Shines – “Not Your Bastard Son”

Out July 3rd on Echo Bass Records

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SHINES RETURN WITH DOUBLE A-SIDE 'NOT YOUR BASTARD SON' / 'BREAK MY HEART', OUT 3 JULY VIA ECHO BASS RECORDS

Grimsby four-piece SHINES release a double A-side on 3 July 2026 through Echo Bass Records, pairing the dark, orchestral sweep of 'Not Your Bastard Son' with the bruised indie-pop of 'Break My Heart'. Two tracks, two completely different sides of the band, both pulled from the same place.

The double release is deliberate. One song is cinematic and theatrical, the other is a straight-up melodic gut-punch. Together they show the full range of a band who keep outgrowing the rooms they play.

'NOT YOUR BASTARD SON'

The lead track is the biggest thing SHINES have done. Produced by Adam Featherstone, it opens on a lone funeral trumpet before tipping into a string-soaked, slow-building groove. It is dramatic, it is northern, and it does not flinch.

The words come straight from frontman Richard Dutton and a fractured relationship with an absent father. The title carries a double meaning Dutton enjoys: his parents weren't married, so by the strict definition he's entitled to the word. "It's not Victorian times," he jokes. The real target, though, is simpler. It's a blunt kiss-off to a man who wasn't there and who, in Dutton's telling, was just a bit of a bastard.

The opening verse lands the first blow:

"There's a ghost in every mirror that you taught me how to see, but I've broke the glass between us and now there's only me. Maybe you won't hear this and maybe I shouldn't say. Maybe all the things you're thinking will haunt you anyway."

There's a nod to Dutton's mum too, in the line about a stain upon your Sunday from his mother and her church. He describes her as a proper, church-going woman who had the strength to see through it and leave early. Dutton was raised by the stepdad whose name he still proudly carries. The song is him closing the chapter for good, on his own terms, knowing full well everyone involved will hear every word.

'BREAK MY HEART'

Sat right alongside it is 'Break My Heart', and this is SHINES doing the thing they've always done best. Heart-on-sleeve indie pop built on a driving root-note bassline, a simple beat and a single-string guitar line that leaves nowhere to hide.

It opens with a scene that sticks:

"I thought I was leaving here with you, and I saw you had flowers in every corner of your room, and it broke my heart."

From there it moves from open apology to a claustrophobic, chant-along chorus ("These four walls are closing in now / I am going to break your heart now"), giving programmers and listeners a melodic anthem that holds its own next to the weight of the lead single.

VIDEO AND LIVE

The release comes with a cinematic video from long-time collaborator Joel Hewitt ('Same Streets, Different Ghosts'). It follows Dutton preparing for a funeral, then turning away at the cemetery gates, before the whole thing opens out into a band wake under a giant mirror ball.

Live, SHINES are on a roll. Fresh off a packed Scunthorpe show and a sold-out night at The Social in London for Echo Bass Records, they take the new set to Lincoln, Sheffield and a hometown headline at Atlas in Cleethorpes this June, then on to Doncaster, Norfolk, Hull and Grimsby's Shop Local Festival across the summer.

'Not Your Bastard Son' and 'Break My Heart' arrive on all streaming platforms on 3 July 2026.