Little Quirks have shared a soaring new single titled ‘The Rain’, marking their first new music since November 2020.
It’s a powerful track for the Central Coast trio – comprising sisters Abbey and Mia Toole and their cousin Jaymi – dialling back their signature folk-pop energy for an emotive, ballad-esque run driven by coolly strummed acoustic guitars and bright piano chords. Its thematic angle is decidedly on-the-nose: according to Abbey, the song’s allusions to rain are not metaphorical, but rather straightforward ruminations of her love for stormy weather.
“Since I was very young, I have had a deep love for the rain,” she said in a press statement; “for the sound, the relief and the excitement its always brings me. Whenever I wake up and it’s raining, it always makes me very happy. This song was written on a stormy night in my bedroom. I just imagined being out there running and dancing around in it and this song came out.
“We actually recorded a lot of this song in our home studio in the backyard which is our favourite place to record.”
‘The Rain’ arrives today (March 14) with a video directed by Tim Swallow, who described the process of making it as “a challenging, yet awesome experience”. Have a look at the clip below:
Expounding on her concept for the video, Abbey said she wanted actual rain to feature prominently – an idea Swallow was able to engineer “using a barge and a rain machine which is basically just a fire hose and pump”. She continued: “We nearly froze while shooting, it was a cold day! But the video turned out well in the end. The track is epic, so we wanted an epic video to go with it. And we were very lucky with the sunset we got that day!”
In order to accomplish the visual aesthetic of gloomy skies surrounding the band, Swallow – alongside producer Federica Genovesi and cinematographer Mondo Hays – “watched the weather forecast carefully weeks before the shoot”.
The director explained further: “Along with this, we had a lot of moving parts such as a 40[-foot] Barge, tugboat, rowboat and a vintage Mercedes. It was ambitious to fit so much into one day of shooting, but I wanted the clip to build momentum. It seemed logical that each talent should have their own story prior to all performing as a band on the barge.
“I said to Mondo the day before, ‘The weather could potentially make or break this clip.’ We were blessed with four seasons in one day and an insane sunset, everyone on set was in awe as the sky lit up. We did get some patches of rain throughout the day however as the last of the light disappeared over the hills, we decided to crank up the rain machine and cinematic lights for our dramatic ending.
“By the time we arrived back at port we were wet, exhausted [and] sunburnt but completely satisfied.”
In today’s press release, it was revealed that Little Quirks will release their fourth EP later this year, with a formal announcement due to be made in the coming months. Alongside ‘The Rain’, the as-yet-untitled release – Little Quirks’ first for ABC Music – will feature their 2020 singles ‘Florence’s Town’ and ‘Someone To Hold’. The group’s third EP, ‘Cover My Eyes’, landed in January of that year.
Last month, Little Quirks teamed up with The Soul Movers for a cover of Delaney & Bonnie’s 1969 track ‘Groupie (Superstar)’. Swapping the title around for their version, the makeshift supergroup’s rendition of the track (also covered by The Carpenters as ‘Superstar’) stays true to the bluesy, pop-leaning tones of the original.