Waterlog has released their new single titled ‘Touchscreen’ from the EP of the same name dropping March 20th. After a breakout year collaborating with musical giants like Peter Gabriel, Squid, and Saya Gray, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and now Grammy Award Winning engineer for ‘Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical’ on Peter Gabriel’s ‘i/o’ – Dom Shaw is ready to make 2025 his own with his creative project, Waterlog. Emerging from a winter of reflection on the rugged Cornish coastline, Dom has crafted a distinctive sound that fuses alternative, folk, and rock, woven together with wit, truth, and a touch of myth.
Leading the charge into the new year is brand new single ‘Touchscreen’, the title track from Waterlog’s forthcoming EP set for release on March 20, 2025. The song is a raucous indie pop-rock anthem with echoes of early 2000s nostalgia, laced with Dom’s uniquely inventive musical touch. Brimming with frenetic energy and constant twists, the track showcases Dom’s one-of-a-kind creative vision, fully realised after years of studio mastery.
‘Touchscreen’ is inspired by Dom’s moment of clarity (and comedy) as he pondered the absurdities of modern life dominated by smartphones and social media. The result? A tongue-in-cheek duet between a relentlessly optimistic smartphone and its jaded user, brimming with sharp humor and biting commentary.
“It’s a farcical middle finger to the technology that had such an irreversible effect on me growing up.” Dom shares. “Oddly enough, the song feels more relevant now than when I wrote it.”
The track began as a raw collaboration between Dom and drummer Cam, whose thrashing rhythms laid the groundwork for a gritty, gnarly bassline that brought the song’s energy to life. To play the material at live shows, Dom brought in his long term collaborators; Cam Steele (Drums), Tom Coath (Bass), Tatjana Radivoj (Guitar) and Vi Wang (Sax), who form a five piece band.
With its unabashedly British indie pop vibe, ‘Touchscreen’ is equal parts lampooning satire and cathartic release. Featuring clashing chords, sudden sonic shifts, and polished production, the track feels modern yet rooted in the DIY ethos of 2000s indie rock.
Dom’s charismatic vocals command attention, delivering every line with a blend of humor, grit, charm and even taking inspiration from The Shining’s Danny Torrance for the main hook.
Waterlog’s ability to blend genres is not just skill but sheer joy, and ‘Touchscreen’ is a testament to Dom’s genre-fluid artistry. Whether it’s the raw edge of thrashing guitars or the polished, indie-pop sheen, the track captures an artist at the peak of his creative powers – with a song that humorously yet poignantly reflects the digital age with a modern indie twist.
Q&A
When did you write “Touchscreen”, and why did you decide to make it your title track?
Touchscreen was one of the first songs I wrote for Waterlog, back in late 2023. The lyrics came all at once, they’re all scrawled down messily in a notebook somewhere so you can tell where my head was at at that time. Anyone close to me knows I have quite a conflicted relationship with smartphones and the only way I could fully represent it was this in-your-face, chaotic tune. When people listened to the song it seemed to grab them and not let go which I thought was a good enough reason for using it to spearhead this EP.
What do you think are the most important things screens give us, and what do you feel they take away?
We are at a point where you can see and hear your loved ones from halfway across the world, and people are able to collaborate for incredible causes on a global scale for almost no cost. We have everything at our fingertips including the ability to relive any great moment in human history and learn from the great mistakes of human history. But I think the human response to being given this is not quite as utopian as someone from the past may expect – this ability to live in an endless fantasy has been detrimental to a number of young people.
As you were composing the song, did you know you were going to make this sort of dichotomy of sounds and feelings? If not, how did it happen?
Absolutely, it was all there from the get go. My feelings on the subject are so conflicted and warring that I had to get that across.
When did you first begin bridging the gap between genres, and how does it feel to make that come to life inside a song?
I’ve never really been able to stick to any one genre, it’s the modern way after all! I have such a love for so many different types of music which has served me well in my job as a recording engineer. Whenever I write it’s natural for me to imagine different contexts that the song could exist in and try to combine them. I just love that it’s entering the mainstream these days.
I heard a rumor that some of your songs were recorded in a shed near the sea. What area did you record in, and how do you feel the location in which you recorded affects your final product?
Yeah I recorded most of the material down on the Cornish coast. I didn’t anticipate the sea to play such a part in my emotions while I was there – this song in particular I developed during a particularly stormy period and that had such an effect on every take I did, knowing that the winds were up and the surrounding landscape was in chaos.
Is there one lyric from “Touchscreen” which stands out to you, or has a deeper, unspoken meaning?
I like this question, it’s made me review the lyrics and see them in a different light. I think at the end of the bridge, “there’s no need to thank me”, spoken from the voice of the smartphone. I think it’s amazing that, despite the often all-consuming impact that phones have on our lives, they’re sort of immune to praise/criticism. It makes me think of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror concept, that the technology pretends to merely show us a reflection of ourselves.