DEBUT ALBUM "ALWAYS WATCHING" OUT TODAY!
ALBUM RELEASE SHOW AT THE GARRISON ON NOV. 28 WITH DERMABRASION AND RUBY DOOM
TICKETS HERE
BUY "ALWAYS WATCHING" ON VINYL HERE
Watch "Daddy's Always Watching" Here
“Zippy guitar crunch, blown-out garage production, and snarled '90s melodies.”
- The Line of Best Fit
“Becoming their own judge, jury and executioner, Shiv and the Carvers… give this particular anxiety a home on ‘Executionary.’” - Exclaim!
With their debut album Always Watching out today via Twin Fang Records, Toronto skate punks Shiv and the Carvers are celebrating the release with a new music video for "Daddy's Always Watching," a tongue-in-cheek confrontation with the ever-present eyes of corporate surveillance.
Directed by Danny Alexander, the video channels the larger-than-life aesthetics of '90s music television, pairing candy-coloured sets, retro styling, and playful performances with the unsettling reality of a world where privacy has become a luxury.
The song's origins trace back to frontperson Shiv's Irish Catholic upbringing, where her father taught Sunday school and her grandfather frequently warned, "Be good or the man will come and get you!" What began as a childhood lesson in obedience has taken on a new meaning in an era where the watchful eye is all around us in corporations, algorithms, and the technologies we've willingly invited into our everyday lives.
Shiv shares, “Every day, Corporations collect data on us - what we watch, where we go, what we buy - through the tech that has made our lives easier in every way. Tech like social media, and one-day international delivery. ‘Daddy’s Always Watching’ is about surveillance and techno-fascism. It’s about how the ever-watching digital gods stare down at us and track our every move. We give up so much of our privacy for convenience. And I don’t think it’s good at all, but we seem to like it?”
The accompanying video leans into that contradiction, using bright, kitschy visuals moving between bubblegum-pink rooms and silver disco-ball backdrops – each band member takes centre stage in a series of stylized vignettes. The result is a playful collision of glamour, absurdity, and unease, with the camera itself assuming the role of an ever-present observer.
"I was excited when the band approached me with an initial concept for the video," says director Danny Alexander. "I immediately saw an opportunity to lean into the bold aesthetics of ’90s music videos while keeping the approach simple, allowing the locations and each band member’s unique personality to shine. Through a combination of ultra-wide lenses and static camera shots, my aim was to create a sense of perpetual surveillance."
The video arrives alongside Always Watching, the band's debut full-length album, released through Twin Fang Records. Confrontational in its subject matter and unapologetic in its delivery, the record brings Shiv and the Carvers' irreverent perspective to questions of power, control, and the contradictions of contemporary life.
With "Daddy's Always Watching," the band turns a familiar childhood warning into a distinctly modern one: someone really is watching, and we've made it easier than ever for them to do
The announcement follows a fast-growing run for the band, with Shiv and the Carvers becoming one of Canada's most exciting punk bands. This September, Shiv and the Carvers landed at Germany’s Reeperbahn Festival, where they were handpicked by CIMA to perform at Canada House. The international showcase followed a fast-growing run for the band: they’ve shared stages with Viagra Boys, Lambrini Girls, and Getdown Services, earned a spot in Exclaim!’s Class of series, signed with Twin Fang Records, and were personally selected by Bif Naked to perform at her official Canadian Music Week showcase. Their latest single and video, “Screens,” continued that momentum, earning a Staff Pick from Exclaim! and being named Single of the Week by LOUD WOMEN, alongside support from The Line of Best Fit, Punknews.org, New Noise Magazine, Alan Cross’ A Journal of Musical Things, and more.
“Always Watching” is our first born, our perfect little angel. It’s a perfect fusion of all of us and we feel like we created the best representation of our lives in the technofascist hellscape that everyone is forced to exist in and struggle through. While we kept it familiar, recording once again with Jesse Turnbull we really pushed ourselves to come up with new sounds and structures by pulling from different genres and layering tracks and tracks of guitar, harmonies and new instruments. Shiv played her grandad’s fiddle on Executionary, played trumpet on Squealerz and we brought Violet de Rege-Braga (of Toronto darlings, RrroachhH) on theremin for ‘Screens.’ - Shiv and the Carvers
Shiv and the Carvers' debut album Always Watching is out now via Twin Fang Records. Watch the official video for "Daddy's Always Watching" here.