Filipino Artist Eyedress Turned Anger, Loneliness and Nostalgia into "Mulholland Drive" - Men's Folio
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Filipino Artist Eyedress Turned Anger, Loneliness and Nostalgia into “Mulholland Drive”

  • By Bryan Goh

Filipino Artist Eyedress Turned Anger, Loneliness and Nostalgia into "Mulholland Drive"
Eyedress — also known as Idris Vicuña (as in the highest grade of Italian wool) — sees himself as an “indie-rock, post-punk” kind of artist. This isn’t a bad or alienating-a-major-audience kind of thing because firstly, this genre is creeping back on the charts. Secondly, with his latest album “Mulholland Drive”, Eyedress delivers a buffet platter for whatever feels you’re having now.

 “Body Dysmorphia” zooms in on unrealistic societal standards, “Chad An Gordy” reflects on missing family during a time in which it’s harder than ever to reach out and touch our loved ones and “Spit On your Grave” — well, fill in your own interpretation. 

Here, Eyedress takes us through “Mulholland Drive”, one track at a time.



Mulholland Drive :
It’s literally about driving at night on Mulholland Drive while looking at the city lights with a little horror movie twist. I also live in the area so it made sense when I made the song even though it has nothing to do with David Lynch’s film which I’m a big fan of.


Midnight On A Sunny Day (feat. Bee Eyes):  I wrote this song a long time ago when I was a teenager and played with my old band Bee Eyes. This is why they’re featured on this song but yeah, we made it when we were younger in the Philippines and I can memorise a lot of our older songs. I decided to bring this back because it’s just a timeless song.


Something About You (feat. Dent May):  I wrote this song with Dent May after DM-ing him out of the blue during the pandemic as I’m a big fan. He sent me a few instrumentals over email and I ended up choosing the “Something About You” track.


We met up at his recording studio in East LA called The Honeymoon Suite and we recorded vocals about themed hotels while visualising the video in the writing process.


Long Nights At The 711:  I originally made this for a 711 commercial that Harmony Korine asked me to audition for. 711 ended up not choosing me but I went turned my audition video into the music video for this song. I still like the song regardless.


Fulfill The Dream (prod. Vex Ruffin): Named after the Shorty’s skateboard video “Fulfill The Dream” which I had on VHS growing up, this song was made with my fellow Filipino friend Vex Ruffin. After we had shot a music video for him, we went to my house and recorded these riffs and I ended up singing on it a few days after and yeah it came out great.

I was just referencing skate videos I grew up watching on VHS and a little bravado about having a pistol tucked inside my Gucci pants.


Spit On Your Grave: I was receiving death threats at the time, so I decided to take my anger out with this track.

The instrumental was originally written with my old band Bee Eyes so the riff has existed for many years before I had actually recorded the song. 


Brain Dead: I made this song during the Black Lives Matter protests and the Stop Asian Hate movement as a response to all the chaos and racism going on. I was moved by the messages of anti-racism and people wanting to come together to end this long battle of racism. I felt compelled to make a song as I am a minority who has experienced racism all my life.

This is me being fed up by all the ignorance this world sadly still has.


Dancing With My Demons (feat. Paul Cherry): A track I made with my friend Paul Cherry who I’ve been a big fan of for a while now. It started with me sending a more synthy 1980s sounding demo of the song before Paul basically re-recorded everything and added new elements to the track to produce a more full version.


Body Dysmorphia: A song I made for my girlfriend Elvia about loving yourself and the body you’re born in without having to conform to society’s impossible beauty standards.


Want You There Tomorrow: This is a song about missing Elvia. I wrote it when she was still living in Las Vegas and we were still in a long distance relationship at the time. So yeah, this song is just about wanting her to be in LA with me, waking up next to her and all the good sweet stuff you experience early in a long distance relationship.


Chad An Gordy: Produced entirely by my friend King Krule, he posted a snippet of the instrumental on his Instagram story during the pandemic and I replied “this is fire”. He responded, “u should get on it” and that’s how that happened. But yeah, the lyrics are about missing my parents who I haven’t seen in three years since I moved to LA in 2018.

It’s just a reminder that I will always be there for them to help with whatever troubles they might have.


Ride Or Die (feat. Satchy): A song I made with my friend Satchy because I was thinking of making a song reminiscent to  Japanese psyche rock band Boris. This song is about loyalty — having a ride or die girlfriend who will go to through anything with me no matter what. Also, Satchy plays a crazy bass line on this song.


Keep It Real With You (feat. Elvia & DāM-FunK): This was produced by DāM-FunK. We had been speaking about doing a collaboration and he actually sent me a couple tracks before this came about. He posted a snippet of this instrumental on Twitter and he said it was from a burnt CD from a long time ago. He sent it to me and I sang a little 1980s R&B style tune about keeping it real with Elvia, who also sings on the song as well as Dame.

It’s a beautiful track and reminds me of my childhood as growing up in Phoenix where I would always listen to 1980s R&B and slow jams on my fave radio station past 12a.m.


You Know Me: Just another love song for my love, Elvia.


Prada (feat. Triathalon): This was actually a LIL DMT song (my auto tune alias) that Adam of Triathalon has been a fan of. He asked me to make a LIL DMT song with him and so I made this beat for both of us without him knowing I was gonna put it on an Eyedress album. Once we finished the song, he was like “why don’t you just put an auto tune song on your album” which was something I wasn’t really trying to do.


But because I love the song so much and I’m always open to trying new things, I put it on there as the last song to kind of throw everyone off.

Once you’re done with this story about Eyedress and his latest album “Mulholland Drive”, click here to catch up with our August 2021 issue.