PREVIEW: Shannon Tehya and Lucas Garrett Plan a Whopping Double Release Show
2/20 @ The Strand Theatre, Glens Falls
Photo by Stephanie J. Bartik
“Each [artist] is intentional, cares deeply about their craft, and is brimming with passion to share their art with our community. What’s not to love?”
While the weather remains dark and gloomy, the bright lights and big energy at The Strand Theatre on Friday February 20 are sure to lift your spirits and perk your ears. The night will feature not just one but two fantastic 518 artists, Shannon Tehya and Lucas Garrett, both fresh off several Eddie’s Awards nominations, including Record of the Year nods — December 2025 releases “Michigan” for Garrett and “Take It Slow” for Tehya. Leading up to the show, I chatted with the two about what audiences can expect from this show that will celebrate brand new music from each performer.
The night will begin with Tehya, featuring her entire five-piece band, an intentional decision that she hopes to replicate moving forward. “A big part of our structuring of the band this year has been pushing for us to really center our identity as a full band sound, even though we do just go by my name,” she explains. “But I want people to associate pop star vibes with the name Shannon Tehya,” which, if you’ve seen Tehya perform, you’re crazy if you’re not already viewing her as the pop star she is.
She’ll be releasing a brand new song “Renegades” on the stage, perhaps with a music video to accompany if all goes well. Before diving into the content of that track, though, we reflected on the sweetness and calm reassurance offered by recent release “Take It Slow.” The track holds special meaning to Tehya for a variety of reasons, not least of which is the fact that she produced it by herself at home. “A huge part of the past couple of years has been the informal apprenticeship with an amazing producer [Antoine Breton] who is the one who created ‘Renegades,’” she says.
It’s one of the first songs her whole band has featured on together, start to finish, and even one her fans have been on from the beginning. When it debuted at Lark Hall in December, Tehya recalls, “It was amazing because right in the front row, we actually had people from the bar I consider to have given me my start — Unihog — who were a part of the process when I had written that song. Rewind four years, they were singing along to the chorus of that song behind the bar. Now they're in the front of the show, scanning the QR code on my little notes, saving it to their Spotify library,” she concludes with a smile.
Fans who may have been readily anticipating “Take It Slow” should come ready for a switch in tone with new track “Renegades,” however, which Tehya attributes to her gemini roots. The twin astrology sign gets its own reference in the song, which she says is because “I wanted to reflect this dueling personalities moment. It's a very dark, kind of spooky song. I consider it to be sort of dark indie pop. And it's got some grit!” Especially with a full-band set up, it’s sure to be a can’t miss performance.
Photo by Debi Gustafson
And while he won’t be featuring a full band, just himself and bass player Thom Carvey, Lucas Garrett’s set is sure to be can’t miss as well. Set to release an entire EP, he’s spent many months arranging these tracks with the help of producer Alec Lewis, among others. “The EP contains a lot of different sounds. We have saxophone, violin, electric piano, lots of different stuff going on. But the main thing that ties them all together is the meticulousness with which I've arranged every song.”
Garrett explains that his typical process would be to record an album as he’s writing it, but this approach was entirely different. “I spent the last year and a half planning songs out. I have never done that before,” he says. “This time around, I took the songs and let them mature before I went and recorded them.”
The end result is a double EP, five songs released this month, and another five to come in October, eventually forming one complete album. As he decided which tracks fit best for each sampling, Garrett came to see that, though there were no intentional themes at the time of writing, each song fit neatly together. “Incidentally, it ended up working out,” he tells me. “I think that was just luck on my part. But all my songs do kind of have a theme, whether tangentially or not, so it was pretty easy to decide what to put on the album.”
While his bluesy-rock track “Michigan” has garnered acclaim and attention over the past several months, it’s oddly not the song he’s most excited about on the EP — that honor would go to “Hideaway.” This one, Garrett says, is a bit of a thinker, requiring multiple listens to appreciate the fullness of the arrangement. With 30 guitar parts in the mix, “there's a lot of stuff going on. When people hear it, they're going to hear something new every time.”
While Garrett came up with each of the guitar parts, he credits the careful mixing of each element to Troy Pohl, who took each piece that was sent to him and matched Garrett’s meticulousness when placing it. Pohl is mixing and mastering the full EP, which Garrett says has freed him up in other areas. “Basically, I was able to take all of the mental work that went into mixing and devote it back into songwriting.”
Throughout the process, Garrett ensured he’d be able to rock the house whether it was a full band or acoustic set, so fans can be ready for a full sound on Friday with just two musicians. Once again, the careful arrangement plays a huge part in this work.
“I would make the argument that my bass player and I, you don't even miss that there’s not a drummer there because we are so percussive in our playing. The songs can live on their own,” he assures. “I have done solo, I've done duo, I've done full band with these songs. And they work no matter what configuration I'm going out with. That was another thing that was very intentional on my part.”
The takeaway from our chat is very clear: Friday’s release show is a chance to see two of our most thoughtful, talented musicians debut their new work in a gorgeous theatre. Each one is intentional, cares deeply about their craft, and is brimming with passion to share their art with our community. What’s not to love?
Buy your tickets to the show here: https://events.com/r/en_US/tickets/shannon-tehya-lucas-garrett-kingsbury-february-1022738
