Toronto based songwriter Andrew Oliver, aka Nightshifts, creates chill dreampop tracks that evoke neon fluorescent, crisp air, the unknown, and everything else associated with the night. It’s alluring and mysterious. Today, however, he combines his soft sound with the smooth hip-hop bars from legendary rapper The Game in the newest track, “20s”, making for an upbeat, groovy listen.
With shimmering synths highlighted with electro drums, “20s” feels like swimming in a jar of honey. The chorus, infectious, bursts with chirps and a funky guitar. Nightshifts keeps his psychedelic vision, but really shows us what he can do apart from his usual slow-burning productions. All the while, The Game’s verse simply blends effortlessly into the mix, adding a West Coast style and adding to Nightshifts’s nostalgic elements.
Talk about a dream come true, too. Oliver first met The Game outside a hotel when he was just nine years old. Recently, Oliver saw the rapper searching for independent artists to collab with. Oliver shares, “I dm'd him with the story and the picture of when we met. He said he remembered and was down to collaborate on the song. I sent over the music, and the next day got his verse back. It was surreal to hear him, 20 years later after we met, on my track. And a funny coincidence that the song was called 20s.”
