King Night and the Early Years
Before there was a scene with a name, there were two EPs and a home studio in Traverse City, Michigan. This post walks through the records from our first stretch, the ones a lot of our designs still look back to.
What came first?
In 2008 we put out two EPs, Yes I Smoke Crack and Water. They were rough, slow and dark, and they set the tone for everything that followed: drum machines dragged down to a crawl, keys washed in reverb, and vocals that sit under the music instead of on top of it.
Why does King Night matter?
King Night was our debut album, released on 28 September 2010 by IAMSOUND Records. It reached number 22 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. It is the record most people mean when they talk about witch house, and the one that put Salem on the map as one of the genre's pioneers.
What came after?
On 22 November 2011 we released the EP I'm Still in the Night. After that the band went quiet for a long stretch, with a return in 2016 before the full comeback in 2020.
How do these records show up in the merch?
The mood: night, grain and haze. That is the look of our photos from these years, and of the designs that come from them.
The names: album and EP titles are the words people search for, so the product pages say which record a design points to.
The colours: most designs work in black and white, the same two colours every design here comes in.
Where can you find them?
Every Salem design is on tees, long sleeves, crewnecks and hoodies, with kids' and youth sizes, and a size chart on each product page.