The Lazy Eyes are on the up-and-up, and their trippy new single, Where’s My Brain??? proves their power as a neo-nostalgic force to be reckoned with.
Following the breakout success of their debut EP, EP1 The Lazy Eyes are bringing psychedelic atmospheres back to the forefront, and doing it flawlessly. In the lead-up to their next round of cross-country touring, Happy sat down (via Zoom) with the boys from The Lazy Eyes to discuss the origin of their sound, and the future of their success.
HAPPY: Hi!
HARVEY: I thought you were gonna remain anonymous!
HAPPY: Nah I had a bit of a bug night but I figure it’s probably better this way.
HARVEY: Nah you’re looking good.
HAPPY: Shucks, you’ll make me blush. So, how did your ‘live at Enmore’ go?
ITAY: Yeah, it was great, good fun. It was very like… I feel like we’ve all walked past it many times and not really realised that it was like, right there.
HAPPY: Yeah.
ITAY: It’s such like a nook in the wall. It was cool!
HARVEY: It was a very new experience because like, we record our music at our home studio, so it was like our first experience recording in like a, real studio, so it felt very professional and sound-proofed and stuff.
HAPPY: Yeah? What’s your home studio setup like?
ITAY: It’s just like at my place. Downstairs, like, it’s just one big room – what used to be the living room – and we just set it all up, pretty DIY yeah. We can make a lot of noise, because like, I live in a quiet suburb and no one really cares so that’s good!
HAPPY: Valid.
ITAY: Cheap.
HAPPY: (laughs). Yeah, someone said it! I just wanted to ask, you all have a very unique sound, and I just wanna know, how did that all come together? How long has that taken to sort of form and create?
HARVEY: I think part of our home recording is what creates the ‘unique sound’. Like, it’s probably just partly from the shittiness of the recording, and the mixing that we do ourselves as well. That probably just automatically creates a bit of a different sound.
ITAY: Maybe a bit like, unconventional. Or, not really knowing how to do something properly, so finding a different way to do something.
HAPPY: Wait, you guys produce and mix your own music?
ITAY: Yeah! It’s all us until mastering, which is like – well it’s a bit more than just turning to volume up – we don’t fuckin’ know what they do!
LEON: Yeah, it’s like a dark mysterious part. just leave that to the people who know it!
HAPPY: Yeah ’cause it’s amazing sonically but it also sounds a bit like a production nightmare. Like it sounds like hell to get it together and mix it, or am I admitting my ignorance here?
HARVEY: Yup. It takes a long time, like lots of different layers, and if you saw the Ableton project – it’s not very… it’s all over the place. I mean it’s organised, but you know, there’s just like a little track that just comes in for two seconds, and there’s some that go for the whole thing – it’s like an abstract painting.
HAPPY: Organised chaos.
HARVEY: Organised chaos – you nailed it!
HAPPY: So what’s Where’s My Brain??? about?
HARVEY: Good question (laughs). Well, we usually just write the music first, like before the lyrics, I mean. Yeah, we wrote that like a long time ago, when we were still just sorta building up our set-list kinda thing. And we were getting into heavier bands at that time, so we were kinda inspired to play sorta harder music and to get the audience going a bit, cause our set was lacking a bit of ‘rock’ I guess. So, kinda just wrote it to fill that purpose, but then the lyrics I guess, just ended up representing, like, having a tantrum or like feeling like you’re going a bit nuts – something like that!
HAPPY: Yeah, so when you say you were listening to harder bands, who were you listening to at that time?
HARVEY: Fuzz? We were pretty into Fuzz, and OC’s – that kinda like American scene. it feels pretty American.
HAPPY: Anyone else at the moment?
HARVEY: Hmm, Leon? (laughs)
LEON: I don’t know in terms of our music and what we’re kinda approaching right now but, I think we’re kinda delving into more of a classic 60s psychedelia influence. Stuff like the Beach Boys, the Millenia as well, and personally I kinda like delving into some more experimental sides of psychedelia as well, like Animal Collective and things like that. I don’t know, I really would like to introduce some synth stuff.
HARVEY: I feel like – at least for me personally – we’re kinda like out of phases. I just kinda listen to whatever now! I never used to have Spotify, but now I do but maybe I shouldn’t mention it – because people don’t like Spotify. But, the last album that I really loved was Mitski’s Be The Cowboy.
HAPPY: Mmmm Me and My Husband?
HARVEY: Yeah! There’s just weird moments in the songwriting. Like it sounds kinda like a normal song, and then she’ll throw something in and you’re like ‘what?!’
HAPPY: Well speaking of albums, do you guys have any upcoming projects that you’d wanna share with us?
NOAH: Oh, we have a new single coming out soon!
ITAY: New single coming out in a month maybe?
NOAH: Nah less than a month. Soon, very soon!
HAPPY: You got anymore details?
HARVEY: There’s a video. (laughs)
ITAY: I guess after that we’re working to like a second EP, which kinda like follows up the first EP. Like another three-track kinda thing but I don’t know when that’ll come out – I’m pretty bad with dates and stuff!
NOAH: Yeah music will definitely be coming out soon!
HAPPY: (laughs) So noisy! It’s cool to find have this unique sound that’s shared among four people, what’s the creative process and who puts what into the music?
ITAY: It’s really lucky cause all four of us usually agree on stuff, and we like the same music. So, it’s kinda like we feed into each other and all want one thing, and that’s how it kinda goes live. Me and Harvey usually do a bunch of stuff more on the studio side, and when we bring it to the guys live, they all add their parts. Even when we’re playing we kinda bounce off each other nad have our like moments and stuff, so yeah we’re just really lucky!
HAPPY: Yeah! I guess, Is there anything that I haven’t touched upon that you wanna add in?
ITAY: New single out soon (laughs) It’s called Nobody Taught Me!
HAPPY: Alrighty! Thank you so much and have a good day!
HARVEY: Thank you!
You can catch The Lazy Eyes on their live tour across Australia – dates and times below!
Saturday May 8 – The Brightside, Fortitude Valley, QLD
Thursday May 20 – Sooki Lodge, Belgrave, VIC
Friday May 21 – The Tote – Band Room, Collingwood, VIC
Saturday May 22 – Major Tom’s, Kyneton, VIC
Interview by Mike Hitch
Photos by Charlie Hardy
