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.
BRIGITTE BARDINI DROPS DEBUT SINGLE AND VIDEO APHRODITE
Exciting newcomer Brigitte Bardini schools us on ethereal wave with her atmospheric debut single, Aphrodite, released earlier this month. The track is accompanied by a dreamy video by Ayush Negi that was masterfully filmed through water to pull off a fittingly 90s alt indie vibe.
This introspective track is dream pop at its finest. Aphrodite will swiftly hijack your attention – its intricacies will draw you in and allow you to discover more with each listen, whilst further propelling the mystery of the artist. Dark, moody and oozing effortless cool, this song is for fans of PJ Harvey, Portishead and Bjork.
Written and produced by Bardini who plays every instrument on the release, Aphrodite was recorded at Toyland studios and engineered and co-produced by Adam Calaitzis (who also tracked some synth bass for the song). “This song is themed around temptation and its repercussions,” explains Bardini. “It is a lesson of knowing your place in someone’s life isn’t as much of a priority as you might wish, but accepting this truth rather than expelling it.”
Directed by Bardini and Ayush Negi, an aspiring filmmaker from India, the video clip was inspired by the lyrics of the song that are centred around references of ancient Greek mythology, ‘sirens’ and ‘Aphrodite’. Filmed during isolation and drawing on DIY tricks and lessons from films, Negi was able to form an innovative approach to creating the video’s psychedelic, otherworldly, underwater feel. Bardini insights, “I wanted to create a film clip that immerses the viewer into this world of a goddess being beckoned, almost taking you underwater to Aphrodite’s birthplace.”
The abstract, alt pop artist from Melbourne who is just twenty years old and has put her psychology degree on hold to pursue a career in music, says she is a little daunted to be releasing her debut single out into the world for public opinion, but is “mostly excited to see how people receive the song with fresh ears.” And she wasn’t going to let these strange Covid-19 times put her off. “Music is always around and I look to it in trying times as well as the good times so I didn’t even second guess following through with the single release and dropping the album,” Brigitte explains, “It’s something that I feel not only other people may need, but selfishly I need a purpose now more than ever.”
Aphrodite is out now