Dayton, Ohio’s Shelter & Sound tear into love, self-preservation, and the war within on their debut single “Frailty,” a spellbinding alt-rock eruption where towering vocals rise over hammering drums and thrashing guitars – opening a new chapter rooted in old friendship and the freedom to make music on their own terms.
Stream: “Frailty” – Shelter & Sound
A cut can go straight to the bone without spilling a drop of blood.
Shelter & Sound seize on that image in “Frailty,” giving shape to a pain too deep for tears and an inner conflict that makes the heart sound like both savior and saboteur. Their debut single is a spellbinding, rip-roaring alt-rock release valve, hurling unguarded love and the instinct to survive into one fiercely charged collision.
One last song
Before I put this love to bed
A love that should have been bottled up
Returned, resold instead
I have no more use for it
Not on others, or myself
So it sits to collect dust
And webs upon the shelves
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Frailty,” the spellbinding debut single from Shelter & Sound. Out September 11 via Sweet Cheetah Records, the song introduces the Dayton, Ohio post-hardcore project of longtime friends and songwriters Michael Coates and Shawn Bell. It’s a formidable first statement: Brooding and dramatic at its core, yet explosive in execution, “Frailty” channels the emotional urgency of emo and post-hardcore through the scale and weight of modern heavy rock.
Heavy drums crash beneath towering vocals as guitars churn, thrash, and surge around a driving acoustic pulse. The arrangement keeps tightening and opening, allowing bruised verses to gather pressure before the choruses break wide open in a rush of distortion and melody. By the outro, Shelter & Sound have pushed the song toward full-body release, its repeated cries of “You are my frailty” growing increasingly desperate as the distinction between salvation and enemy begins to collapse.
“Modern production blows my mind these days,” Coates tells Atwood Magazine. “I’m extremely inspired by artists like Bilmuri and producers like Aaron and Will Carlson who have mastered the art of transition, bottom energy, and push and pull. As I mentioned before, I’m a sucker for tension and release. I feel like we must create areas of subtlety if we want the important parts to hit hard where it matters most.”
The payoff is visceral because all that scale leaves the frightened, self-accusing voice at the song’s center exposed.
“Frailty” unfolds as an argument between a person and their own heart: One side wounded by how freely it has loved, the other firing back that openness itself created the danger. “I’m salvation, you’re my frailty,” the chorus insists, before the bridge destabilizes even that certainty with the stark exchange, “You are my frailty / I am the enemy.” By the end, blame has folded inward, and survival depends on reconciling two parts of the self that no longer trust one another.
I’ll bring you to your knees
My heart says to me to daily
You wear me on your sleeves
How can you even blame me
You’re such a fucking fool
You know I see what they see
They read you like a book
I’m salvation you’re my frailty
For Coates, that reckoning arrives after a long absence from music. A songwriter and guitarist for touring act Auburndale in the mid-2000s, he also co-founded Substream Magazine and launched Thriving Records before the sudden death of his partner and co-founder Marc Young in 2009 led him to walk away from music entirely. More than a decade later, an old guitar hung on his office wall as decoration brought him back almost by accident. Casual strumming became writing; writing became an emotional flood; and reconnecting with Bell, a friend of roughly 25 years, gave those songs somewhere to go.
Coates describes that return as being “reacquainted with a best friend you hadn’t seen in years,” and “Frailty” carries the force of that rediscovery without romanticizing what brought it to life. Written amid self-doubt, depression, imposter syndrome, and hopelessness, the song takes emotions that had nowhere productive to go and gives them volume, motion, and release. Shelter & Sound may be making their first entrance today, but “Frailty” comes roaring out of years of accumulated life – a debut built from the hard, necessary work of learning how to hear yourself again.
There’s a pain so deep that tears won’t feed
Like those cuts that go straight to the bone
And refuse to bleed
These words wonder from my mouth
With no goal in sight
Not to make you feel
Help me heal
Or incite some fight
You’re right
The wound at the center of “Frailty” has a physical origin. Coates carried its image with him from childhood, long before he knew it would become a metaphor for anguish that runs deeper than its outward signs can reveal.
