Trampoline

Album: Melt (2018)
Charted: 52 13
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Songfacts®:

  • Shaed (pronounced "shade") is an electro-pop trio based in Washington, DC. The group consists of lead vocalist Chelsea Lee and multi-instrumentalist twin brothers Max and Spencer Ernst.
  • The first two lines of this song were inspired by the Ernst brothers visiting their parents and watching old home videos. One of the films showed the 2-year-old Max and Spencer jumping on a trampoline.

    I've been havin' dreams
    Jumpin' on a trampoline


    Lee explained to Genius: "The footage is grainy and distorted though, so it almost feels like you are witnessing a dream when you watch it."

    That opening line got the wheels turning for the rest of song, which evolved into a story about embracing and falling in love with the trio's biggest fears.
  • Much of the lyrical content was inspired by the scene outside the Washington, DC home that all three band members share.

    "We have a studio in our house, and it's the biggest room in the house, and it has a great big window, we have a really nice front yard," Lee explained to ABC Radio. "So we were trying to think about lyrics, and we were looking outside and soaking in the nature that we had outside the window: the trees, the leaves were falling."
  • The trio wrote the melodies by passing around the microphone and taking turns coming up with ideas. Lee recalled: "The melody got stuck in our heads, and we found ourselves whistling it throughout the day. Spencer and Max eventually recorded themselves whistling because we felt like the whistle had to be in the track."
  • This song featured in an Apple commercial broadcast during the fall of 2018 for the MacBook air.
  • "Trampoline" bounced to the top of Billboard's Alternative Songs chart, giving the band their first #1 hit.
  • Originally used as a circus or show business act, trampolining dates to the early part of the 20th century.
    The first modern trampoline was built by American diving and tumbling champion George Nissen in 1936. Its name comes from the Spanish "trampolín," meaning a diving board. Nissen had heard the word on a demonstration tour in Mexico and decided to use an anglicized form when he built a prototype.
  • The most famous trampoline in pop music can be found in Paul Simon's "Graceland," where he sings: "There's a girl in New York City who calls herself the human trampoline."

    Other songs which talk about a trampoline in the lyrics include:

    "Trampoline" by Tinie Tempah: ("Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump. Trampoline")

    "Velouria" by The Pixies ("Hold my head, we'll trampoline. Finally through the roof onto somewhere near and far in time")
  • Shaed's moniker comes from a cloak called a "shaed," which features in the fantasy novel The Name of the Wind, by author Patrick Rothfuss. The garment, woven by a goddess, is made out of shadow and light. The trio loved the concept so decided to name themselves after Rothfuss' cloak.
  • Shaed released a new version of "Trampoline" on September 27, 2019, with additional vocals by Zayn. The duet came about because Shaed was looking to extend the song's success, so they reached out to the former One Direction member's team. Zayn agreed to come on board; his contribution transforms the song into a spooky, sensual duet.
  • This was used in the TV series Grey's Anatomy at the beginning of the 2020 "Give a Little Bit" episode.
  • Chelsea Lee is terrified of dying. The Shaed frontwoman told Flood magazine she wrote this song with her band members "from the perspective of someone who no longer fears death, and delights in the things that keep us up at night." Lee added that she loves this song because it keeps her grounded.
  • Shaed included the song's remix with Zayn on their debut album High Dive.

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