Iain Cook and Scott Paterson return with alter ego project ‘Protection’ – New single ‘Thirst Shrine’, out now

Protection, aka CHVRCHES’ Iain Cook and fellow respected Glasgow musician/producer Scott Paterson herald their second EP under their alter ego with lead single ‘Thirst Shrine’. The full five-tracker ‘SEEDS II’, building on support from the likes of NME, Beatportal and Chris Hawkins for Protection’s debut EP, drops later this year.

With nods to 80s/90s and strong percussion exploring the spectrum from breakbeat to DnB, and tracks varying from ambient to fast and frantic, the friends who bonded over games, films and shared likes enjoy the freedom of expression that comes from exploring a new venture.

‘Thirst Shrine’: jingling cascades of chimes are joined by restless, skittery hi-hats and layered bass taking breakbeat uptempo to DnB, as a fragmented pitch-shifted vocal adds to the arrestingly other-worldly ambience.

Scott: ‘Thirst Shrine’ started off as a little seed idea that I sent to Iain, the vocal chop and the drum break stuff. We bounced it back and forth until it sounded right.’

Iain: ‘I heard the demo while touring with CHVRCHES after lockdown. It felt so fresh since we hadn’t really dabbled with Drum and Bass so directly yet. The vocal chop inspired me to push further. Between Austin and Chicago I got Covid, so I just lay in bed feverishly chopping up for hours working on it. Getting the bass right took about five layers of sounds, we wanted it enormous, enveloping like early UK dubstep or DnB.’ 

Iain is still touring playing guitar/bass/keys with CHVRCHES inc. their recent sensational Glastonbury set while Scott toured as a session musician for a wide variety of bands through the 2010s and has been producing and writing for other artists in his Glasgow based studio, Sleepwalk. They are still prepping their gigging chops as Protection, something to look forward to along with the full EP ‘SEEDS II’.

‘The entire premise of the project was for us to have fun together – to us the fun is in the exploration of music and seeing what our version of a known style sounds like.’ 

‘Thirst Shrine’ is out now on Saint Lucky Records. Save it here: https://protection.lnk.to/ThirstShrine

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