“Not sure if you’ve ever had the misfortune of a massive cut. When I was a kid, I split my chin open falling into a coffee table. Literally straight to the bone and didn’t even bleed. That experience has always stuck with me. I guess when I think, how would I express the deepest emotional cut imaginable, it was the first visceral thought that popped into my head.”
Shelter & Sound also belongs to a friendship that has survived the changing shape of adult life.
Coates and Bell have known one another for roughly 25 years, sharing musical tastes and years of friendship without ever seriously pursuing a project together. As careers, marriages, children, and time rearranged their lives, Bell continued writing and recording privately. When Coates began picking up the guitar again, exchanging riffs and project files gave the pair another way back into each other’s orbit.
I’ll bring you to your knees
My heart says to me to daily
You wear me on your sleeves
How can you even blame me
You’re such a f***ing fool
You know I see what they see
They read you like a book
I’m salvation you’re my frailty
You are my frailty
I am the enemy
You are my frailty
I am your enemy
The freedom in their collaboration matters. Shelter & Sound isn’t being built around the expectations Coates knew from his earlier years in music; its foundation is far more personal, rooted in the value of creating because creation itself has become necessary again.
“My singular goal for this project is a bit selfish; it’s about personal expression, connection, self discovery and therapy,” Coates shares. “Getting old sucks, but something kinda beautiful happens at my age. You really stop giving a s*** what other people think.”
That perspective gives “Frailty” another charge. Its narrator may be consumed by exposure, self-protection, and the consequences of leaving the heart unguarded, but the act of writing the song requires precisely the openness its lyrics fear. Coates and Bell lean into that contradiction rather than resolving it neatly. Vulnerability can wound; instinct can betray; self-preservation can keep us standing. Yet closing ourselves off entirely carries its own cost.
For Shelter & Sound, making music again offers another way through.
“Frailty” doesn’t arrive with the polish of distance from its subject; it carries the heat of emotions still being worked out, pushed through enormous guitars, hammering drums, and a voice straining toward release. The song’s final repetitions leave salvation and enemy tangled together, but the existence of the song itself points toward an answer: Pain can be carried differently once it has somewhere to go.
“Frailty” arrives September 11 via Sweet Cheetah Records, marking the first step in a project born from old friendship, rediscovered creativity, and the refusal to leave difficult feelings buried on the shelf. Let Shelter & Sound bring you inside that collision today, and dive into Atwood Magazine’s full conversation with Michael Coates and Shawn Bell below.
I’ll bring you to your knees
My heart says to me to daily
You wear me on your sleeves
How can you even blame me
You’re such a f***ing fool
You know I see what they see
They read you like a book
I’m salvation you’re my frailty
You are… You are…
You are my frailty
You are… You are…
You are my enemy
You are… You are…
You are my frailty
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:: stream/purchase Frailty here ::
:: connect with Shelter & Sound here ::
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Stream: “Frailty” – Shelter & Sound
A CONVERSATION WITH SHELTER & SOUND
Atwood Magazine: Michael and Shawn, hello and thank you for your time! For those who are just discovering Shelter & Sound today, what do you want them to know about the band and your music?
Michael: First off, appreciate the opportunity Mitch! Coming back into the scene after being out for so many years is somewhat familiar and yet so foreign. I’m quickly realizing the landscape of music discovery has changed dramatically. At the risk of sounding like a real boomer, I’m grateful that a medium like this (Atwood) still exists! My singular goal for this project is a bit selfish; it’s about personal expression, connection, self discovery and therapy. Getting old sucks, but something kinda beautiful happens at my age. You really stop giving a shit what other people think. I think collectively Shawn and I started this with the only intention to self-serve our own needs. If that means creating and listening to it ourselves, I’m content with it. We didn’t even talk about sharing our music until friends in the industry who we trust, said we had something special (not just our moms). I guess what I’m hoping people get out of it would mirror what I myself am receiving. Therapy, self-discovery, something that feels familiar and nostalgic yet forward and future leaning. A lot of my messaging and the songs we write naturally cater to folks my age, but I think it’s relatable to the younger generation or maybe even evolve a call to action for them.
