Melbourne track Love Tonight witnesses long-overdue success after four years

Haya Mahfouz

Shouse duo Jack Madin (Left) and Ed Service (Right) are the creators behind the four year old track Love Tonight

Iconic Australian duo Shouse, are standing tall and proud as their 4 year old track Love Tonight, makes it as the top 4th. most shazamed song this week.

"It's a song about solidarity, connectedness, being there for each other" - Ed Service, the first half of Shouse.

Heavily influenced by the charity single We Are the World, Love Tonight aims to create a community melody that involves everyone.

It all started when Ed Service and Jack Madin (Shouse duo), set up a basic beat on a drum machine in the recording studio. Ed played on his ms20 synthesizer; a semi-modular analog synthesizer, while Jack played on a mini keyboard plugged into a computer. The synth was simply a flute sample and a drum machine.

Jack admits that as much as he enjoys writing songs, he lacks production “computerie”, “while ED was just good at banging through the production”.

With a whole bunch of pizza, beer, a VHS, and another broken one, the duo managed to gather a choir who was able to embody a warm homely hug of togetherness, in their collective voices.

"We mentioned some names of the singers that people would’ve known

(Melbourne’s underground artists), but there was a whole bunch of our friends who are just as important in this track" Jack reveals.

The track itself reflects a rather more inclusive than exclusive approach, demonstrated through Shouse's choice of artists and contributors.

Despite its timeless message, and effort in bringing voices together in an anthem of unity, the track did not experience groundbreaking success upon its release in the year 2017. The duo mentions that the initial reaction upon its release was “lukewarm, slowly sparked and disappeared into the void”.

However, through the helping hand of Lithuanian Youtube, the track eventually escapes the void, into the hands of Europe’s Globally recognized producers and dancefloors. When Europe was in the depth of lockdown, the song sprang with exponential growth and surges.

"I think a lot of people found a lot of meaning in the connectedness, solidarity, and the lyrics. They’d send it to their friends and film videos of them singing it to each other" Ed adds.

According to the duo, the creation of myth is that Ed Service and Jack Madin met across the dancefloor in an old Northcote strip club, 24 moons. Over a paper bag of mushrooms, the duo automatically clicked and started making music together.

Both continue to work on their music together while keeping their day jobs. Ed still works as an arts community manager in Melbourne’s inner north, while Jack works as a primary school music teacher.

Ed Service and Jack Madin met over a paper bag of mushrooms.

The duo reveals the most surreal moment for them was when David Guetta released an online remix video of the track. They were contacted, to be informed that an official remix would be released, which ended up in their hands, one day later.

Shouse finally made an appearance back on Instagram after previously deactivating their account. They’re back at the studio and are working on creating more music, experimenting with new sounds and instruments that Jack’s father invented. Blessing the ears of over 16 million viewers on Youtube, this unofficial anthem of the post covid world becomes an ode to the underground electronic scene.