“It was an eight-mile hike that we thought
“In an eclipse, the moon, which is so insignificant in size compared
was going to be one mile. We really thought it was going to be a
with both the Earth and the sun actually can block out the sun,”
cinch,” recounts George Lewis Jr., or Twin Shadow as he’s known
Lewis says, explaining what the title of album evokes for him. “And
onstage, as he goes through photos from his band’s December trip
just the feeling — the kind of color that happens when an eclipse
to Honolulu where they played at The Republik. He pauses to take
happens — and the feeling that’s created when an eclipse happens,
a bite of breakfast: yogurt, granola, and fruit. “This is the beginning
this kind of supernatural thing that bathes wherever you can see it,
of the path, which looks so tame. And it just got thicker and thicker
wherever you are, wherever there is still light from it…”
and thicker. I was wearing a pair of Jack Purcell’s, pure white. And
every time I went up the mountain some experienced hiker would
Eclipse is a creative shift for Twin Shadow. Take for instance the
be like, ‘Those aren’t meant for hiking. You do realize those are
video for “Slow” off his debut album. The song, though hauntingly
going to be covered in mud.’ So I kept taking pictures to see how
catchy, pushes the listener away. Its message is dark: “I don’t want to
clean I could keep them.”
believe or be in love” Lewis repeats, over and over until the line means
nothing and everything at once. The video is even more off-putting,
When I meet Lewis at the Ace Hotel’s open-air rooftop bar in
beginning with an awkward interview that leads to an intentionally
Downtown Los Angeles, he’s wearing his signature grey knit
stilted drum performance and decidedly overexposed visuals. The
beanie and leather motorcycle jacket and has a faint trace
camera zooms in on the sweat forming on Lewis’s upper lip, and pans
of sleep in the corner of one eye. He’s recovering from a get-
aimlessly across a dim room with a low hanging, stained-glass lamp.
together held at his house the night before, which ran late, and
Flash forward to 2015: “Turn Me Up”, the first single Lewis released
though he hasn’t been a big coffee drinker in the past few years
off Eclipse is much more polished, aesthetically and musically, while
he orders one emphatically.
showcasing Lewis’s authentic voice. His lyrics, though they’ve historically been honest, seem more genuine. They belong to someone who
Despite his just rolled out of bed but I still look like a rockstar
has given in and believed in love, for better or worse.
look, he won’t strike you as a partier. Through a baritone softspokeness and honest smile, he emanates a very relatable warmth,
But whatever Lewis does, he maintains a steady following: His fans
a perceived ease with the outside world to which he is extremely
are not casual admirers; they are enamored of him, packing in for
attuned. The latter is made clear through his intentional lyricism
shows and DJ-sets worldwide, awaiting the next move in the avant-
and his ability to draw inspiration from his surroundings.
garde spectacle that is his creative life. Working to shed his ego and
surround himself with positivity in his new dwellings in Downtown
“A lot of my lyrics, if they take place during [any specific] time, it’s
Los Angeles has also informed this change. Settling down in one
usually those weird hours before sunset, before sunrise, you know,
place sort of goes against his dust devil M.O., though.
the really early, kind of just before dark moments. I think that’s
always been a trait of my music.”
And though he never plans to write an album ahead of
time, basing his music instead on day to day experiences,
he’s gathered enough musings to complete his third LP in
five years, the end of what he considers a kind of trilogy.
Beginning with 2010’s Forget, followed two years later by
Confess, his March 17 release Eclipse which will complete
the series, is laden with meaning, based both on life experiences and his general astuteness.
George of the jungle
52 . TRAVEL WITH PURPOSE