Australian Psych Group The Lazy Eyes Share New Single

Rising Australian psych-rock outfit The Lazy Eyes today share the last preview ahead of their much-anticipated debut album, SongBook, out April 22nd. Recently A-listed at BBC 6 Music and with their first UK dates now looming on the horizon, it’s the latest cut from a band with a significant future.

With rhythmic piano, swirling guitars and jangling harpsichord, “Starting Over” continues to showcase the band’s ability to make the “old”, exciting and brand new. The Lazy Eyes illustrate no stone unturned into their encyclopedia of inspiration, keeping us guessing on which road they’ll lead us down next.

Built from a jam that turned into a GarageBand demo, the song is emblematic of The Lazy Eyes’ future sound – all baroque flourish and striking melody. Inadvertently charting the band’s fast-changing sound, Itay sings “Times are changing, people stranger than before, who’d have thought?” In their own words, the band explain, “This song was written back in our high school days like the other songs are on the album. I remember having an inkling for the verse on acoustic guitar and thinking “meh” so I just left it be. After a while though, the song came back to me after jamming on the piano. I fleshed it out (admittedly with some pretty cringey lyrics back then) and whipped up a GarageBand demo for the boys. After that, we put it on Soundcloud and it was building some traction… soon after we wiped everything in the search for a new start, you could say we were ‘Starting Over’.”

Visually, ‘Starting Over’ sees the band return to their collaboration with Jesse Taylor Smith, who directed ‘Where’s My Brain???‘ and ‘Nobody Taught Me‘. Speaking to the creative behind ‘Starting Over’, Jesse shares “I was inspired by 80’s portrayals of Ancient Rome and wanted to explore the concept of starting over using repetition and rhythm. The band were super receptive to my idea so I smeared a heap of Vaseline on my lenses, fired up a fog machine and prepared to start again and again and again.” For the band, it was a no-brainer.

​With SongBook, The Lazy Eyes open a world unto itself, a space as mystical as it is visceral. The forthcoming debut album sees The Lazy Eyes sharing songs written over the course of their first five years as a band – but like every good fantasy world, it abides by its own logic. Evidence of an edifice slowly being formed, SongBook is strange like that — a decidedly modern marvel of psych-rock that is unpretentious in construction but precious where it counts. A trepidatious first footstep by the band into the wider world, combining the piquant feel of classic 60s psych with sharp Gen Z wit. Magnanimous and effusive, it’s a vivid insight into the world of four of Australia’s most talented musicians.