Singapore’s rising dream-pop/shoegaze band motifs return with Aug 16 the first single from their upcoming EP If This House Was Bigger. Recorded at Sundlaugin Studios in Iceland (home to Sigur Rós), unfolds like a memory suspended in motion — told through the eyes of a weary salaryman, the hum of a petrol station, and the haze of missed connections in a diner at midnight.
“Will you meet me at the diner?” — motifs begins ‘Aug 16’ with a question that echoes long after the song ends.
Laced with swelling guitars, ghostly synths, and lyrics that ache with regret, “Aug 16” is a song about loss, not of a
person, but of a moment that slipped away too quietly. “It’s a story that belongs to several people.” the band explains.
“The waitstaff. The postman. The clerk typing out bills. And maybe, to you.” Like train platforms and late-night buses, motifs place the song inside liminal public spaces — transient, unanchored, but steeped in possibility. It’s about the places you pass each night — once ordinary, now echoing with a memory you can’t quite return to.
motifs also returns with If This House Was Bigger, a tender, quietly expansive four-track EP shaped by a winter spent in Iceland. Written and recorded at Sundlaugin Studios, it captures that strange, in-between feeling of early adulthood: regrets you can’t quite name, dreams that feel both near and far, and all the empty spaces that connect them.
It’s, perhaps, their most personal work yet. Shimmering guitars stretch and sigh under raw, unguarded lyrics, creating songs that feel fragile, a little unfinished, and all the more real for it.
EP Release Date: 10 October 2025
About motifs
motifs is a Singaporean shoegaze/dream-pop band creating music that shimmers with emotional resonance and atmospheric depth. Known for their lush textures, glistening guitars, and introspective songwriting, the band has earned praise for their songcraft that feels both cinematic and deeply personal.
Since their debut, motifs has performed across Asia, supported genre legends Slowdive, and built a quiet but devoted international following. Their sound drifts between nostalgia and now, a soft blur of memory, light, and longing.
Out now on KittyWu Records (Stream link)
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