Shawn: Music has been my one constant over all the years. It has been somewhat of a therapy or release for me. It’s always my go-to after work to unwind, or when I’m just bored at home. I have always loved playing music, but I have never been the type to share it. When Mike expressed interest in getting back into playing, I was all for it. He had played in bands in the past and had a lot of experience with it so I was excited to see what we could do together. We have been friends for probably 25 years and had never really put effort into creating together. It had been a really long time since I had collaborated with anyone musically so I was pretty excited for it.
How did Shelter & Sound come together, and what made this feel like the right project for the two of you now?
Michael: Shawn and I have been long time friends, we had a core group that stayed vigilantly strong for years. Traveling much of the world together, tons of parties and hangs, but after COVID, the group was never quite the same. People started peeling off, getting wrapped up in their own lives and seeing them turned into once a month then a few times a year. Once I started picking music back up, writing, recording, it was a well welcomed connection. To share songs, riffs and ideas back and forth either in-person or bouncing project files back and forth. Shawn’s been at writing and recording for a while now over the years, so I had to play major catch up on gear and learning A DAW.
Shawn: Mike and I have been friends for a really long time. We had always had similar musical interests, but we never made a real effort to create anything for some reason. Then as we got older, life happened. Marriages, kids, and all that comes with those things. I just used music as my hobby and started figuring out some very basic recording and just wrote music as I always have. It was just cool for me to finally have a way to save all my ideas. One day Mike came over, and I let him hear some of the stuff I had done, and I think that put the drive back in him to want to get back into music, and here we are!
Michael, after stepping away from music for so long, what did it feel like to have the songs start coming back?
Michael: The best way to describe it, is like being reacquainted with a best friend you hadn’t seen in years. One where you feel the weight of time gone by, but they are exactly how you remembered them and the friendship never skipped a beat. Honestly, I would find times in the beginning, crying alone in my office, overwhelmed by the emotions pouring out of me, but also so unbelievably grateful that the creativity and passion still lived inside me. It’s been one of the best things I’ve been able to do for myself in a long time. I’m married, with nine-year-old twins, so there have been a lot of sacrifices, and living for others for a while. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it and I’m honored to do it, but it feels good when you can fill your own cup from things within, not relying on others or material things.
Who are some of your musical north stars, and what are you most excited about the music you’re making together?
Michael: I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon jaded musician, but for many years I kept a closed catalog from mid ’90s hardcore to 2010 post-hardcore and alt pop. There were a few newer artists outside of that, who really impressed and touched me emotionally. If I had to call my top influences it would be: Deftones, Further Seems Forever, Thrice, Bloc Party, The 1975, Jon Bellion, and Bilmuri.
Shawn: Along with a lot Mike mentioned, I take a lot of inspiration musically from early 2000’s emo, screamo, post-hardcore stuff like Alexisonfire, Underoath, and Coheed and Cambria along with some Midwest-Emo type stuff as well.
“Frailty” is your debut single. Why did this feel like the right first introduction to Shelter & Sound?
Michael: The simple answer is that it was the first demo we recorded with Aaron, haha. But, we do have others completed now. For me, it’s a well balanced expression and example of our taste and musical elements of sound that are important to us. Delicate when it needs to be, soaring at times to help carry the weight, a well established release and tension that align both musically and vocally. I still get goosebumps when the outro of “Frailty” hits. As Quincy Jones once said, “if you want to know what sounds good, just follow your goosebumps.”
Shawn: For me, it was the song we had that captured the most of what we are, and what we’ve been creating. I think we are evolving in a positive way, and I think this song shows a good mix of where we were and where we are going sonically.
