Digital Media Concepts/Shelter (Song by Porter Robinson & Madeon)

"Shelter" is a song produced by american electronic dance music artist Porter Robinson and french electronic dance music artist Madeon. The song features vocals from Madeon and is written solely by Porter Robinson and Madeon. It was released as a single on August 11, 2016 in conjunction with a back-to-back tour of the two artists beginning later that year. It also spawned a music video produced by Japanese animation studio A-1 Pictures.

Background

Porter Robinson and Hugo Pierre Leclercq (also known as Madeon) first met on a music production message board at the age of 14 and 12 respectively and became friends for their love of electronic music.^[1]. They sent early drafts of their work to each other to gain feedback, and in turn, created a friendly rivalry between them. Living in two different countries across the Atlantic Ocean, the two wouldn’t meet face-to-face until they played a show together at Webster Hall in New York.^[2] With Porter Robinson releasing his first album in 2014 and Madeon releasing his first album in 2015, they began discussing a possible collaboration, though it took them some time to meet and spend time together in the studio.^[3] The first iteration of the song had different lyrics with different synths until it was finalized with the current version released on August 11,2016.^[4] "Shelter" is Leclercq's first collaboration single with another electronic dance music producer, while it is Robinson's third collaboration single, including his collaborations with Mat Zo on "Easy" and with Zedd on "Clarity".

Shelter Live Tour

With the announcement of the duo's single, they also announced a collaborative show tour in North America starting on September 29, 2016^[5]. Rather than performing a live-mix DJ set, they instead performed with live music with on-stage singing and a curated lights and video visuals to go along with the music. At a 75-minute run-time, the set list, dubbed by fans as the "Shelter Live Tour Set," consisted of many of the artists' music. Both artists remixed and re-worked their own and each other's songs, making it the only place to hear mashups songs of Porter Robinson and Madeon music. This was done on purpose so that these shows would be a total live experience only, where none of these edits can be listened to at home for a person's convenience. The duo would later visit Europe, Japan, and Australia, and would end the tour at Coachella 2017.

Music Video

"Shelter the Animation" is a 6-minute animation written by Porter Robinson, produced by A-1 Pictures, and distributed by Crunchyroll.^[6]. At Anime Expo 2015, A-1 Pictures was introduced to Robinson and began the production for the short. Robinson would visit the studio headquarters around eleven times to finish this project. On October 14, 2016, Robinson released the poster^[7] on Twitter for this short and released the video on various video streaming services on October 18, 2016. It's story focuses on a girl named Rin that is isolated in a Virtual World created by her father to save her from Earth's destruction. Anything she imagines becomes a reality, but despite that, she cannot create people and dispel her loneliness. The animation-short accounts her daily life with the titular song playing in the background.

Robinson and Madeon released a piano version of the song which was closely related to the demo version.

Composition and Lyrics

The song is in the key of C Major at 100 bpm. The chord progression is F Major to C Major G Major to C Major to A Minor and to D Minor^[8].The song features Madeon on vocals. The vocal chops feature unused recordings of Amy Millan from when Robinson worked with her for his song "Divinity."


Release Version	Demo Version
I could never find the right way to tell you Have you noticed I've been gone? 'Cause I left behind the home that you made me But I will carry it along And it's a long way forward, so trust in me I'll give them shelter, like you've done for me And I know, I'm not alone, you'll be watching over us Until you're gone When I'm older, I'll be silent beside you I know words won't be enough And they won't need to know the names on our faces But they will carry on for us And it's a long way forward, so trust in me I'll give them shelter, like you've done for me And I know, I'm not alone, you'll be watching over us Until you're gone Oh it's a long way forward, trust in me I'll give them shelter, like you've done for me And I know, I'm not alone, you'll be watching over us Until	Lay out the past Pretend that your time has come again Give back a world you man to restart To miss her in Oh, it's a long way forward, long way down Helpless shelter on the open ground And she knows, believes her love can make you better Let us pretend it doesn't matter Lay out the past Pretend that your time has come again Give back a world you man to restart To miss her in Oh, it's a long way forward, long way down Helpless shelter on the open ground And she knows, believes her love can make you better Let us pretend it doesn't matter Oh, it's a long way forward, long way down Helpless shelter on the open ground And she knows, believes her love can make you better Let us pretend