Sharpie Smile’s debut album has one question for you: is your heart good enough to take The Staircase?
Sharpie Smile is Dylan Hadley and Cole Berliner. They met in 2015, a pair of musically-adept nonconformist teenagers that started writing music together for a project called Kamikaze Palm Tree. With Dylan on drums and Cole on guitar, they produced two albums of thorny, ear-wormy art rock, touring the country and fitting in session work for Cate Le Bon, A. Savage, and Tim Presley’s White Fence. Then, a shimmering new direction came into view…
The Staircase is a lush and energising contemporary pop record built on heart-swelling minimal/maximal electronic production and deep feels. Dylan and Colesummon inspired waves of dreamy futurist sounds, taking notes from the likes of SOPHIE, 100 gecs, and Oklou. Finding something new is losing something else; there’s the shadow of ‘goodbye’ here, too. The way Dylan sings “There is nothing I won’t miss” on the pre-release single, “Love or Worship,” we feel broken up — but if the breakup is with the old way of life, then getting over the hump will provide its own sweet reward. Sharpie Smile’s passage is one of sensuous breaths and serpentine soul-terrain, as Dylan’s blue vocal melodies drift glacially through a luminous wilderness of synth keys, guitars and percussion beats.
Abrupt and minimal, "The Slide" goes hard. Light on its feet and playful, hard autotune dances over harsh bass and sucks you in. The music video (by Isabella Behravan) captures Dylan and Cole in a midnight harbor, where Dylan's echoes — “Just reach down to me now / Just let go” — drop you into a rippling, shimmery bridge with slinky guitars that feel like an arrival. It stands out as a track to bridge the record together, and solidifies its final form as a modern pop endeavour.
Sharpie Smile "The Slide" (Official Music Video)
Sharpie Smile 2025 US Tour Dates
- June 30 - Los Angeles, CA Zebulon (Album Release Show)
- July 17 - Phoenix, Arizona Valley Bar
- July 19 - Albuquerque, NM Black Wall Gallery
- July 20 - Marfa, TX Planet Marfa
- July 22 - Denton, TX Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio
- July 24 - Kansas City, KS recordBar
- July 25 - St. Louis, MO The Sinkhole
- July 26 - Nashville, TN DRKMTTR
- July 27 - Raleigh, NC Neptunes
- July 28 - Washington, D.C. Songbyrd Music House
- July 31 - Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
- Aug. 1 - Boston, MA The Rockwell
- Aug. 1 - Brooklyn, NY Littlefield
- Aug. 3 - Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
- Aug. 5 - Chicago, IL Hideout
- Aug. 6 - Des Moines, IA Lefty’s Live Music
- Aug. 7 - Omaha, NE Joslyn Castle Carriage House
- Aug. 8 - Denver, CO Hi-Dive
- Aug. 9 - Salt Lake City, UT The DLC at Quarters
- Aug. 10 - Boise, ID Neurolux
- Aug. 11 - Seattle, WA Chop Suey
- Aug. 12 - Vancouver, BC, Canada Green Auto
- Aug. 13 - Portland, OR Holocene
- Aug. 16 - San Francisco, CA 4 Star Theater
- Aug. 18 - Sacramento, CA Cafe Colonial
- Aug. 21 - San Diego, CA Soda Bar
- Aug. 22 - Los Angeles, CA Teragram Ballroom