Birmingham’s Solar Eyes, hotly tipped by our John Robb back in 2022 here return to the scene with an acid soaked tune full of their trademark laid back swirling psychedelic sounds that nag the brain. Read on…
SOLAR EYES are a psych-shocking, sonics-rocking duo from Birmingham, United Kingdom. They consist of centrifugal forces Glenn Smyth (vocals / guitar) and Sebastian Maynard Francis (supercool drummings). ‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’ (Pre-Order Here) is their second album, due for release September 26th via Fierce Panda Records, following on from their critically acclaimed self-titled debut, released February 2024. Fast work all round.
Then again, for Solar Eyes it seems like there’s no time to live, no time to die, no time left at all. The first three singles are the first three tracks on the album. If the tumultuous trio of ‘Murdering Hippies’, ‘Time Waits For No One’ and ‘Set The Night On Fire’ doesn’t set their desert-dreaming dustball-kicking highway-venturing stall out in spades then nothing else will.
New single ‘Murdering Hippies’ gives listeners their first taste of the hypnotic and shimmering lysergic charms dripping from ‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’. A stuttering, spellbinding rhythm underpins the swirling vocals and glittering guitars with utterly captivating results.
“It was written during a blistering summers day in Skegness, with the caravan doors open and the cool fuzzy bass groove looping,” recalls Glenn Smyth. “It’s about the self-imposed psychological torment of being trapped inside the Manson cult. I was imagining I was desperate to escape but emotionally entangled with one of the girls. The song is about paranoia, drug-fuelled delusion, losing grip on reality, torn between love and survival, haunted by the knowledge that the person they love is capable of murder.
“The sample at the start is one of the girls, saying “Charlie tells us to be beautiful, and he let us be beautiful. My favourite lyric is the “I’ve been praying to my god, he said just forget that witch”
Dark and sinister yet written in a major key. But with the middle eight going to D Minor – for the ‘you saw me lose my mind bit’. Sonically, i guess i was going for the rawness of The Stooges and the swagger of Primal Scream.”
Recorded at Courtyard Studio in Oxfordshire (home of Radiohead, Supergrass and Band of Skulls over the years), this second effort was co-produced by Ian Davenport and mixed by long term collaborator Jeff Knowler. ‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’ was first conceived with the track ‘I See the Sun’ in 2021. Jeff had heard the rough demo of the said track and thought it sounded like it should be on a Tarantino film. He suggested Glenn go watch ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ – which set the frontman on a journey to get to know more about the infamous Manson Family.
After reading the book ‘Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties’, which refers to the covert CIA program Operation CHAOS and investigates the background and motives for the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969, Glenn then fictionalised/visualised himself as a member of ‘The Family’ – who manages to escape before the murders. So that’s him, driving off into the sunset, on penultimate track ‘An Eagle Flies Alone’
When coming to choose the title of the album, in a bizarre coincidence Glenn had written down several titles over the years from various sources. He liked the look of ‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’ and after a google, realised it was the title of a film about Charles Manson – starring Billie Joe Armstrong. So far, so darkly romantic. Glenn took himself off to his dad’s caravan in Skegness, on the east of England and quite possibly as far away as possible from the savage California dreamings of ’69 and, further inspired by watching ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, set to work writing the album. “Gets a bad wrap Skegness,” he muses, defiantly, “But I’ll always think fondly about it.”
The end result sees Brummies Solar Eyes take the Spaghetti Junction Western vibes of their debut and add in darker, broader, bleaker shades of ragged glory. Smyth himself uses words like ‘sinister’, ‘brutal’ and ‘vicious’ to describe the lyrical themes, for this is an album about heroes lost in battle, an album which squints at the dark side of the West Coast sun, an album influenced by The Doors, The Stooges, BRMC, Ennio Morricone, The Velvet Underground and even a touch of Charlie Manson himself on closer ‘Hello Charlie’.
‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky!’ then. A warped way of life, and then some.
ALBUM TRACKLISTING
- Murdering Hippies!
- Time Waits for No One
- Set the Night on Fire
- A Couple of Kisses
- Your Love is Like a Drug
- Speedball Lovers
- No Rider on the Horse
- Rubik’s Cube
- I See the Sun
- Mr. Magpie
- An Eagle Flies Alone
- Hello Charlie
Catch Solar Eyes live at the following dates:
Wed 6th August | Islington Academy, London, UK (with The Warlocks)
Sat 24th October | Supersonic Club, Paris, France
Find Solar Eyes online:
LINKTREE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | X
Forewords by Wayne Carey, Reviews Editor for Louder Than War. His author profile is here
A Plea From Louder Than War
Louder Than War is run by a small but dedicated independent team, and we rely on the small amount of money we generate to keep the site running smoothly. Any money we do get is not lining the pockets of oligarchs or mad-cap billionaires dictating what our journalists are allowed to think and write, or hungry shareholders. We know times are tough, and we want to continue bringing you news on the most interesting releases, the latest gigs and anything else that tickles our fancy. We are not driven by profit, just pure enthusiasm for a scene that each and every one of us is passionate about.
To us, music and culture are eveything, without them, our very souls shrivel and die. We do not charge artists for the exposure we give them and to many, what we do is absolutely vital. Subscribing to one of our paid tiers takes just a minute, and each sign-up makes a huge impact, helping to keep the flame of independent music burning! Please click the button below to help.
John Robb – Editor in Chief
