Song Premier: Utility’s “Shiny Things” Makes You Wonder If You Still Chase That Spark In Life

Utility is a Portland, Oregon-based project from RFK Heise (Last Giant, System and Station) and Adam Draper (Down Gown, Swim Swam Swum), and they embarked on this endeavor with the goal of finding out how much sound two people can make using modern technology alongside a bass and a drum kit. Their inspirations were New Wave, Soul, and Rock n’ Roll. Utility’s second full-length album, How to Protect What’s Left will be released on October 17th, 2025.

Today, we’re very pleased to premier the track “Shiny Things”, which arrives everywhere this Friday on October 2nd, 2025.

For a duo that works primarily with drums and bass, Utility’s music is surprisingly melodic, as the track “Shiny Things” shows. And in its experimentation, the track still casts the net wide with approachable Rock-style vocals and emotive lyrics, drawing the audience in. Experimentation can sometimes keep audiences at a distance, but that’s definitely not true in this case. Utility is clearly thinking of that personal connection which audiences associate with genres like Soul and Rock and making sure that their music is memorable in a similar way.

The track “Shiny Things” is heavy, as you might expect from Utility’s goals, but in its heaviness lies a kind of challenging attitude and a protest against the “lies we tell ourselves”, using sound to support the song’s themes. This carries the drama of a kind of confrontation with ourselves, looking back on our youth, and trying to reorient our goals in a changing world. The speaker may be “lost at sea”, but there may still be a way to touch base, to find meaning again.

Utility clearly have a specific vision for the message of their song and the outreach they intend to make, building up the melody and warmth of Rock, even without the use of electric guitar. To do that, they construct and reinforce melody in other ways, and also give special emphasis to the vocals. The result is engaging, dramatic, and makes you consider your own relationship to the “before and after” of adulthood, as well as whether you still chase some kind of spark or meaning in life.

Ryan Heise (vocals, bass) says about “Shiny Things”:

“Shiny Things” is the pop song off the record. It has the major choruses and the minor verses. Lyrically it’s about not growing up until you’ve had your heart broken and the lifelong pursuit to capture how you felt before the break.

Utility’s debut self-titled, full-length album came out in 2019, and was recorded, mixed, and produced by RFK Heise. Now they are following up with How to Protect What’s Left, a ten-track collection that picks up where the self-titled left off, focusing again on “raw Rock.”