We’ve been waiting for it and he’s finally gone and done it. Byron Bay’s Mikey Bee, AKA MT Warning is about to hit us with the release of his much anticipated EP Petrified Heart after recently releasing the title track to get our tastebuds tingling. As a whole, the record is described as “a letter”, of “confession and an apology”. Touching on notions of commitment, love and all the things that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Love is the word on Mikey Bee’s latest EP Petrified Heart, and it’s a feeling from MT Warning that is highly infectious courtesy of the raw lyrics and vocals.
The first song on the record When It All Bleeds Out is a journey of a track, with a tempo that evokes the feeling of trudging through hot sand – slow and deliberate. Doubled vocals, hand claps and crescendoing synths really show what this guy is about – he wears his heart right on his sleeve and has you singing along halfway through a first listen.
It seems as though Mikey is fond of romantic notions of the physical environment as a theme throughout the EP, in this track in particular when he sings “Howled at the moon, bowed to the wind”. Like a musical Ernest Hemingway, this guy is not afraid to talk about love and the environment. All this topped off with an intense guitar solo makes for one hell of an opener. The track comes with an intense video of Mikey dressed as a mime in a white room being splattered with paint, channeling some serious John Wayne Gacy kind of vibes if you get my drift.
Mikey looks back on the writing process of the EP and says “I needed to face myself alone and work by myself alone. I needed to dance by myself alone. I wanted to hear my own voice as it naturally sounds and make music that moves me, both in tempo and emotion“.
He grew up in Shepparton, Victoria, but at age 16, he picked himself up and set for Melbourne to pursue his love for music. City life wasn’t his vibe so moving to Byron afforded him a great base that he leaves often to tour the world. We picked up the title track of the record a little while ago and wrote about a secret preview show he played at Studios 301 in Sydney.
Collapsed Collage is contemplative as hell and adds another dimension to the feeling of the whole record. The song is almost five minutes long but the dense synth, anticipatory chords and slippery bass line matched with lyrics like “He will shelter you, he will laugh & play/ she will feed you up so you’re strong to fight your fears” bring themes of family and strength into the mix.
Mt Warning’s Petrified Heart EP is out this friday. You can preorder it on iTunes.
