Falling in love may be hard on the knees, but watching the person you love fall for someone else ain't exactly a walk in the park either.
It's a tale as old as time and one that forms the basis for 'Watch You Fall', the new single from Sydney alt-rock group Pepperhead.“'Watch You Fall' is a semi-true story, it's grounded in truth with a little bit of exaggeration for songwriting purposes,” guitarist Kieron Haycock explains.
“Essentially, it's a story of somebody who is best mates with somebody else; one of the parties is in love with the other one and it's unrequited, basically, and it doesn't come back the other way.
“Because they're in the same circle the whole time they're around each other when the other person has a partner and that type of thing; while they're the very best of mates there's an undercurrent of 'I don't like what's going on over there'. It's rooted in that. I think it's happened to more than one person – but no one in the band, I should add that,” he laughs.
'Watch You Fall' is the follow-up single to last year's 'Psycho Sideshow' and comes from Pepperhead's new EP 'Words To The Wise', which is due at the end of March. “There's varying themes in all of it, we don't have a set style on this record,” Kieron says of the EP.
“We do have some more message-based songs. . . 'Words To The Wise', take from it what you will is the underlying message of that.”
Formed in 2014, Pepperhead have spent their time so far building a sturdy reputation as a solid rocking quartet. Kieron is joined by bassist Dan Walker and drummer Mark Trevena (who Kieron found on Gumtree when he was looking for surfboards), with his wife Louisa Thomas tying the foursome together in her role as frontwoman.
The genetic make-up of the band has led to comparisons with similar female-fronted rock acts such as Divinyls (Chrissy Amphlett) and Baby Animals (Suze DeMarchi), though Kieron says Louisa brings her own charm and swagger to the ensemble.
“It's funny because when we play, [Louisa] doesn't really sing female parts really well, she likens herself more to male singers, ironically,” he says.
“Louisa has been a musician all her life; she's a piano player and obviously sings very well in perfect pitch, give or take. She would quote everything from Muse to Ben Folds as a big influence on her, but the Pixies are probably her all-time favourite; she's a huge Pixies fan.”
As a single, 'Watch You Fall' continues Pepperhead's quest to explore a vast, sonic territory – from boppy pop tracks, to forceful rock onslaughts. “It sounds quite spontaneous when you listen to it, and also you can hear a lot of different influences,” Kieron says.
“One track will be quite punky and another will be a bit more Pixies; there's all sorts of things in the mix there, different influences from all of us.”
