Over the summer, Justin Sullivan announced his project Night Shop would be joining Widowspeak on a tour of the UK in support of his band’s latest LP released back in February, Forever Night. With that project still fresh, the songwriter is already teasing potential new additions to the live set, the first of which arrives today with the single “Universal City.” The track will appear on a double-single along with a song titled “Harness” later this year via his label home Dangerbird Records.
“The easiest way to describe how they’re related to each other is the concept of the twin faces of Janus, the god of transitions and dualities,” he shares of the two new tracks and their relationship to each other. “‘Universal City’ looks toward the future—that I will be OK, even without this person in my life for now. ‘Harness’ looks into the past: how much I longed to be with them and how I just want to live on in that space and be in that dynamic with them forever. So there is a duality at work between the two songs but both have a spirit of gratitude for the experience that inspired them.”
That former track is the more upbeat of the two, with Sullivan setting a late-night epiphany of acceptance among pain to a tight rock instrumental recalling his stint with Kevin Morby’s playful pre-solo-project outfit The Babies. “[I] was touched by a sense that there is still so much to be inspired by in this life,” he adds of the single. “I can get very narrow in my perspective and closed off, consumed by my own desires. This is about a moment where I made the decision to open back up again. I wanted someone to feel like this could be happening anywhere to anyone. And at this very moment, it is right now.”
Hear the new track below, and if you’re in the UK you can find tickets for the upcoming tour here.
