Though crushed's debut extra life only came out in 2023, the duo’s blissed-out, melancholic sound, one that blends dream pop, trip-hop, and electronica, already feels like it's operating at full power. Made up of songwriter/producer Shaun Durkan and vocalist Bre Morell, the duo’s work pulls from a deep well of musical influences. Talking to them, I learned that they find inspiration in Gang of Four’s post-punk and William Basinski’s minimalism as much as the music of trip-hop pioneers like Portishead and DJ Shadow. The result is entrancing and cinematic. The duo both look inward and shoot from the hip, all with laid-back precision.

Despite working in different cities, crushed are able to build their musical world through trust and a mutual ability to push one another into new territory, whether that’s through crafting a breakbeat pop song or stretching into tracks that approach the six-minute mark. I talked with both members about formative records, internet music discoveries, and, of course, their shared affinity for trip-hop. The duo’s forthcoming album, no scope, comes out September 26th on Ghostly International.

Can you remember a moment when you discovered a song or album that changed the way you thought about music?

Shaun: Some of my earliest musical memories are of my dad sharing music he loved with me. One of the albums I distinctly remember challenging and changing the way I thought about music was Gang of Four’s Entertainment!. Andy Gill’s jagged guitar playing blew my mind, and showed me that music could be chaotic, left of center, off the grid and still be beautiful.

Bre: So many moments like this stand out to me still, but two important discoveries that happened around age 15/16 were Aphex Twin’s Drukqs and William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops. I had never heard anything as abrasive and chaotic as “Cock/ver10,” or as minimal and eerily nostalgic as Basinski’s work, and together they both completely changed my understanding of what music could be.

Growing up, were there any specific ways you discovered music? Was pirating music, or any now-forgotten corners of the internet, a part of your personal rabbit hole of “unlocking” new artists?

Bre: Early on I was really fascinated by independent radio, and loved finding international stations online (most notably in the UK) to eavesdrop on what was popular in other corners of the world. But the most crucial place of music discovery for me were message boards. I was a regular on several of the big Radiohead message boards in the 2000s and discovered so many of my most influential artists just from checking out what other posters were listening to (e.g. Aphex Twin and Basinski). Shout out to the “Other Music” section of mortigitempo.com—RIP.

Shaun: I found a lot of new music by reading magazines (Spin, Circus, Hit Parader, Thrasher), looking through stuff like the Alternative Tentacles mail-order catalog, and eventually Napster/Limewire. I’d look into other artists that shared labels with bands I loved. It was a lot of trial and error, blindly ordering CDs based on the cover and learning to love them through repeat listens even if they didn’t hit right away.

What do you each bring out in one another that makes crushed what it is?

Shaun: I’ve been in a lot of bands, but never one with someone that can sing like Bre can. It’s a real gift, and her voice allows me to push my writing to places I couldn’t before. Knowing that she can nail a three-minute radio-friendly pop song just as well as she can really elevate a murky six-minute ballad is exciting, and that’s given us a lot of bandwidth when it comes to what sorts of sounds we can try.

Bre: Shaun’s such a talented songwriter and producer that pretty much every instrumental demo he shows me is honestly good enough to be released as-is. Getting to work with someone that operates at that level is such a luxury—I can pitch any kind of prompt or reference to him and he nails it every time, and lays out the perfect canvas for me to bring my best work forward.

How would you describe your approach to writing lyrics? Do you tend to draw mostly from personal experience?

Bre: For me the melody always comes first, and once I have a solid working idea I let the emotion of the song dictate where I’ll take the lyrics. Always coming from personal experiences or fixations, and very commonly surrounding the very vivid dreams and nightmares I’ve been plagued with for most of my life.

Shaun: Lyrics always come from a really personal place for me, but they’re not always written from my own perspective. I use lyrics to process where I’m at, what I’ve been through, what I’m worried about or what I want. They help me see myself through other people’s eyes and give me an understanding of how my choices affect people around me.

You’re both involved in other musical projects outside of crushed. Does it come naturally to know which project needs your focus at any given time?

Shaun: My focus is too intense and narrow to be working on multiple bands at one time. So when I’m writing for crushed, it’s crushed 100 percent, which makes it easier to direct the work and make sure it feels like it’s all living in the same universe. I don’t really even listen to other music when I’m working on my own, I need to be totally obsessed with it.

Bre: The focus between projects has come pretty naturally on my end. I’ll definitely get intensely hyper-fixated on one specific thing at a time but my attention span is shorter lol, so I really like being able to shift gears to avoid burn out.

Amongst other musical commonalities, you both seem to share an affinity for trip-hop. Who are your three essential trip-hop acts?

Bre: Correct … Trip-hop is my passion, thank you for asking. Portishead is obviously the most quintessential, best to ever do it, etc. and Massive Attack close behind, but I’m going to throw Bowery Electric in there too—very much underrated imo. Honorable mentions to Sneaker Pimps, Puracane, and Akira Yamaoka because I can’t just do three, sorry!

Shaun: Portishead, DJ Shadow, Team Sleep.

You are inspired by all these different lanes in music—dreampop, electronica, trip-hop, Britpop—so, when you are making music, do you often find yourself feeling conscious about genre, or does it all kind of meld naturally together?

Shaun: No I never think about that. It’s all about trusting our intuition, and if it feels right—it is right.

Bre: All of these influences are just swirling around in my head at all times, and they each take turns popping up to the surface but it’s never really intentional. It’s like a perpetual stew I’ve been brewing my whole life but with songs in my brain…

Upon finishing a project where a lot of the material delves into heavy subject matter, do you tend to feel emotionally drained? Or do you feel as if a weight has been lifted?

Bre: The process of writing and recording a heavier/darker song is often really draining for me and can be difficult to even get through, but once the song is released I’m completely free of all of it. It’s subconsciously a very healing process for sure.

Shaun: I feel proud, but not relieved. There’s always something around the bend…

How do you go about developing ideas together while living in different cities? How does that influence the way you shape and build ideas, and turn them into songs and albums? 

Shaun: I think we just trust our intuition. We dig into things we’re interested in, have really high standards, and trust in each other’s gut feelings about what we’re making. Living in separate places allows us to each have our own unique take on the project, and I think the duality of that process is what keeps it fresh and exciting. We don’t ever pick apart or overanalyze what we’re working on, we just let it happen and do what feels right and that’s worked so far.

What are some things outside of music that influence or inspire you, whether aesthetically or artistically?

Shaun: Addiction, video games, love, mental illness, Magic: The Gathering.

Bre: Hope, grief, my connection to reality (or lack thereof), exoplanets, nature, and yes, video games.