The psychedelic, mind-bending aural designs of Sydney indie outfit Eagle Eye Jones have been captured on the group's debut album, 'New Growth'.
Released last Friday, each sound is considered and thoughtful, while style and genre vary across the record as each song speaks harmoniously to the message of the project.After lead singer Luke Saunders' close escape from an avalanche burial in the Himalayas (that claimed the lives of seven people), he penned the lyrics to 'Alpine Meadows' and their debut album was born.
A week after his return, Australia (and the world) was flung into pandemic. Songs of isolation and alienation emerged, but also of hope.
As the turmoil of a world closed off dragged on, decades of friendship and musicianship strained under battles with addiction and mental health.
Despite the universal mayhem, Eagle Eye Jones banded together, glued by the vision of their sound to record 'New Growth'.
The trilogy of early singles: 'Alpine Meadows', 'Paperskin' and 'Wardrobe Of Masks', tell the chronological story of this descent into isolation and the songwriter's increasingly dislocated, yet pleadingly hopeful relationship to a rapidly evolving world.
These ten songs are the intimate, interwoven stories of five friends. Stories of love and dislocation, triumph and desperation, life and death. Eagle Eye Jones' debut album invites you into a lush, textural world of poetry, philosophy, songcraft, and beauty.
Ahead of the band's tour, that will venture to Central Coast, Wollongong, Canberra, Melbourne, Byron Bay and Sydney, here band member Jamin Bennett details five ways to react to music.
1: The Stank Face
Ah, the almighty stank face. Its origins must have began somewhere in the post-war jazz bars of New York and San Francisco; maybe it was around a lot longer than that but I can't imagine it going much further back.You know that feeling when someone hits a note that is so wrong and disgusting it's perfect. Or when the drummer changes up the groove and lands in the new pocket and its just. . . doing something to you. . . not necessarily making you want to dance, but something else entirely.
It's hard to explain but if you've never experienced a stank face go listen to some live jazz, it won't take long.
2: Uncontrollable Movement Of The Legs And Body
Now this must date back tens of thousands of years; one of our first expressions of music, one of the first ways we made percussive sounds. And I'm specifically talking about the untamed desire to move.Have you ever been at home and all of sudden bounced off your chair and needed to move your body to the beat of the music, it almost becomes involuntary.
If you've ever heard techno, Afrobeat, boss nova music live you'll know exactly what I mean.
3: The Wait A Second I Need To Turn This Part Up Look
You may be having dinner with a friend, you may be driving somewhere in the car, most of the time when this reaction occurs you're showing somebody one of your favourite pieces of recorded music.It's the anticipation of that one particular vocal harmony or a really dramatic moment of the song, or maybe it's a guitar hook that just speaks to you on some level; maybe it's a crazy tempo change, but there are always these beautiful moments in songs that for one reason or another speak to us.
For me the final chorus of 'No Surprises' is always a moment like that.
4: Belting Out The Lyrics
Speaking of the final chorus of 'No Surprises', that is one of my personal favourite songs to belt at the top of my lungs.Belting a song is such a distinct feeling of release and vulnerability. Maybe you're by yourself, maybe you're with a dear friend, maybe you're with a stranger, but nothing is going to stand in the way of you pushing your voice to its breaking point.
Not the croaky throat the next day nor the potential embarrassment, you're having the absolute time of your life right now; pure flow state, nothing is standing in your way of your moment with your favourite song.
5: Tears, Oh Beautiful Tears
It could be a hard time, it could be a beautiful time, there are so many reasons for crying, and I couldn't even count the amount of times I've cried listening to music, for all sorts of reasons.There has seldom been more emotionally releasing moments in life for me than when listening to music; some songs gain emotional attachments as we listen to them over time, and one of those emotions is crying, and without a doubt every time you end up a mess when listening to that particular tune.
Music is a magical thing, there is truly nothing like it.
Eagle Eye Jones 2023 Tour Dates
Fri 16 Jun - Wamberal Ocean View (Central Coast)Sat 17 Jun - Holy Pavlova Festival (Wollongong)
Fri 23 Jun - The Basement (Canberra)
Sat 24 Jun - John Curtin Hotel (Melbourne)
Sat 1 Jul - The Northern (Byron Bay)
Sat 8 Jul - Mary's Underground (Sydney)
