BOB EVANS ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO BORN YESTERDAY
Dearly loved Australian singer songwriter, Bob Evans has announced his new single Born Yesterday, a gorgeous, nostalgia-soaked rambler of a track, out today, Novermber 19. Born Yesterday is also accompanied by a beautiful, glowing video clip which serves as an ode to touring during a year where it was impossible. Bob Evans, the ARIA-winning alter ego of Jebediah frontman Kevin Mitchell, has graced the Australian music scene for more than two decades and has written some of the country’s most beloved songs and Born Yesterday will not disappoint his loyal audience.
Born Yesterday is perfect for that classic Aussie drive to the beach – it feels like summer holidays. Glistening guitars spread luxuriously as Mitchell’s idiosyncratic vocal hits those brilliant notes in the hook-laden chorus – then the track hits unprecedented highs with a killer sax solo right in the middle of the song. Produced by Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, Kate Miller-Heidke), Born Yesterday is a stunning addition to the Bob Evans discography, as Mitchell explains the inspiration behind the song, “I was backstage at a Jebediah gig when an old housemate from Perth messaged me with a link to our old share house we lived in that was for sale. We couldn’t believe it when looking through the photos of the house that it hadn’t changed at all since we lived there in the late 90’s. What followed was a slew of messaging between us, as well as the other two friends I used to live with in that house. It was my first share house after leaving home and the whole exchange between us and seeing the house again just brought back a lot of great memories from that time and age, my late teens and early twenties. I already had the music for the song pretty much written at that stage so all I needed was the lyric to go with it. It’s a deeply nostalgic song for me, looking back at a stage of my life that feels so long ago now, but at the time it felt like it would last forever.”
The clip for Born Yesterday captures this nostalgia flawlessly. Shot as though on a vintage super 8 camera, the viewer follows the Bob Evans touring party through gigs, travel, and recording, as the handwritten lyrics fade in and out as the melodies pass. It’s a perfect reflection of the mood of the song, as Mitchell describes, “My friend Arlo Cook has been taking footage of me at shows and in the studio for years and he came in to the studio while we were recording and took footage, not with anything in particular in mind. I knew the song would really suit a more abstract kind of video, because it’s about memories, so lots of home made visual snapshots was how I imagined it and then as COVID happened and lockdowns happened, it became more and more obvious that we should make that kind of video. So it mixes footage from the last few years with footage from during lockdown. There’s even a couple of seconds of my two kids at the beach in there as well. It will forever be a document of this strange year we’ve lived through, which I’m really happy to have captured.”
Born Yesterday is out now via Dew Process.
Bob Evans is Kevin Mitchell.
ELI GREENEYES ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO 21
Eccentric and brash, Eli Greeneyes has today announced his deeply confessional new single 21, a chaotic yet content exploration into getting older and losing control, out today, November 25. The moving single is accompanied by a scenic video clip, filmed in collaboration with the artist’s closest friends. After a relocation back home due to COVID-19, the release of 21 feels poignant – a young person wondering what on earth is going to happen next.
Evocative of exciting artists such as YUNGBLUD and DMAs, but also with clear influences from the classics – Oasis, The Verve – 21 has that instant-classic feel; like a song you already know, but can’t place. It feels ready-made for summer, roadtrips, lazy afternoon swims and drinks in the backyard. Guitars glisten, percussion rambles along at a reassuring pace – but the real star is Eli Greeneyes’ ear-catching vocal. Speaking on the inspiration behind the track, Eli (do we want to introduce you as Morgan Bain or refer to you as Eli?) explains, “I wrote it in about 15 minutes about how depressed and scared I was about living my life the way I truly wanted to at 21 years old…I was becoming my own person and for some reason the thought of that was terrifying. A lot of this song is about figuring out who I am and feeling like I realised it too late, looking back at wasted time and how I wasn’t sucking the marrow out of life like I should’ve been. I was so pent up with childhood trauma and all that bullshit that I wasn’t seeing and enjoying all the positive things in front of me.”
The clip for 21 feels as warm as the track itself, perfectly set in a deeply saturated lawn with a knowing nod towards the 90s influences behind the song with the use of a fisheye lens. The clip was made in collaboration with his close friend Connor Maher and partner Alex Maher, as Eli reflects, “I have never made a multi shot video before (only one shots), so the video is basically me not knowing what I’m doing and trying a whole bunch of angles and speeds of shooting. Just singing the song at the lens around the farm. I did have the shots planned-ish in terms of being slowed down or sped up, but that’s about as much planning that went into it…just a cool clip! I really like learning by just doing things I guess and getting my girlfriend or my mate to just point and shoot and see what happens.”
Mixed by Andy Lawson (Little Birdy, Eskimo Joe, Gyroscope) and mastered by William Bowden (Gotye, The Middle East, Miami Horror), 21 feels like a time capsule, something to look back on to rememeber what you were feeling during a particular time in your life. Personalities, thoughts, beliefs – these are all things that are subject to change, as Eli concludes, “At that age, I did the best I could, and will always be figuring it out. Noone person is 100 percent buddha with all the answers. We’re all bit of a mess sometimes but I feel on the other side of that mess is a power that can’t be taught by being scared or worried all the time.”
21 is out now.
TIM WHEATLEY DROPS NEW SINGLE LYING LOW
Alt folk rock troubadour, Tim Wheatley is back with a unique dose of melancholy and Australiana, today dropping his deeply personal single, Lying Low. The song is complemented by a fittingly dark and manic video clip that showcases the private suffering and switching of personalities that inspired the song.
Produced and engineered by Michael Badger (King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, You Am I, Amyl & The Sniffers) at Jaya Jaya Music in Melbourne, and mixed by ARIA award winning Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, San Cisco), Lying Low tells a tale of darkness with that raw, raspy voice Wheatley is best known for, and his intensely introspective songwriting shines. “It was the first song I wrote after moving from Los Angeles to London. The adjustment from sunny California to the cobblestone streets of East London was near impossible for me. I wrote this song feeling more isolated than ever, in a new city, away from family and friends, and without the ability to perform live,” explains Wheatley. “I stopped talking about how hard I was finding it, because I was drowning in other people’s well-intended but cookie cutter advice. I was going stir crazy in my own company all day and night. It was a true test for my mental health, I was suffering and switching up a few different sides of my personality trying to find the one that could best get me through each situation. It was exhausting ‘getting out there’ and making new friends, for some reason during this period I felt I needed to keep to myself to get to the other side.”
Directed and filmed by Ben Cook (Bombay Bicycle Club, Bring Me The Horizon) at the Sony Music Studios in Sydney in the midst of the bushfires raging across the country, the video’s intent was to demonstrate the solitude and strain the move had on Wheatley. “We wanted it to be frantic and dark, but ultimately strong enough to stand on its own,” says Wheatley. “Ben and I deliberately went in to the filming of the video wanting to capture something completely unrehearsed and candid with nothing but a light and his new Super8 camera, and possibly a bottle of scotch.”
Despite not being written during or about the current global isolation situation, Wheatley insights, “In more ‘normal’ release circumstances, this song – that is now a year old – would be a memory, or about a circumstance that has since passed. But this time, ‘Lying Low’ is somehow becoming more relevant by the day. Either that or I’m stuck on a carousel.”
Lying Low is released today, June 12 through Sony Music Entertainment Australia.