Sunshine Coast via Melbourne indie psych-pop crooner Edward R. recently delivered a mature and delicately crafted five-track EP, marking the end of a two-year-long, self-imposed hiatus. Body Corporate finds Edward exploring the theme ‘man from the past finding love in the future’, and details the feelings behind love, heartache and connection.
Edward R. fuses indie psych and ’60s pop with dreamy guitar riffs and elegant production to create a brand of music not dissimilar to the likes of Tame Impala and Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
Body Corporate is the follow up to 2016’s Agrabah, featuring the track Wolves and Water, which has garnered over four million streams online and earned Edward a coveted triple j Unearthed feature.
Body Corporate, Edward’s sophomore release, accidentally became a conceptual project:
“I realised there was a common vein between all 5 songs – this theme of ‘someone from the past finding love in the future’… after connecting the dots; the name Body Corporate kept rolling around my head”.
While conceptual, the EP also hits close to home. While recording, Edward, whose real name is Geoffrey Roberts, would regularly “lean towards the existential thought that that this [EP] is an extension of how I personally feel: Out of place, in the wrong time, but forever longing to be accepted and loved.”
Paradise is the perfect opener. It’s a sunny pop hit with a hook reminiscent of Funky Town. In Leave Her Alone, Roberts takes a sobering look at vanity and ego to a synth-laden backing track: “It’s a trivial pursuit with no reward. It’s taken me many years to undo the years of poison, sewn into my life from people, that, at the end of the day don’t really care if you go to the party.”
The EP finishes off with a bang in Carry Me. It is triumphant and anthemic, and perhaps slightly lyrically dissonant. The track details a desperate time in Roberts’ life:
“I was desperate. I was desperately seeking validation for my existence, desperately trying to find peace in turmoil, that, what felt like a burden on my shoulders, be lifted. I pencilled a prayer at some point during this time and it became my mantra, of sorts. Writing this [song] got me out of that time and will stand as testament to believing in something greater than yourself.”
If only everyone could channel that kind of negative energy into something so powerful.
Edward R. is heading off on an east coast tour, starting next week. Catch him play with some other local favourites at one of the dates below:
November 13th – The Workers Club, Melbourne VIC w/ Romeo Moon & El Tee
November 15th – Oxford Art Factory (Gallery Bar), Sydney NSW w/ Billy Fox & Stream Lea
November 21st – Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD w/ Jaguar Jonze & Eli
November 23rd – Sol Bar, Sunshine Coast QLD w/ High Tropics & Fragile Animals
November 28th – The Gasometer Hotel, Melbourne VIC w/ Nat Vazer & Francesca Gonzalaes
