On “starburn,” the lead single from crushed’s debut album, no scope, the band edge toward despair, reckoning with time over a pulsing trip-hop glow. It is the sort of tender anthem that becomes a setlist highlight, its search for divine intervention so entangled with its slick production that you would never know it was created in the final week of recording. “Look up now,” urges its final section, offering a surge of hope for whatever future remains from the debris.
The combination of dread and optimism makes it ideal for jamming along on headphones, late at night when the couch-lock becomes unavoidable and the Reddit rabbit holes get stranger, because at the core, crushed make introvert music. The duo of Bre Morell (Temple of Angels) and Shaun Durkan (Weekend) were online friends first, bonding over Stardew Valley and turning out a batch of songs before they ever met in person. A shared playlist became a mood board for the tone they wanted to achieve. The list of musicians who permeate its three-hour runtime is telling — Portishead, Alanis Morissette, Sneaker Pimps, Hole, Dean Blunt, Filter — but mostly they wanted to “make a band that sounds like Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn.’” True to their inspiration, the music travels back to the golden haze of 120 Minutes throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, drifting into dream pop, alt-rock, even the J Dilla side of hip-hop, while punctuated by sugary pop choruses.
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Recorded out of their homes — “six to seven different apartments and one storage unit” — no scope fine-tunes their approach even more, bringing deeper precision and wounded intimacy to the fore. Just as with 2023’s extra life EP, the bandmates continue to be shaped by video games, using them as a medium to ground their songs in the present, rather than hinge their sound too hard on MTV nostalgia. Even the title of their album references that world, relating to a kill made with a sniper rifle at close range that doubles as an analogy for jumping in, no second-guesses. What’s impressive is how they translate that lingo to relay real pain, all atop a bed of liquidy breakbeats that give off flecks of light. “oneshot” compares a lethal relationship to “being stuck on a difficult boss fight”; “licorice” equates another romance to a thinly worn shield; “heartcontainer” sees the main character at low health, burning through 29 lives just to try to break free from a past love.
Ben Rayner
They also carry weight because they are supremely good pop songs, able to hold their own at hardcore festivals like Outbreak and Sound and Fury as well as shoegazier affairs like Slide Away, all of which crushed have played in the past few years. This spring, they are the outlier in a list of openers for Touché Amoré’s Stage Four 10-year anniversary show, though it’s not difficult to picture them winning over the room with an unfettered cool, just as they’ve done while on tour with Cafuné, wrapping tonight. From the road, the pair open up about their early communities, the records that informed the crushed sound, and becoming “goblin-pilled.”
Growing up, were you part of any type of scene? Where did you like to go out to see shows or hang out with friends?
SHAUN DURKAN: My friends and I started a nü-metal band in 7th grade, and somehow we got to play some great spots like The Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, the Oasis Teen Center in San Rafael, and The Pound in Hunters Point. Though we had to ask our parents to haul our gear around because we were only 13. All we did as kids was talk about, listen to, and make music.
BRE MORELL: Growing up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, I was very isolated from any kind of music scene but found community online in message boards mostly. It wasn’t until I moved out to Austin for college at 17 that I was finally able to go to any shows that I wanted, and I soon found my chosen family in the punk/hardcore and experimental scene there. Many, many hours spent hanging in the KVRX studio, the Wheatsville patio, Red 7/Barracuda (RIP), and carpooling around Texas to catch friends’ shows in other cities.
Given that Elden Ring was such a huge part of the extra life EP writing and recording sessions, which games defined this album cycle? What’s your earliest memory of gaming?
DURKAN: During the writing/recording of the album, I played a lot of Bloodborne, a few Fire Emblem games, FF7, and Balatro. When I was a kid, my mom worked in Silicon Valley at a software startup. Her boss at the time had business with Nintendo, and he gave me an NES before it was officially released. I was hooked instantly. Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, Fester’s Quest…
MORELL: I played through Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 for the first time while we were working on no scope, which definitely left an impact that can be heard on “oneshot” and throughout the record. My dad had a Super NES, so gaming always had a presence in the house, but the N64 coming out when I was 5 changed everything. I became completely obsessed with [The Legend of Zelda:] Ocarina of Time, and it was all downhill from there.
What’s your stance on nostalgia and how you approach it? You seem to tread a fine line that draws from the ’90s and early 2000s without ever sounding retro.
DURKAN: Our creative process is actually not as calculated as people think. When we’re early on in the writing phase, it’s all about discovery. We follow our impulses, trust our gut, and try not to second-guess ourselves or overcook anything. I’d like to think we’re a forward-thinking/modern band making music and art for right now.
Ben Rayner
Are you big collectors of physical media? What do your bookshelves and entertainment centers look like, and is there anything you’re always on the search for?
DURKAN: I’ve fallen deep into the Magic: The Gathering vortex this year. On show days, I’ll usually walk to a local game store before soundcheck to see if they have anything that’s on the very long list I keep on my phone. I’m goblin-pilled right now. Shoutout Guardian Games in Portland.
MORELL: I actually sold most of my physical media collections a couple years ago because I move so often and was tired of hauling so much stuff around. What’s survived, though, is a small amount of records, CDs, and VHS tapes that all have some sentimental value, and of course my small but growing collection of PaRappa the Rapper merchandise.
You’ve been on tour with Cafuné since mid-September. What’s been your favorite memory so far?
DURKAN: The show in Portland was great because it’s a hometown show for me, and this was the very first time we’ve ever played in Portland. So many friends and loved ones showed up to support us, and it felt great to finally be able to share the live show with them.
MORELL: I’ve been making friends with a lot of animals on this trip, which is awesome… I got to hang out with some cows in Wyoming, some alpacas and goats in Idaho, and a very cute and fluffy cat in Portland. I’ll miss them.
If you could give someone a road map to the crushed sound in five albums, what would they be?
DURKAN: Death Cab for Cutie – We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, Portishead – Dummy, Third Eye Blind – S/T, Wu-Tang Clan – 36 Chambers, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – A Year With 13 Moons.
MORELL: Portishead – Dummy, The Sundays – Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, Everything But the Girl – Walking Wounded, Radiohead – The Bends, Massive Attack – Protection.
