Introducing The Lazy Eyes, who take a leap forward with Cheesy Love Song

With the announcement of Laneway's last few acts at the start of this year, came a name that not many people had ever heard of at that point - The Lazy Eyes. The band, exclusive to the festival's Sydney leg, had not even put out a song at the time of the lineup announcement, but sometimes - and especially with a festival like Laneway Festival, known for capturing forward-thinking bookings about to blow up - you just have to trust the festival's word, so people just went along with it.

Today, however, comes the arrival of The Lazy Eyes' first single Cheesy Love Song, and with it, comes the reassurance that the festival made a choice worth making. It's the lead single off their introductory debut EP and it's a stellar burst out of the gates from a band with a hell of a lot of promise ahead of them; gripping psych-pop the tone of choice, with thick guitar melodies and soft piano uniting amongst percussive rhythms and hazy vocal melodies that almost feel plucked from an old-school The Beach Boys highlight.

It's a nod to the 60s psychedelic explosion rooted in nostalgia for the past, with its spiralling melodies and washed-out vocals feeling like The Lazy Eyes have taken the sounds of the past and whisked them forward into the future, without the pop-centric hooks that we've come to love from Australia's biggest psychedelic export in Tame Impala (although many people would pair them more into indie-pop nowadays, but that's a conversation for another time).

Anyway, there's plenty to love here, and with The Lazy Eyes introducing themselves to the world with Cheesy Love Song, we can't help but feel that there's going to be plenty, plenty, plenty more to hear from the group in the year's ahead - there's a whole lot of promise and potential here. Dive into the track below, catch them at Laneway Festival Sydney, and introduce yourself to the band while you fall in love with them below:

Tell us about yourself?

Greetings. We are The Lazy Eyes, a psychedelic rock band from Sydney, Australia. The four of us met in Newtown high school of the performing arts and started the band together when we were all 15. Since then, we have been writing songs and recording them in our home studio in Lindfield, but for a bunch of reasons, it's taken us a while to release our music. We have enjoyed playing shows in and around Sydney, we get a kick out of playing live!

What’s the vibe music-wise?

The vibe changes song to song, overall I think you could say that the sound is alternative pop songs with lots of rocky and psych moments. We write about stuff like love and introspection, places and things, and sometimes it's not about anything in particular and really just a vessel for the music. Never about politics though, haha.

What are your production and writing processes like?

Harvey and Itay do the songwriting and production for the band. Songs come to us at random times and we sit with them and try and squeeze out a finished product. Sometimes - like in our single Cheesy Love Song, we sit face to face with a piano and guitar and bounce ideas off each other. We never force it or try and write a song to be about or sound like something, it never works that way. The production/recording process involves Harvey and Itay slowly chipping away and adding layers to drum stems we record with Noah, but in the future that could all change. We sit together in our studio in Lindfield with ideas in our head and reach for the instruments to record them, and then we mix it all in.

Can you tell us about your new single, Cheesy Love Song?

It's a special song for us, just because it's been with us for so long. I think if you had to sum up the sound of the band right now it would also do the trick. It's got elements of a ballad but also a rocker which we like. Something for everyone, maybe?

Any tour dates coming up?

Laneway Festival, Sydney! Bucket list - tick.

What does 2020 have in store for you?

Quite a lot, we hope. But it's all very confidential and if we told you we would have to kill you. Jokes :)

Where can we find more of your music?

You can't yet, we are planning to change that this year!

Follow The Lazy Eyes: FACEBOOK