What is your name and role within In Eyes?
Hi! I’m Rosie and I am the vocalist and lyricist.
What’s the Gold Coast music scene like at the moment?
The Goldy has an incredibly vast and diverse music scene, with heaps of artists across all genres. Unfortunately, we’ve seen the closure of many venues over the past few years, and there aren’t a lot of opportunities for bands of our genre to get regular shows here because of it. I know our local government is trying to remedy this though, offering grants for local musicians, and doing their best to add live music to local festivals and events. I have hope for the future of local music here.
How did In Eyes form?
The band initially formed in 2014 when my previous band split. We went through a couple different members before landing on this current lineup in 2017. Dylan (guitars) has been in from the very start. We asked him to audition after seeing him play covers online and he nailed it. I met Kris (drums) at uni, and through studying music together we struck up a super strong friendship and working relationship. He was the piece we’d been missing for so many years. I’m so thankful to be a part of this lineup.
What’s been happening recently?
We’ve just released our latest single, so watching that expand and grow, and be received so positively, has been amazing. We’re also gearing up now to keep writing new music, and getting our live show nice and tight so we’re ready to gig again after so many cancellations last year.
Your latest single ‘Tripwire’ is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting?
Songwriting wise, I was in a reflective period of my life when I was thinking about the long term effects of a first time heartbreak. I was inspired to tell the story of my own naivety in the face of a manipulative relationship from the perspective of today, 13 years in the future. Kris wrote the music for this single, and I remember hearing it for the first time and being so intrigued with the rhythmic elements of it. He’s really intelligent rhythmically and I was so excited to see how it would challenge me as a writer.
How did you go about writing Tripwire?
The Tripwire process started while Kris and I were in our final year of uni in 2019. We had a studio session booked and he played me the demo and I instantly fell in love with it. We booked a couple more sessions to work on it and perfect it. I took the first demo home and wrote to it, then in those later sessions we workshopped it, and showed it to friends for feedback. There was something special about it from the beginning, and it turned out better than I think any of us expected.
Where and when did you record/produce/master, and who with?
We recorded at Machine Lab Recording, with our good friend and frequent collaborator Jared Adlam, who also mixed the track. Kris and Jared co-produced the single, and we sent it off to be mastered by another friend of ours, Paul Blakey.
How did you approach the recording process?
The original plan was to drop Tripwire as our second single of 2020, but because of the pandemic, we were basically forced to halt our progress with recording and releasing. We spent a majority of 2020 working on our last single, The Dreamer, and only saw each other in person twice that whole year. Once that dropped, we decided it was time to book in, and start the process for Tripwire. The restrictions at this point had been lifted, but that also meant everyone else was looking to get into studios to record. We booked in for the earliest we could get in with Jared, which was July 2021 (about 5 months after initially reaching out). We recorded over 3 days, and worked on mixes, the artwork, music video, and everything else for the release as time went on. We did what we could under the ever changing restrictions and safety guidelines, and although it dropped a year after we initially wanted it to, the response has been insane, and we’re so happy with how everything came together.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
I’ve been discovering a few bands on TikTok actually – my favourite at the moment is The Home Team. I’ve had their album Slow Bloom on repeat for about a month. Really good stuff.
What do you like to do away from music?
Dungeons and Dragons! I’ve always been into fantasy games, books, and films, so when I discovered DnD a few years ago I was hooked. I started DMing (dungeon mastering; running the games) in 2018 for a few friends from uni, and haven’t stopped since. I think what I love so much about it is I’ve always been a writer and a storyteller, and DnD allows me to flex my creative muscles in a way that music doesn’t. It’s a way to explore parts of myself that I don’t always get to express in the real world. If you get the chance to play Dungeons and Dragons, do it. It can truly be life changing.
What’s planned for 2022?
Writing a lot, playing more shows, and releasing as much as we possibly can. An EP is on the cards, but we’ve gotta go with whatever the world throws at us, and make the most of it. We mainly just want to keep making music, playing live, and doing what we love.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
We’ve had a few phases within the In Eyes lifetime. We started at Nando’s, then segued into Guzman Y Gomez, but for now, it’s probably Pattysmith’s. There’s one near our practice space, and also near our studio, so it works out!
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/InEyesMusicGC
