The band shares a track-by-track breakdown of their debut album, focused on living and creating in a state of never-ending change

———————————————————————————————

I’m a big believer that the universe delivers. That through a tangled combination of fate and free will, a higher power takes you to the places you should be and puts the right people in your path. Then it crosses its godly fingers and prays to itself that you pay attention.

SKORTS is a band built on artistry and effort, but the story starts with serendipity. Seeking a more energetic and competitive music scene, Alli Walls moved from Denver to NYC, where she and Char Smith met one day in the back of a guitar store. Char and Emma Welch had connections through a coffee shop where they both worked, but bonded one night on a random smoke break outside a bar.

The fates had the foresight to deliver them to each other—and the artists knew how to put in the work.

Photo by Nico Malvaldi

Today, SKORTS (a band completed by Max Berdik on drums) has officially released their debut album Incompletement. A power-packed album that rocks the body, rattles the brain and hits straight to the heart with its harmonies.

Recorded in true DIY fashion across three NYC practice spaces, the record was produced by friend and collaborator Teddy O’Mara. Along with the singles that SKORTS has been dripping out like a sonic IV for the thirsty-for-more fanbase they’ve been busy building since 2022—where, at their first show, an amp literally blew up—the album features two tracks that SKORTS has never played live. These songs showcase a softer side of the band, serving as a bonus gift for the groupies (present company included!) who have swarmed venues across the city to catch the band in their element, already delivering arena-ready rock.

“I feel like me and Char are really inherently hams and Ally is an inherent powerhouse and both of these things meld into our presence on stage,” Emma told me when I interviewed them for Nico Malvaldi’s rock-n-roll mag MANI earlier this year. “We all have different needs, in our own ways, to burst out… We’re able to deliver a show no matter what, it’s in our blood.”

Titles testament to this: The Oh My Rockness Hardest Working Band of 2024 and Our Wicked Lady Winter Madness champs.

Back to the album again. The title refers to a state of life, art and ongoing evolution. And if your autocorrect is tripping out, there’s a simple reason why.

“Incompletement is a word we made up,” SKORTS says. “To us, it means allowing oneself to live and create in an ever-changing state of impermanence.”

To celebrate the release of Incompletement, SKORTS shared a track-by-track breakdown of their debut, talking riffs and rats… Blondie and bots. Finding the bravery to write—then sing—one’s truth, and discovering beauty in all the destruction.

INCOMPLETEMENT—TRACK BY TRACK:

“Burden”

“Recorded in rehearsal spaces throughout Brooklyn, ‘Burden’ is the first track…With shimmering guitars, pulsing bass, and soaring vocals, the cathartic anthem declares: ‘Whether it’s yours or mine, it’s an honor to bear your burden and that is as certain as the elements of this earth.’

A song from the VERY early days that fell out of our live rotation for a while and almost got completely swept under the rug but producer Teddy wanted to bring it back. It was one of the two original demos we released to soundcloud (‘Cyclops GF’ being the other). There is a video of us playing it in its original form somewhere but the groove and structure really got refined in the studio.  Alli recorded the main guitar riff on Char’s ‘69 Gibson SG Special.”

“Bodies”

“‘Bodies’ expresses the nervous vulnerability that comes with new love. This song started with the main guitar riff that is commonly thought to be a bass line. Born from a warmup Char created for himself on guitar, the riff was the first thing he was compelled to play every time he picked up a guitar for months. Finally, it was brought to the band with intentions of creating a song around it. The airy vocal melody of the verse came instinctively quick and the chorus was a vocal part Alli already was experimenting with in other songs. The bridge, always vulnerable, originally contained more chords but was later simplified to two. Emma’s tasteful choice to punctuate the already melodic guitar line helps reinforce the song’s deep groove.”

“R4DR4M”

Pronounced as it is written (are • four •Dee • are • four • Em) an acronym that was created when listing the song on set lists. You can figure it out from there… Alli had a couple different parts of songs floating around as so much was being written at this time. And in one late night, Char really helped hammer them into place and create the structure. Producer Teddy guided us to the groove. What was more an anthemic rock ballad from start to finish now had more dancey elements. The instrumental bridge section was a point of contention for a while. The band was content with it remaining a simple instrumental break but Teddy felt it needed one more element. We tried a whole vocal thing / viola / guitar solo / synth —to no satisfaction. We finally landed on the hushed monologue —a real eureka moment. Alli always thinks of a shipwreck, davey jones locker
—that’s the scene. Bizarre, hellish landscape, confused day and night, oracles showing her the way through dunes of sand—then flipped into the ocean. Bluebeard type of archetype, parasitic man holding you hostage and you know you have to go. He tricks you with love. There’s a feeling that you are running and getting away but you really have gone nowhere.”

“Eat Your Heart Out”

“Another late night, Alli called Char to come to the rehearsal space where she was working on some songs. Again, the pieces were there but they needed to be assembled and elaborated on. Char got behind drums where he was able to direct the song a bit more, Alli was on bass. The song came together quickly from there. The bass line would later change but the structure was in place that night and the lyrics were written on a plane from Florida to New York. This is why Alli plays bass on this song live. She wrote and recorded the bass line through a Boss SD-1 and Char recorded all the guitars and drums on this track. We figured it would be quicker to just teach Emma the guitar parts. Emma and Alli found vocal harmonies in the studio. ‘Eat Your Heart Out’ is about incels dating AI bots and the weaponization of fear. The title of the album actually comes from this song.”

