SCHØØL find the lightness in being melancholic on "N.S.M.L.Y.D"

New band on the block SCHØØL are a melting pot. The recipe? Band members from Rendez-Vous, Dog Park, Special Friend, Marble Arch, and Liquid Face. Releasing their debut track as an artistic project, "N.S.M.L.Y.D", they recall popular culture's fascination with the vintage shoegaze sound of the 90's and early 00's. Yet, the track pulls you in all sorts of directions, giving the feeling of being viscerally disorientated and at the same time, euphoric.

Speaking of the track's fruition, lead singer Francis Mallari explains ”I always was fascinated by Liquido’s track "Narcotic", the synth riff is the kind of riff that sounds like an old phone ringtone and gets glued inside your head for days so naturally I wanted to make my own "Narcotic"." Forming the band of his dreams with peers of shared countenances, SCHØØL was formed in Paris in the autumn of 2023 and their first track "N.S.M.L.Y.D" (or "Nothing Satisfies Me Like You Do") thematically deals with idolising someone.

The track's accompanying visual was filmed by Ludovic Azémar last January in the Parisian Chinatown. The music video was shot using an outdated small DV camcorder and its fisheye lens, and the objective was to capture the innocence and nostalgia of youthful adventures. The band hung out at a supermarket, wandered across the city, and ended their journey in a restaurant, a scene already seen many times but always part of a teenage memory.

Now hoping to turn the momentum from the earworm they have released into a full-fledged discography of ditties, there is promise of an album on the horizon. The buzz surrounding the band is not just because of the literal ringtone sound they embody, but also tied to the resurgence of shoegaze in 2024 - now is the time for the cacophony to consume our daily lives.