With the release of a third new record, local indie rock act Subsonic Eye opens up on their new-found maturity and optimism.
—
From the first notes of their debut album — “Strawberry Feels” — Subsonic Eye has effortlessly captured the pronounced, turbulent, and heavy-hearted feelings of growing up. At its simplest, it is a display of the complications of teenage romance and friendships. It all starts with the band’s melancholic introduction that builds straight into an honest call of yearning for a new start. There, Wahidah (the band’s lead vocalist) painfully sings the lines, “I have counted all my days where the ceiling fan goes down, and I begin”. The following songs, including the standout hit “Cosmic Realignment”, continue the same narrative of agony masked beneath euphoric, dream-like instrumentals. It suggests a pattern of self-aggression that reflects the interior struggles of youth, with its highs and lows reflected in the structure of the song and the poeticism clearly marked by its lyrics.
—
This manner of confidence is indeed a rare occurrence — especially when one considers the age of the band’s members. The six-year-long musical project — which started as its members were entering tertiary education — evidently mirrors their real-life experiences. The 2018 follow-up album — gaily titled “Dive Into” — saw an evolution in the sounds of the band, with clear experimentations on genres, techniques, and styles. The band describes it as “a period during the previous record where [they] were just experimenting with a lot of things, and not just musically. It reflected in the album where [they] just wanted to make all kinds of weird sounds and drown everything in effects.”
—
Six years after their debut, the band recently introduced their third full-length, “Nature of Things”. Although the already familiar dream-pop-inspired sounds of the band remained, it presents itself as an album filled with clarity and a new-found optimism, with organic sounds replacing the heavy, hypnotic instrumentals of their previous efforts. There is a departure from its youthful tones, but the sound carries a mature demeanour instead. It is carefree for all it is worth, as exemplified with “Kaka the Cat” — the song about a cat.
“We were getting jaded with the heavily processed sounds and started having an affinity for rawer sounds”, explains the band. “It had been a couple of years since our last album and we have all kind of changed since then, for the better. We have a lot more perspective on things, and I guess we just became more mature — as cliché as it sounds. Couple that with a new-found love for the outdoors, which was the main inspiration for the record. “We wanted to share that with people and show them that life’s not that bad.”
—
View this post on Instagram
On the band’s Instagram page, a throwback post reveals that the album was made entirely in Lucas’ (the band’s drummer) living room. “We’ve always preferred doing things DIY style as much as we can, to save money and just to have full control of the whole process. Other than the drums, we’ve always been recording by ourselves at home using our equipment or borrowing from friends. We also just worked on the songs in Lucas’ living room and finished them right before lockdown. So when lockdown finally did happen, it wasn’t that much of a challenge for us, more of just delaying because we had to wait for the studio to open to record drums.”
—
By definition, the band reflects the generations of young, talented acts that were more inclined to create music based on the ones they loved growing up, instead of appealing to the masses. Perhaps it was the push from Middle Class Cigars, the band’s label that has brought forth other alternative bands such as Sobs and Cosmic Child — all important acts in the local music scene today. Yet, with Subsonic Eye, its growth feels natural and necessary. After all, the music has flourished to reflect a generation of Singaporeans who have since grown up and are slowly entering adulthood — a bittersweet yet tender truth, as reflected in the new record.
However, this knowledge has never fazed them. When asked about who they make music for, they simply explain — “We’re making music for ourselves so we never really thought about that, but we hope it appeals to all kinds of people.” Was it always the carefree state of mind, the five unique personalities who made the band what it is today or the honesty in the music? For Wahidah, Lucas, Daniel, Spencer and Jared — all five members of Subsonic Eye — the story is far from over.
Photography: Christopher Sim
—
Listen to Nature of Things below:
This story of Subsonic Eye and their new-found optimism first appeared in the April ’21 issue of Men’s Folio Singapore. Purchase a copy of the issue here!
RELATED ARTICLES
Life, In A Slow Dive
