Shelter

“Shelter” is the second track from singer-songwriter FINNEAS (real name Finneas O’Connell) and his debut EP “Blood Harmony”, which was released in October 2019.

FINNEAS is often known for writing and producing Billie Eilish’s tracks (they are siblings) as well as producing and co-writing for artists such as Selena Gomez. In an interview with “Coup De Main”, Finneas explained the meaning behind “Shelter”: ‘Shelter’ is a song I wrote a long time ago, I wrote it around the same time I wrote ‘Break My Heart Again’, which was in 2016. I wrote it to send to Avicii – I’d heard that he was looking for songs for one of his last couple of EPs, which obviously nobody knew were his last couple of EPs at the time, but it was a song that I wrote. Sometimes those songs are really liberating to write because I wasn’t having to etch my diary, the story of my life, into a song. I just had this thought, ‘I’d love to write a song called ‘Shelter’ and I want to see if I can make it quickly.’ So I probably wrote the song in 45 minutes, recorded the demo, and then I fell in love with the song. It hit my voice in a really fun way to me, it was really fun for me to sing the demo, and it became this thing that I became very attached to. It’s honestly unclear whether or not he heard it, I had nothing beyond my really wonderful managers that anyone was hearing anything that I was doing at the time, but unfortunately, he passed away the year later. The song sat dormant until recently, I started to play live a lot, and I think when you play live a lot you start to understand what you want a lot of when you play, and I just had this feeling of, ‘I would love to do this song every day at a show.’” The track is an ode to a lover that Finneas feels provides him shelter and stability, and that he will only be “whole” if his lover is with him, despite it not being a healthy or perfect relationship.

The music video for the track was uploaded to YouTube on the 30th September 2019 and directed by Sam Bennett. It features FINNEAS in a waistcoat surrounded by groups of male and female dancers in blue shirts and trousers. FINNEAS fights to be free when they grab them in what appears to be a road near a bridge. The video ends with all dancers running towards the camera while the camera pans out into the sky. As of November 2019, the video has over 1.4 million views and over 98,000 likes.

Release Date: 22nd August 2019

Songwriter: FINNEAS

Producer: FINNEAS

Label: OYOY

Music Video Release Date: 30th September 2019

Music Video Director: Sam Bennett

Chart Rankings: There are currently no chart rankings for “Shelter”, however the track does have over 4.3 million plays on Spotify to date.

The lyrics to “Shelter” can be viewed here: LINK