Quivers

Combining jangly guitars, wistful melodies, and interweaving vocal lines from four distinctive singers, Australian quartet Quivers constructs its approach by drawing cues from both lesser-known and celebrated figures across indie rock. Straightforward guitar-pop frameworks serve as the starting point for the group’s explorations of broader instrumentation, while themes of loss, loneliness, and painful growth surface prominently on the 2021 album Golden Doubt. Quivers later aligned with Merge Records to issue its subsequent full-length, 2024’s Oyster Cuts.

Songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Sam J. Nicholson formed Quivers in Hobart, Tasmania; the initial lineup recorded the debut album We’ll Go Riding on the Hearses in 2015. Guitarist and vocalist Michael Panton, who contributed to that first record, joined bassist and vocalist Bella Quinlan along with drummer and vocalist Holly Thomas to stabilize the configuration. Now operating out of Melbourne, the quartet issued multiple singles, traveled abroad, and drew attention through the 2019 track “You’re Not Always on My Mind.” In 2020 the band delivered a complete cover of R.E.M.’s Out of Time on limited-edition vinyl. The imprint of R.E.M., the Go-Betweens, the Clean, the Smiths, and additional college-rock touchstones grew more central, shaping a blend of jangly, melancholic guitar pop and Nicholson’s world-weary outlook on the proper follow-up, Golden Doubt, released in 2021. Following a limited 7-inch single in 2022 that paired one new original with a Lucinda Williams cover, Quivers began collaborating with the U.S. indie imprint Merge Records. Oyster Cuts, the band’s first release for the label, expanded on its signature elements of layered vocal arrangements, candid personal lyricism, and incisive melodic craft; the album appeared in August 2024, after which the group embarked on extensive touring.