“Steal the Night”

“One of the first songs we worked on as a band. Alli had this one pretty much ready to go from the day she brought it to everyone. Teddy didn’t change much—he had the idea for the pickup in the last chorus and some other slickening things, like having the intro start on bass instead of guitar. It took three attempts to record this one (kinda). Our first full attempt was scrapped completely. Then, starting from scratch, we tried Char on drums. Emma laid down bass, Char recorded the guitars, a long vocal day with Alli and the song was ready for mastering. However, at the finish line, Char was not satisfied with his drum take and felt the song deserved a better performance. It was hard to get the drum sound and performance right in a rehearsal space situation on a song that needed to sound very big. It took three different drummers, three different rehearsal spaces and finally, Max Yassky to the rescue. Max gave us the drum take we needed and the song was finally done. Alli was trying to leave a relationship at the time. Eventually, she left him in the fall. She was finding more whimsical lyricism in her and not shying away from writing in that way. Themes of ‘the witch,’ going ‘off of the grid,’ being brave enough to sing about rape—a topic her ex wasn’t comfortable with her bringing up—are the through lines in ‘Steal The Night.’”

“Lace”

“Never played live, a true studio SKORTS song. Char got a new pedal and started playing that progression before a rehearsal. Alli was keen to sing over it and by following each other’s melodies on the guitar and vocally, the verses and choruses came together. Emma came into the room and added the bass line on the same day. We just kept playing and having so much fun with it. The spirit of Phil Collins is strong in the ending. That all came from a feverish demo session where we just kept letting that outro reveal itself. It really felt like we captured something in the original demo and we wanted to preserve that in the album version. Teddy suggested a drum machine in the style of Blondie’s ‘The Tide is High’ as well as some fleshing out of the second chorus. The abrupt ending was also part of the demo and originally going to be extended but when it came time to extend, the abrupt ending still felt better. Feelings of wanting to grow old with somebody, being ok with letting time pass with somebody, enjoying space, wanting things to live in a pleasant space just as easy as the song was to write are themes of this track. It’s another song about love and allowing yourself to go there with that person and what it feels like to be in those blissful moments. Rats taking over the city—when it gets bad, remember the good times and continue to create beauty in the destruction.”

“Dizzy”

“Another song compiled of parts Alli was working on that Char was able to structure from the drum kit. This one took a lot of convincing for Teddy. We wanted to hold onto the rhythm change and believed we could make it work. Eventually, we got it to a convincing place and once everyone bought in, the song was able to grow. The lyrics touch on indulging in the more mischievous/evil side of yourself. Acknowledging those tendencies and being like, ‘I’m here for chaos.’ Embracing the chaos you might cause, seeing it as a pattern within yourself and not necessarily wanting to get out of it. Everyone loved how frantic it was going to the bridge where a second chorus would be. So it’s a fun song structurally because you really only have two choruses in it but somehow it feels like more??—just wanted to melt everything together, we didn’t question it at the time so why question it later.”

“I Won’t Be the One’”

“Alli started this one during her time in Denver, snowed in on Nov 4 2020. It was one of the first songs we tried as SKORTS because of how easy it was for everyone to learn. It was easy to hold onto. At its core, it is a very sad and aching song and SO simply pretty. It’s just three chords after all. Teddy helped the track feel more diverse than that though. Adding the half time idea in that first post chorus and elevating certain vocal leads to help create sections. Max Yassky’s drum performance on this song also helped shape the heart beat of this track. The main vocal day was also very memorable. Alli was just so dropped in with the performance that we probably only did two takes and moved on to harmonies.  The lyrics express willingness to die rather than pull the plug on this. The ending will be our soccer stadium song. It’s a bit of a champion anthem. You’ll hear what you need in it. Very romantic.

“Anyone”

“Also never played live, Char had this chord progression and outro tracked as a bedroom demo.  It contained the bare arpeggiated guitar and the big outro of stacked synths. The structure was there but it needed vocals. One morning in July 2023, Alli asked to track some vocals on it and laid down the melodies. Final lyrics came much later but the original ad libbed lyrics Alli recorded that day were the basis of it. Guitars and synth were later re-recorded and the drum machine used in Blondie’s ‘The Tide is High’ was added with Teddy. The drums in the outro are real drums with Char performing them as they were on the original demo. A perfect little farewell track. It is very hard to describe what it is about. Themes of death and rebirth. It tries to describe how the people that you meet, might have been the people you met before. Trying to tap into this looping life cycle of the people that you are intertwined with, the souls always reconnect with one another and you could be any of them, you can find yourself in anyone, and vice versa. Being open to the idea of multiple timelines that you may or may not have been a part of.”

—

As for what these nine tracks have in common…

“There are feelings that can’t be described in words,” Alli told me once. “I know a song’s good when it makes me cry.”

Listen to Incompletement now + stay tuned for a release-show announcement coming soon.

And one final reminder to keep your eyes and ears open out there. Time’s might feel dark, but the universe is here to help you find your people. Then it’s up to you to make some art.

———————————————————————————————

Follow the band at @skorts_, buy music on Bandcamp and add the songs to your Spotify playlists!

Feature image provided by the band.