If you haven’t already immersed yourself in the debut self-titled EP from Red Giant Mirage, stop what you’re doing and go listen to it now. The EP is a five-track collection of psych-rock gems; the kind that transport you into far-away, hallucinatory worlds.
So fresh off the EP’s release, we caught up with the man behind the operation, Brayden Willmott, for a run-down of each track.
With an amazing debut EP fresh under his belt, we caught up with Brayden Willmott from Red Giant MIrage for a run-down of each track.
A Brave New World
The lyrics of this first track is largely based on a novel passage from A Brave New World (Aldous Huxley, 1932). A dystopian Sci-fi novel which depicts a genetically-engineered future. Baby’s are grown in test tubes and undergo treatment to be predetermined into a hierarchy (Alpha’s, Beta’s, Gamma, or epsilon). You see Alphas as the CEOs and epsilons as the lower-class workers.
People are encouraged to be promiscuous and are given Soma – a bliss-inducing drug that people take in centres around the globe. This helps everyone feel extremely contented and at ease with society. Within these centres, they trip-out, feel a connection, and have gigantic orgies.
The lyrics describe one of these trippy, orgy, conditioning sessions.
Because the lyrics are so wacky and interesting, I decided to keep the melodies and rhythms fairly tame.
Similar to the people in the book, the melodies are happy, but everything seems to continuously drone on as if something is off-kilter or peculiar. Like the passage, it ends in a cascading climax.
Killer Whale
It usually takes me days to write one song. I practice and record each instrument within Logic X Pro. I record, review and delete, each part over and over again. We’re talking thousands of individual takes for one song. This is to create more cohesive songs that interact as one – instead of each instrument soloing off by itself.
Killer Whale was different. I became inspired by a song that sounded like a track from The Doors. I then wrote and recorded Killer Whale within one day. It just flowed out of me. That’s why, to me, Killer Whale is special, magical and charming.
This song involves a jazz type rhythm; overbearing-echo-vocals; and a rippin’ solo by my housemate and good friend Oliver Booth.
I Know I’m Dead
This one took a while. It’s kind of a Frankenstein monster. Little riffs here and there mooshed and stitched together into one song. The original riff was meant for my other band The Plain Glass Windows, but I decided it was a good song to work on personally.
This song illustrates a complicated feeling of elation and elevation, after a long sombre period. It seems like this song ends abruptly with percussion guitar strokes. But It actually transitions seamlessly into the next track.
Actualisation
This one is definitely a stand out from the other tracks. It’s more songwriter-y. Written for the vocals and the lyrics. It has a certain talk-style vocal that maybe points towards Dope Lemon or Rex Orange County.
Usually, I’m driven towards writing more band/instrument focussed tracks. But I decided breaking the EP up with this one would be cool. At the time of recording, it was cathartic singing vocals in a more expressive and direct way. The ending when the bass and drums finally make an appearance is a personal EP highlight.
Screen Practise
Screen Practise is a bit of an epic. The first part is a box of specular reflections and guitar swirls. It alternates between overwhelmingly cascading guitars and a jauntier bass-driven verses.
Eventually, it turns over to reveal a couple of conversational fuzzy guitars and crescendos atop a mountain of beamed-out vocals.
I learnt a lot about mixing, mastering and recording during this EP. So this track, being the first track I recorded, is a lot more low-fi and harsh sounding.
Because actualisation is more vulnerable, I decided to put this last in the hopes it would blast some eardrums.
