Hailing from Melbourne, folk-art-pop four-piece Mayfair Kytes are getting ready to unleash their brand new debut album, Animus (out April 1).
A follow on from their simply dazzling single, ‘Sleepyhead’, Animus sees the band build on their enthralling quirky pop sound.
Recorded in just over a year with close pal, Nick Herrera between his notable home studio and a converted chapel in Melbourne’s inner north, the album features performances from string players from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, as well as extra synths and production added by Hiatus Kaiyote’s Simon Mavin and Paul Bender.
“We employed Nick for his highly creative streak, his love and respect of tonality and the way he works hard to achieve sounds,” (vocalist/ guitarist) Matt Kelly explains, “And we used the chapel to record all the string scores as it had a long reverb and delay so we could use the authentic room sounds in the recordings, no extra effects needed.”
All in all Animus is an impressive effort from the four piece and hopefully just a hint at what we can expect from the crew in the coming years. To celebrate the release of the record, the band have given up a track by track run down which you can check out below along with an early stream.
If you like what you’re hearing be sure to visit the band’s Facebook page for more info on upcoming shows and releases.
Seasonal Thaw
Seasonal Thaw was the very first song I ever wrote for Mayfair Kytes. Of all the songs that have changed, been developed or workshopped this one is pretty much exactly the same as the original demo (except for the doo-wop stuff, that was a later addition). It’s a good 5 years old to me now. It is the first song I have ever scored strings for.
Animus
Animus is a song about revenge and righteous indignation. It is kind of a two wrongs don’t make a right cautionary tale. It meditates on themes of forgiveness and confessing ones mistakes. It is also from the very first batch of songs I wrote for Mayfair Kytes, years ago.
Sequence
Sequence was a song that took about a month to complete in the studio, and it’s often my favourite song from the record. It definitely the angriest. I began making a very hodge-podge demo at home one night, singing singular notes and distorting, modulating them and pasting them in different places until I had created a mosaic of swaying, bouncing voices.
This was then taken into the good studio and we crafted a full 3 minute song of madness over the weeks following. Good headphone tune. It is about recognising patterns and being able to control them, particularly bad relationship habits.
Hypnagogia
This song was written by Simon Mavin as an opening sequence to Sleepyhead. The song represents the moment you wake but have not yet completely awoken, that soupy half-world of the near living. It was played on an Orla, somewhere between keys and a squeezebox.
Sleepyhead
With a string score by Willow Stahlut, Sleepyhead is an orchestral pop song. The video was animated by hand by Thomas Russell, who does all our cover art. He story-boarded, shot, directed and then cut it up and went fame by frame. Took a few months. We also had the pleasure of contemporary dancer Geoffery Watson performing in the clip.
Morning Star
Myself and Daniel Coco (who plays on the record) did the score for this one. There are some references in here that appear in Jitterbug Perfume (the Tom Robbins book), except that I have never read that book I just found out afterwards.
The song is about a mountain and is dedicated to a dear friend of mine and Phoebes (vocalist).
Flashlight
The song is about an apocalyptic dream and how that represented the persons waking state, of being locked in turmoil and confrontation and about using a gentle approach to solving this problem.
It’s about not sweating the small stuff, allowing your life lessons to govern your next move and listening to your own intuition for it exists to serve you well. The recorded version has some pretty sick little horn parts too.
Felonious Rift
This song opens with a vocal soundscape and Austins gorgeous Resonator guitar. It kinda just cruises at this certain pace, picking up more and more steam as it goes.
There are alot of dope synth lines going on as the song starts to escalate, alot of its very subtle but everytime I hear it it makes me happy. I feel this is the most relaxed song on the record and it reflects a positive outcome to the albums journey.
Album Launch Dates
Fri April 8 | The Workers Club Melbourne VIC | 18+
Thurs April 28 | The Vanguard Sydney NSW | 18+
