When surveying the hard rock offerings Australia has given the world, many would point directly to Trophy Eyes as a leading act.
The punk rock/ screamo group burst onto the global scene with the success of 'Chlorine' and 'You Can Count On Me', triple j Hottest 100 contenders, playing the Vans Warped Tour and touring around the globe with acts like Neck Deep and Bring Me The Horizon.It's easy to see the band's instant appeal – their thrashing guitars, slick vocal hooks and heavy breakdowns are instantly loveable.
However, it's when you peek behind the layers of distortion and rage-fuelled screaming to contemplate the lyrics that you begin to see frontman John Floreani is an incredible poet.
With their new album, 'Suicide And Sunshine', due this Friday (23 June), John traverses the meaning of life, holding on through another day of depression, his troubled upbringing of hand-me-downs and black eyes, finding love in the touch of a city and home in foreign places, and love gone wrong and love gone right.
It's a stunning artwork overflowing with vulnerability and relatability that is certain to be one of the albums of the year, Floreani discusses the reasoning behind his openness to artistic vulnerability.
"Songwriting is therapeutic, because you really have to analyse the situation you're writing about to turn it into a story, let alone rhyme," he shares.
"So in that process, it does become cathartic, but it's not why I do it. I take on this idea that if I'm gonna write something and stand on stage and scream about it, then it has to be from something that made me emotional.
"And everybody goes 'why are you sharing this?'. I don't intend to. It's not like I'm writing it being like 'I'm gonna tell the whole world about my deepest, darkest secrets'. It's just that I'd be lying, if I didn't do that and I'm not an actor.
"I'm a musician, a songwriter. At the end of the day, as long as it's real and it's honest, then I can sleep."
The first track from 'Suicide And Sunshine', 'Sydney' dives off the deep end, exploring Floreani's love affair with the city that held him close in times of loneliness.
"I have friends that I consider family that live in Sydney, but there is a different kind of loneliness that's hard to explain, when you feel like you're not really there.
"When you're writing and you become recluse, it's like a cold, distant feeling. So I would go to familiar places that I knew, the same coffee shop a bunch and just a smile from someone that goes 'the same today?', and you go, 'yeah, thank you very much'. That's like a nice warm hug.
"But I attributed that to the city, it was the city giving me those feelings. So that's what that song is about, it's about my relationship with Sydney. I personified it to have human feelings and human actions, and we became like friends."
'People Like You' addresses Floreani's troubled upbringing, a heart-cry protesting social class, happy families, inherited wealth and domestic abuse. Not one to preach, usually allowing his songs to speak for themselves, Floreani simply shares his heart.
"I'm not sure I'm the person to say something to young, impressionable kids. There are some things I would say, like school doesn't mean anything. And if they grew up in my situation, I would say that, you are not what you're told you are all the time, that's not you.
"And I know there's millions of kids around the world that have it worse than me, and billions even. But yeah, you're not what you're told you are. If you tell a kid they're stupid or they're wrong or they're in the way constantly, you grow up to believe that, and it will destroy your confidence and your self-esteem, it really ruins you.
"I would tell you that you are not what you're told you are. And I would say you don't have to respect your parents, you should judge them based on merit and whether they're a good person. And that time changes everything. This too will pass I would say."
The album closes with 'Epilogue', a moving track written in another time, when Floreani considered the timeline of Trophy Eyes to be drawing to a close. The track is one John is most excited to play live.
"I think in 'Epilogue', the first time is going to be emotional for me, when it's not normally. When I do songs onstage, I'm thinking 'I've really gotta wash my shoelaces, because they're dirty'. I think the most random sh.t that you can possibly imagine.
"There's two stages, there's also what I imagine surfers experience, when they hit that point. You're in the zone. You're free of everything – who you are, what you are, where you are. You're in the zone performing and it's incredible heights.
"There's those two states. So I'm never really emotional about what I'm playing, but 'Epilogue' was a goodbye song. There's some time between now and when Trophy Eyes actually does say goodbye, so it's a win for me.
"To make it, to stand up and come from the impending break-up and through so many days of sitting inside through lockdown and watching your career go down the drain. To be standing up there and performing the goodbye song with no intention to say goodbye, I feel like that might get me."
'Suicide And Sunshine' drops 23 June.
Trophy Eyes 2023 Tour Dates
Thu 22 Jun - Fremantle Social ClubFri 23 Jun - The Gov (Adelaide)
Sat 24 Jun - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)* last tickets remaining
Fri 30 Jun - The Tivoli (Brisbane)* last tickets remaining
Sat 1 Jul - Metro Theatre (Sydney)* last tickets remaining
