, creating a sonic effect not unlike an underwater heartbeat. This song captures the essence of trying and failing to fall into an anxious sleep, where the EP’s opening track “i kissed her” feels like the sad lucidity of an extremely early morning.
The EP’s best-known track, the previously-released single “michigan” is a simple, lilting song that features SCayos’ thin vocals at their quietest, as he sings “it feels like forever/it feels like forever/in michigan.” His own vocals are buoyed by the sweeter vocals of featured artist Juliana Chahayed, who provides some truly lovely harmonies and upper octaves to round out the sparse nature of the track.
Overall, SCayos’ EP felt like forever is a deftly-handled set of lovelorn tracks that truly create the sense that this younger version of SCayos was simultaneously having both the worst and best time of his life. Youth doesn’t mean freedom, and SCayos captures the weight of young feelings beautifully.