What’s the story behind “Frailty”?
Michael: I mentioned the therapy earlier. My writing is often a composition and collection of personal experiences, and external observations of others around me. “Frailty” came at a time where I was experiencing a lot of self-doubt, depression, imposter syndrome at work, and hopelessness. I could feel the same in a lot of adults and friends around me. It was one of my first acoustic writings of mine that we collaborated on. I think the driving acoustic rhythm does a lot for this song especially in the verses.
I love the line, “There’s a pain so deep that tears won’t feed / like those cuts that go straight to the bone / and refuse to bleed.” What were you trying to capture there?
Michael: Not sure if you’ve ever had the misfortune of a massive cut. When I was a kid I split my chin open falling into a coffee table. Literally straight to the bone and didn’t even bleed. That experience has always stuck with me. I guess when I think, how would I express the deepest emotional cut imaginable, it was the first visceral thought that popped into my head.
“Frailty” seems to dig into the disconnect between instinct and self-preservation, and the way love can start to feel like both salvation and weakness. What were you working through lyrically on this song?
Michael: The song mixes a very raw confession of oneself to their own heart. It’s not necessarily a ploy for sympathy, but more of admittance that they don’t know where to go from here. While the chorus is the rebuttal of the heart, almost like a dad giving tough love to their kid, saying “you put me and yourself in this situation. You’re too open, honest and unguarded. What else did you think was going to happen” the heart is actually telling the person, they are the frailty of their collective self while the heart could have been their salvation, had it been better protected. Bridge to outro can be interpreted in different ways, I wanted to intentionally leave it a bit ambiguous. You don’t know which one now is the frailty and who is the enemy? Either way, self preservation is the goal and mind and body have to work together in order to resolve and survive.
The song also hits so hard. What was your musical and sonic vision for it, and how did you want the music to carry the weight of the song?
Michael: Modern production blows my mind these days. I’m extremely inspired by artists like Bilmuri and producers like Aaron and Will Carlson who have mastered the art of transition, bottom energy, and push and pull. As I mentioned before, I’m a sucker for tension and release. I feel like we must create areas of subtlety if we want the important parts to hit hard where it matters most.
What do you hope listeners take away from “Frailty,” and what have you taken away from creating this music and now putting it out?
Michael: Interpretation is wide open. If someone can take something relatable, acknowledging or empowering; amazing. I think that’s the true magic and power of a good song. You either take someone on a specific journey or you help guide a listener on their own. As far as my take away, just getting the words out has saved me years of therapy I feel like. Sometimes giving life to some of these deep-seated emotions through words and conversations is impossible or scary. It’s like the cultural burn letter. I’ve wrote them down, burned the paper, and let them go.
Shawn: I think, for me, it can be daunting to see how much music is out there today, as well as some incredible musicians who almost make you feel like “what’s the point? I can’t compete with that.” But, ultimately it is a very rewarding feeling to complete something and put it out for the world to hear. Even if only a few people hear it, once it’s out there, it’s always out there and it gives you direction and purpose as well as just a creative outlet and a sense of accomplishment.
In the spirit of paying it forward, who are you listening to these days that you’d recommend to our readers?
Michael: There are some really incredible artists I’ve been introduced to recently. A few come to mind: one is Vinnyonfire. Ethan is a part of the Carlson family dynasty. That family is just incredibly talented. Box Elder and Topdown are two artists on Sweet Cheetah Records, the label helping us push out this first single. Both of them have such this raw, authentic vibe going, really killer sounds and love seeing bands composed of equality.
Shawn: I find new bands I like almost weekly it feels like, but lately I have been listening to a lot of Like Roses, Driveways, Belmont, and Good Terms. A lot of upbeat, pop-punk vibes with cool guitar riffs. I’m always a sucker for good riffs and catchy choruses.
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:: stream/purchase Frailty here ::
:: connect with Shelter & Sound here ::
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Stream: “Frailty” – Shelter & Sound
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© courtesy of the band
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