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Mar 28, 2022 By Caleb Campbell

Silver Liz is the indie rock musical collaboration between husband and wife duo, Carrie and Matt Wagner. Since debuting in 2017 with I Can Feel the Weight, the pair have been reemerging periodically with a handful of new singles, each sampling new genres ranging between shoegaze, electronica, and acoustic pop. Earlier this year, Silver Liz returned with “Until Lately,” the first single from their forthcoming sophomore album. Today they’re back with their latest single, “Thousand,” premiering with Under the Radar.

With their latest effort, Silver Liz’s talent for genre-blending makes for indie rock magic, marrying together graceful pop vocals, stately acoustic strumming, and a raging grungy climax. Bursts of synths and fractured guitar add a lovely dream-like texture to the track’s first half, but that dream veers into more sinister territory in the second half. Gnarled, roaring guitars kick in, backed by towering percussion and stabs of ear-splitting distortion. Even as the duo barrel towards the track’s end, Carrie’s sweet vocal melodies add a certain bright warmth, a gorgeous ray of light shining through the surrounding storm. The ensuing contrast adds a truly heartfelt sheen to the track’s explosive finish.

“For a few songs on the upcoming album, I wrote lyrics based on dreams I’ve had. It’s a nice well to draw from unless that well is full of nightmares…and mine is a lot of the time these days,” says Carrie. “Fear of death is admittedly not the most original topic in art,” she continues. “But death has been at the forefront of so many people’s minds because we’ve been on high alert to it from COVID and environmental catastrophe. I’ve had an intense fear of death since I was a little kid because I was raised Christian and the concept of hell was unfortunately over-emphasized. So, for me, it feels like those intrusive thoughts are exacerbated.”

“There’s a line in the song where I sing, ‘When I told my friend about it, she said it’s like you die one thousand deaths,’’” says Carrie. “A friend really did tell me that in response to this fear I shared with her. It’s based on a quote by Shakespeare. As if thinking often about death is somehow going to cushion the pain and uncertainty surrounding death, it really just makes things worse… I’ve thought about that a lot. And sonically, the explosive last section of ‘Thousand’ feels so cathartic to me, like I’m defeating those harmful thoughts.”

Meanwhile, the accompanying video was made using clips from Agnès Varda’s Cléo from 5 to 7, which follows a singer as she anxiously waits to find out if she has cancer. As Matt explains, “We actually first watched the film after the song was already written. There are so many scenes that perfectly illustrate the lyrics, so it was easy to create a video that matched the emotional arc of the song. It came together quickly.” Check out the song and video below, out everywhere now.