North Queensland rockers Poison Oak newest single is 'Losing Ourselves', a track that retains the group's Aussie rock-roots flavour but expands their songwriting prowess.
The first taste of the group's forthcoming third EP, the lyrics of 'Losing Ourselves' focus on coming to terms with yourself as an adult and realising you don't need to do certain things to fit into society's norms.The four-piece – James Balthes, Russell West, Ray Pearson and Chris Reiterer – recorded 'Losing Ourselves' with former Middle East member Mark Myers on producer duties.
"When we went to record it, Mark would try and keep to the melody line as close as possible, being quite technical when doing the vocals," James says.
"However, Ray would pipe up from the background regularly, 'make sure it has character, make sure you keep it sexy'.
"We recorded it with Mark in the Tablelands North Queensland. We had a great week of recording all day, then hitting the local Yungaburra Hotel in the evenings."
Ahead of the song's release tomorrow (10 September), scenestr is stoked to premiere 'Losing Ourselves' today. Enjoy.
"I had the introduction riff for a while," James adds, "and I originally was playing it in the key of A, rather than E.
"I sort of it called my Smashing Pumpkins/ Silversun Pickups riff, as it used the open E strings while going back and forth from maj 7th note to the tonic, which is pretty common among those bands.
"Then one morning, after going out with some friends, I wrote the song based off the feeling I got from the night, where I didn't really care about 'what I should be doing' and 'where I should go' and basically 'what people think about me'.
"Letting go I guess of all common things we do sometimes to try fit into society, like wanting to take pictures for social media etc. to make yourself look like you have a 'fun life' or whatever.
"After that night, it made me realise that I don't need to waste my time doing things that I have no interest in.
"Basically, summing up what you go through when you're growing into adult, and I just don't have time to care about things that don't matter to me. I pretty much sat and wrote the song out in an hour."
