Melbourne-born wunderkinds Osaka will be dropping their debut EP Manoeuvres this coming Friday, 23rd September. Already, we’ve been #blessed enough to hear lead singles Vessel and Weights – both indicative of a release that contains far more wisdom and indie rock virtuosity than your regular maiden offering.
Now on the precipice of the EP’s release, the boys have dug deep for us, putting together a detailed play-by-play of all five tracks on the release.
Manoeuvres – The EP
Written mostly while I was in school and 17, Manoeuvres served as a sounding board for just that. All the ins and outs, comings and goings we try to manoeuvre in our teenage years.
Feeling almost constantly frustrated, the songs became a way to quietly question why something wasn’t happening when I thought it should, something I didn’t understand or just generally to try and express that I was feeling stuck.
I think all the songs on this EP have a certain uneasiness to them, maybe that’s just when I hear them and it reminds me of high school insecurity but I think think they fit together as a collection of songs shaping what make our teenage years both something of mistakes and of a time that means that we do things differently now.
Tease
Tease for me sets the scene of the EP. At times it feels pretty uncomfortably bare and exposing, though later I think it sounds pretty full. As your headspace might be filling up with the expectations you think you have to meet while at the same time being blanketed in a haze of anxiety, and feeling that expectation (self created or not), to be too heavy to handle.
It’s a bit of whirlpool.
Weights
Weights was one of the last songs I wrote for this EP. It’s funny because this is probably the most upbeat song on the EP yet the darkest.
Loosely, it talks about carrying someone or something’s weight. Whether that be a relationship or your own expectations of yourself. What would happen if you just allowed the weight to crush you or if you gave up? I think Weights at its crux explores how burden or weight can really twist you into dark places.
Vessel
Vessel is always a tricky one to talk about because there’s a lot of honesty wrapped up in it. It’s heavy, messy and dark. I think it’s the feeling of falling behind and shutting off when you lose control. It’s the addiction and helplessness applicable to any vice. Despite all this, on the surface Vessel is just another party song, because its too hard to see where one starts and the other begins.
Indian Summer
Probably the most unrecognisable from the first version we wrote and the oldest demo. Indian Summer has gone through maybe five reincarnations. Though in all of the versions, the lyrics and bridge have barely changed.
I remember us being really excited about the bridge when we first all listened together and thinking we’d found a little bit of Daft Punk colour. I’d just started to properly play with analog synths, spending really stuffy summer nights fiddling with sounds and making lists of patches, thinking synths were the best thing ever.
The bridge probably has around five different synth layers on it, they were all tracked way back when I was in my second last year of school and haven’t changed since.
Clarity
Light at the end of the tunnel. After mixed feelings and indecision Clarity is a moment when you feel the things you part with, manage and take on are worth it, and almost in knowing that it allows you to take more on. It’s yearning for something you have, you want it even though you have it. You offer more of yourself even though you’re not sure how much is left. It’s that butterfly invincible feeling you get in that honeymoon stage of a relationship.
Gilbert and I called the bridge in this song where the bass goes all fuzzy in the bridge the “butterfly bit”. I think it sounds like those slightly uncomfortable but really happy butterflies you get in your tummy when you meet someone you never want to leave.
After we recorded Clarity, it didn’t feel like the end of the EP so I recorded that little keyboard line at the end back at home. I really like that it ends the same way as all of the songs started, on the floor of my bedroom.
‘Manoeuvres’ is out this Friday September 23rd. Do yourself a favour and stream the full EP here below.
