shallow pools - I Think About It All The Time

“Unrelenting pop maximalism, a no-holds-barred punk spirit and contagious moxie.” – WBUR (NPR/Boston)

“Refreshingly optimistic … A sweet love letter to our support systems, ‘IHYK’ serves as a reminder to find comfort and healing in the people who surround us.” – MTV

“With ‘Nightmare’, shallow pools make the listener want to gleefully headbang in a crowded room, while simultaneously respecting the boundaries of the world around them.” – Billboard’s “10 Cool New Pop Songs”

“All proud members of the LGBTQIA+ community, shallow pools use music to spread awareness and solidarity, whether that’s to anybody watching them live or listening to them on record.” – FLOOD

“Between an enchanting, unrelenting pulse, seductive, glistening melodies, and achingly intimate, spellbinding vocals, shallow pools’ new song is setting itself up to be the soundtrack to an emotionally potent and utterly exhilarating autumn season.” – Atwood Magazine

“‘Golden’ is a breathtakingly beautiful indie pop song that’s sure to resonate with all who have ever felt the shadows of an uncertain future looming overhead.” – Atwood Magazine

We were living our best coming-of-age dreams when Shallow Pools took the stage. Their pop-infused sound kept us in the moment. Their set was the perfect pick-me-up as the festival smoothly headed toward the second half of the day. Shallow Pools was a great act to put in the mix of local bands—shaping the true definition of what it means to be Boston based. – The Honey POP

shallow pools isn’t just a band. Rather, it’s four people who feel a compulsion to react to the state of the world around them and weave those emotions and their ideas into their songs to make a point. And while the Boston-based four-piece—drummer Ali Ajemian, vocalist Glynnis Brennan, guitarist Jess Gromada and bassist Haley Senft—often write about their own deeply personal struggles with mental health, they’re also never afraid to point out injustice when they see it. A case in point was “Say What You Want,” the band’s first song for Equal Vision Records.

Co-written with PVRIS frontwoman (and fellow Massachusetts native) Lynn Gunn, it was the first single to be taken from their debut full-length, I Think About It All The Time. The song’s genesis stems from a Pride event shallow pools—all of whom are proud members of the LGBTQ+ community—were playing. Because amidst all the celebrations at the event, there were also, sadly, some protestors. “Glynnis actually went up and talked to them,” remembers Gromada, “and we channeled that experience into that song. It’s basically our response to them.”

“I feel like we always want to make some kind of statement,” adds Brennan, “and after that show we wanted to write something that basically said ‘Fuck the haters’. As members of the LGBTQ+ community, this song just feels really important to us.”

That song’s fiery attitude and lyrics are at odds with its music, but that’s a contradiction shallow pools love to explore when they write songs. It’s not just an individual hallmark of the 10 tracks that make up I Think About It All The Time, but one that can be extended to the album as a whole. The thing that’s being thought of constantly, you see, is, as Ajemian succinctly puts it “not great stuff,” and it permeates every fiber of this record. “When we were writing this album,” elaborates Gromada, “we were thinking about the end of the world a lot. We just couldn’t get it out of our minds or stop thinking about it.”

The result is a record that paints a vivid picture of the dystopian times we find ourselves in in 2023—both in general, but especially in the USA if you’re a minority. It’s that unavoidable setting that dictated both the tone and the themes of this album, but also which propelled the band—all of whom are close friends who live together—to rally against the discrimination and oppression which seems to be becoming more and more a part of everyday life.

“It’s kind of a concept album—almost,” laughs Ajemian. “But when we listened back to it, we realized it was less an end of the world album than just all the different things that consumed us, whether that’s environmental or external or internal things.” (continue reading full bio on DISCO)