Premiere: Silver Hills return for their first song in a long while, Indian Ocean

If you're unfamiliar with the name, Silver Hills are a WA-based four-piece that around five years ago, was dominating the Perth live music circuit, with a constant run of releases and a well-known live show pushing them forwards as one of the west coast's next big things. In 2014, however, the band were forced to go on an indefinite performance hiatus due to the diagnosis of one of the band's members, Sebastian D’Alonzo, with a form of life-threatening cancer; the band instead used their time to focus on recording a collection of their best work while D’Alonzo underwent treatment. First Sight, the band's long-awaited returning album out April 20th, is a culmination of this time recording, remembering D'Alonzo - who passed away late last year - while also looking forward to their future and the ever-present influence D'Alonzo holds on their work.

Indian Ocean marks the album's first tease and thus, the band's first release in a long while, and you can hear the harrowing emotion that sways through the single's guitar-washed flows, with soft, emotive vocals coming and going above the single's more psych-leaning, hazy instrumental, which sits around the indie-dream-pop realm à la recent Australian export Hatchie. "Indian Ocean is the first impression of our debut LP First Sight and a song I am very fond of. It embodies the tone of the whole album in its own infrastructure; it’s bittersweet yet bouncy, grieving yet grateful and encourages the reconciliation of each side of the proverbial spectrum," frontman Mark McGlue says on the single. "The album is about celebration and this track is an ambassador of that idea: it begins with nostalgic lilting melancholia and culminates in a rambunctious sea shanty sax party. We wanted to convey deep yearning but also deep silliness; that there is a choice in whether to suffer or celebrate. Losing our creative instigator and close friend has been heavy beyond words, intensifying the feelings surrounding the album’s release. Despite that pain, it feels right to remember the positive sentiments expressed in the record and share them with others."

Listen to the track below, and stay tuned for the full release of First Sight on April 20th.

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