Eggy Take Us Track-By-Track Through Their New Album

Melbourne indie-rock quintet Eggy have officially shared their third studio album, From Time To Time. The ambitious ten-track effort is the band’s most eclectic effort to date, which they describe as sounding like “John Cale meets Ennio Morricone meets early noughties indie”.

“We wanted to make an album that challenged us to grow, and to be outside our comfort zone,” says Dom Moore – who provides vocals and guitar in the band. “One that blended old and new; sounds from both analogue and digital worlds. There’s MIDI kicks andvintage drum machines, cello and violin with GarageBand strings, auto tuned vocals harmonising with natural. It feels very future and past; alien and memorial.”

With the album out in the world, three-fifths of Eggy – Moore, along with multi-instrumentalists Zoe Monk and Lucy Packham – break down the creative drives, unlikely inspirations and moving parts of each song on From Time To Time, exclusively for Music Feeds.

1. ‘Lights, Camera’

We really wanted this to sound like an orchestra tuning up whilst the audience finds their seats, or the ads playing before the movie starts. It was recorded with all eight people who played on the record in one room, a few choice mic selections and lots of eye contact with each other. One in, all in. (Dom Moore)

2. ‘Are You Not Entertained?’

For awhile, the album was nearly called Are You Not Entertained? Ultimately we weren’t sure if people would get it was tongue-in-cheek, and we don’t like Gladiator that much anyway. RIP. From Time To Time sums up the overall intent of the album, but ‘Are You Not Entertained?’ suits this particular track. It’s dramatic, jammy, has a violin twirling with synths and hopefully makes you feel something. If it doesn’t, hopefully you’re entertained at the very least. Check out the clip below, too. It was made by Eggy’s in-house director and G.O.A.T., Bill Irving. We are super proud of it. A lot of gear nearly got washed away by the tide in the making of it. (DM)

3. ‘Two Horses’

The music for this track was written with the image of two horses in a field in mind, and the lyrics were written at a time when I was recovering from my second football-related concussion, drinking mocktails on Hamilton Island. It references an old biblical story about a blind horse who was led to its shelter each night by another horse with a bell around its neck. Experiencing prolonged concussion can be pretty scary. Often, you feel like you might need a horse with a bell to lead you around forever. Max Rooke filed a class action against the AFL for breaching their duty of care owed to protect players from concussion around this time. So, as weird as it sounds: mocktails, horses, and Max Rooke all come together in this indie-pop concussion dream track. (Lucy Packham)

4. ‘Showpony 64’

This song we wanted to feel like something from the $5 tub you’d find at your local record shop. Like one of those scratched up library records where every track is is called something that references the sounds you’re hearing, like ‘Drum Hit 2’ or ‘Synthesizer String C major’. The synth this track was made on comes with 250 preset sounds, and they’re all labelled something like ‘Showpony’ – so it’s a nod to that as well. The ’64’ comes from the Hammond Auto-Vari 64 drum machine that was used on the track. (Zoe Monk)

5. ‘Dying Sun’

This song was inspired by blockbuster movies that you can let wash over you with familiarity and warmth, like The Lord Of The Rings or Point Break (for me!). As you listen, picture Gandalf riding Shadowfax into Helm’s Deep under the dying sun. Bliss. There’s a little surprise with the vocals at the end of this track, which symbolises the intent of the record as a whole. We wanted to fuse old and new sounds, and this is the track where a lot of those elements come together in one song. It’s also a little nod to that famous scene in The OC. “Mmm, whatcha say?” (DM)

6. ‘Colouring The Silence’

This song was strategically placed in the track order with vinyl in mind, as track one of side B literally colours the silence. It’s a song about expression and its many forms, and explores 60s sounds and motifs that we hadn’t explored as a band before. Choz [AKA Charlie Wolstenholme] has a drum fill at the start that conjures energy from the movie Whiplash, and it’s one of my favourite little moments on the record. (DM)

7. ‘Open Field’

Lyrically, this song references a few things. At the time, I was reading about anti-capitalist design of cities, and how much more imaginative and alluring the streets would be if they weren’t designed to get us from point A to point B as efficiently as possible. That sits in the lyrics, but also in the delivery of the sounds too. We didn’t want it to feel too structured, or like there wasn’t time to aimlessly wander through the track, as opposed to trying to get from point A to point B as linearly as possible. I was also reading about this theory of popular music theorist Robyn James at the time, who speaks about how the structures of society are replicated in the structures of songs. It’s all tied in together there. Hopefully, this song provides a soundtrack for some aimless wandering – however you wanna do it. (ZM)

8. ‘Pow!’

‘Pow!’ was written as a follow on from the first poem my mum ever wrote, which is still my favourite. It’s called ‘Working Class Boy’. In the Māori world, we have a known proverb that shows how our perspective of time is not a linear experience. It says: “I walk backwards into the future, with my eyes fixed on my past”. It speaks to many things; importantly, for me, it marks the continuum of time, and how we carry our ancestors forth with us into the present. I whakapapa Māori through my patrilineal line, so to tie that with those words from my mum felt like the truest expression of identity beyond what was possible to put in the verses. (ZM)

9. ‘Lost In Parlance!’

We hadn’t played this song altogether until we got in the studio. There’s a thunder and lightning sample recorded on an iPhone, a vibraphone solo and an electric guitar muted with foam from a packing box. It’s about saying a lot of words that carry very little meaning, inspired by feeling uninspired watching [Australian parliament hearing] Question Time. Choz and Sam [Lyons, guitarist/saxophonist] learnt it 10 mins before we recorded it, and it’s partly in 14/4 time. They swished it. (DM)

10. ‘Split Second’

This one? I’m still not super sure what any of it is about. I don’t think you have to know. Sometimes, you just put pen to paper, and certain words feel right. Go with the wind and see where you land. I look forward to understanding the meaning of it when the time is right. (ZM)

From Time To Time is out now via Flightless Records. The album can be streamed, downloaded and purchased on vinyl by clicking here. The band perform at Meadow Music Festival this weekend in Bambra; stay tuned to Music Feeds for more news on their upcoming album tour.