Live Review: Obseen give us the low down on his new direction on debut EP, 'Envy Me'
On his new five track EP, OBSEEN channels rock gods of old with a club twist and tells Purple Sneakers how it all went down in the studio.
OBSEEN has undergone quite the musical transformation. After becoming know for his future facing jersey club sounds, he's picked up a guitar, released his debut EP Envy Me and flipped everyone's expectations on their heads. Across his five track release, he navigates his feelings about love, lust and the industry over rock infused electronic RnB.
His sly club sensibility remains as he beefs up the live drums and guitars with bass hits and trap style drum machines. But those bluesy riffs and the introduction of his own vocals bring it firmly into a new era for the muso. Each track is short, sweet and to the point, as he's honed the art of delivering concise pop thoughts in his own style. Across Envy Me Obseen shapes a new path for himself in clarity, and had a lot to say about how the tracks all came together. He spoke to Purple Sneakers about each track on the EP, how they came about and what inspired their creation.
Bad News
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When I was writing the EP I wanted to have an intro track which was somewhat experimental. I wrote about 12 simple ideas which are all very concept driven. I had this really intense guitar hook which I grooved on for a while, and started layering different harmonies on it. I really wasn’t sure where I wanted to take it and I tried to make the structure a bit longer but eventually I decided to keep it simple and just have two sections which develop gradually. This track is about trying to tell someone something they don’t want to hear and pre-empting their response, a little angry and over the top. This situation is still unresolved but I hope one day that person will be able to talk about it properly.
Bed Bugs
This track is kind of funny. So the most of this is literal and yet so many people think it’s a metaphor but it really is just a recount of this stupid scenario I got myself into in 2016. Anyway long story short this girl I was sort of chatting to at the time sent me a text at 2am which perfectly pointed out the signals I had missed and, yeah.... it was a bit awkward.
This song started out with the bass and drums and I added the guitars later on, originally it was an instrumental but it came at a turning point in my music where I found I could express what I was feeling and tell a story much more clearly by adding my vocals.
I Don’t Care
Yeah, look, I was pretty pissed off with the music industry and the business which got in the way of me simply making music when I wrote this track. I must have been pretty annoyed because I don’t like to complain.
Anyway, I wrote this just before I released it in February, I got back the master and put it out within 4 days. It felt good to not worry about marketing for this release and I think it seemed to resonate with lots of people which was really nice!
This Isn’t Our Love Song
I guess this is NSFW because it has sex sounds in it, so sorry if you listened to it Mum! This track is the story of a friend whose partner slept with his best friend, except he found out and then slept with their sister instead. You couldn’t come up with a worse situation if you tried and it was super messy.
It started on my guitar with the snappy chords in the intro, and I layered all the chorus parts together later. The questionable sounds in the guitar solo where an after thought, I did it as a little giggle to myself and all my friends said it was weird. So in true Obseen style I did it anyway for no reason other than just because.
Envy Me:
Sad story time. This song is so much fun, it is only 2 minutes long which is something I was aiming for in this EP, I never understand why writers drag songs out to 3 minutes when they have said everything they need to say...
I was struggling to write music big time and had a massive block which really messed with my head for a few weeks. I actually nearly left the Obseen project to continue writing music for others, but one night I found the “Baby you can envy me” in a voice memo from months earlier and it inspired me to write the track. This one is about people who think they are better than others because they earn lots of money, drive nice cars or wear a suit to work. None of these things actually matter, and it doesn’t make you a good or happy person, so I channeled this and now we have Envy Me.
Photo SUPPLIED
Words by HOLLY O’NEILL
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