Last Friday Shotgun Crackers released “Lockdown PT. 3”, the third part of their EP trilogy, which will be followed next year with the album “Lockdown”, containing the earlier songs and five new ones. The first part was produced by the band together with Otto Wellton, on the second one they collaborated with Tomas Rusiak and for these two new songs, they went to Göteborg to work with Kristian Anttila. And it’s also Kristian who will help the band with the remaining five songs.

When I first listen to “Lockdown PT. 3” I wince a bit. The earlier party ambience with the energy pumping indie has been somewhat replaced with a bigger, heavier and darker sound with more electronica. I feel a little lost and find myself looking for that special rough Shotgun Crackers-vibe with a big heart, which they have stood for earlier.

At the same time I realise that I have been following the band for a long time now, from when they were just about to finish high school, five years ago, up until now, and neither I as a listener or they as a band want the music to stand still, untouched by what’s happening around them and inside them. The whole Lockdown series, which was started a little more than a year ago, feels all at once as some kind of maturation where they have explored new ground in each part.

The new songs slowly set in my mind, and it feels a little like getting to know them anew, or at least as looking at them from a different perspective. It’s a bigger scene now, and even if I can’t help missing the feeling of standing so close to the scene that I get drops of the singer Fredrik Nilsson’s sweat on me as the band performs, I get very curious of where this is going to land in what’s coming up next.

Since I strangely enough missed presenting the second part, “Lockdown PT. 2”, I have added one song from each part, in reverse order, here below, so you can listen and compare for yourself.

Shotgun Crackers on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Bandcamp

From “Lockdown PT. 3”:

From “Lockdown PT. 2”:

From “Lockdown PT. 1”: