Right after their August 31st release of new LP called “True North”, we are teaming up with Moscow based experimental, math rock infused instrumentalists WEARY EYES to give you a full track by track rundown, revealing stories behind each and every song from the record.
WEARY EYES‘ exploration of musical lineage of various styles embraces unfiltered emotions of post hardcore, emo, or even blues, and blends it with the complexity of math rock and instrumental post-rock. Their ability to capture many moods and vibes without losing the vibrant energy of an earworm is what makes “True North” most accomplished, and significant album in their already impressive and acclaimed discography.
For fans of And So I Watch You From Afar, Mogwai, Maybeshewill, Caspian, Sleepmakeswaves, Enemies, Adebisi Shank, etc.
Dreamer’s Disease
‘Dreamer’s Disease’ was the first track written for the record. And it is a great opener — uplifting, fast, loud and pop-punky at times. It sets the mood of the album, I guess. We found the name in The Urban Dictionary — it’s about young kids who are super hopeful, full of energy and dreams and think that they can make it in life no matter what. We still try to be these kids.
Lightfighter
Our guitar player Alex claims that he saw the street with this name while visiting the US, but honestly I can’t find it on Google Maps. We think it’s just a cool word and fits the vibe of the track. Moreover, on our previous LP we have a track called ‘Hospice On A Bay’ which comes from the billboard we saw in California in 2013.
Musically ‘Lightfighter’ has a ‘calm before the storm’ vibe — it sets off nice, slow and mellow but it enters the storm mode towards the end.
Sarah Jessica Darker
This one is a banger. There’s not much to say about it except that we basically wrote it in 15 minutes. It’s pretty cool to play live, because everyone’s going crazy. As for the name, we have a tradition of ‘honoring’ Hollywood actors in our tracks. We had Nicholas Rage, Mad Damon, Keanu Leaves, now it is Sarah Jessica Darker’s time. And we have a Google doc page with other track names like these for the future.
Captain Nowhere
It’s hard to tell giving that we play instrumental music, but TRUE NORTH is kinda a concept record. And Captain Nowhere is a protagonist of this story. The idea is that with all that oppression, violence, intolerance and hatred that goes on in the world it’s pretty easy to lose your way and become a part of the hate machine. So this Captain Nowhere dude is the one balancing between all the bad and good stuff in the world and trying to make a right decision. Basically Captain Nowhere is everyone of us. God, now I see how pretentious it all sounds!!!
Musically I’d say it is the darkest track on the record: lots of eerie sounds, some reverberated solos and really-really unsettling second part. But it’s all good in the end.
Once The Clouds Lift
Along with ‘Dreamer’s Disease’ this track was written in the really early stages and gave a push to the rest of the album. It has an uplifting, light hearted and even ‘dancy’ tone and starts off with a cool drum part that Dima created right in the studio.
I’d love to say that there is some deeper meaning behind the track name, but there is not — just a cool catch phrase we decided to use.
V.
This is the the happiest and the most straight forward track on the record. We’ve filmed a video for it that kinda says it all.
We struggled a lot with the name though. We even thought about using a band name generator like we did on some of our previous releases, but in the end decided to call it ‘V.’ The reason — it was the fifth demo made for the record and it sounds mysterious. The dot in the end is a little nod to Thomas Pynchon and his book.
Invisible Hand
Yeah, this one was the longest in the making. Initial demo sounded totally different and then we had another four versions of this track. But you know how they say – if you don’t know how to connect parts in the track, just make some noise. And we did — 2 minutes of drone/harsh noise in the middle. Out of nowhere. BECAUSE FUCK YOU THATS WHY. And then why don’t we add some funk in there? Got ya!
Ok, so basically this track is the most versatile we’ve ever done: it has funky moments, RATM-styled solo, crazy drumming by Dima and the heaviest riff we’ve ever written. The name comes from our bass player Nikita saying ‘it sounds like someone is shuffling the track with invisible hand’.
True North
The title track. The hidden gem of the record. I think this is the most unusual track we’ve ever done and we’re still discovering this side of our band. This track is really mellow, intricate, full of atmosphere and synths. I think it is very reflecting and comforting. It kinda reminds me of Scandinavian electronic scene. We really liked what we got in the end and hope to explore that sound more. We experimented a lot while recording — for example, Nikita tracked some of his parts using an old slightly detuned fretless bass that fits the vibe. And don’t get me started on guitar solos – we spent three hours recording them and Alex still has a hard time playing it live.
The name comes from the idea of different definitions of North: True North, Magnetic North and Grid North. True North is the direction along the surface towards North Pole. At the same time it can be a metaphor for guiding light. So saying in the context of the story of Captain Nowhere: find your True North (something to hold on to) and you will never be lost. Damn, that’s cheesy and pretentious!
Your Battles Are Over
This is the closer. The end of the story. It’s not very happy but hopeful. Shit hurts but life goes on, and all the bad stuff will end, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We all fight our own social and personal battles and at some point they are over anyway. That’s the idea.
Musically this track might be the easiest to digest— no time signature and tempo changes and pretty straight forward but we hope that the emotional part compensates for that and reflects the whole idea of the record. Whether it is good or bad, it all will pass at some point. Yeah we’re THAT pretentious!
