Premiere: Agnes Manners continues to tease debut album with new song, Brilliant Blue

A few months ago, Matthew Gravolin brought us further into his world than ever before. Over the last decade or so, the musician has become a prolific face of Australia's heavier rock scene as the frontman of Hellions, before departing from the band - unexpectedly - the year after his father's passing. Instead, he focused on a solo project - Agnes Manners - which he hopes to pluck away at things like masculinity while making music more in-tune with what his late father would prefer; a passion project rich with the emotion of Matthew dedicating music to someone who has had such a pronounced effect on his life.

It kicked off earlier this year with As Long As You're Mine, which debuted with a more subtle and slow sound comparable to the confrontational heaviness of Hellions' discography, and its second single - the Pilerats-premiered Sydney - showed the musician at his most potent, all with the help of a close friend - Trophy Eyes' John Floreani - to lead him on the way. In the time since, he's come to drop another single from the project - July's Evergreen - while also announcing Agnes Manners' debut album, with Fantasia Famish arriving on September 18th.

Today, we're stoked to welcome another taste of what Gravolin hopes to bring with the record and the greater Agnes Manners project, and it's perhaps the album's most devastatingly beautiful moment. Brilliant Blue is a heartwrenching piece about his father's passing, and the complex emotions that can come with the passing of a close family member. As you'd expect, it's about as vulnerable-sounding and intimate as they come; a chance for Gravolin to really bring everything that encapsulates Agnes Manners - and the whole reason he did it - to the forefront in an incredibly powerful way.

"For several months and in many places, I kept notes about how I was feeling about the world and my place in it after my father’s passing," Gravolin says on the single. "Once the music for Brilliant Blue came to me, I arranged the notes in chronological sequence, and made verses of the excerpts that frightened me to say aloud. I hoped that by being as honest as possible, I could rid myself of the discomfort I was feeling."

You can really hear that sense freeing catharsis make itself known as Brilliant Blue continues. In many ways, it sounds like you can hear Gravolin process his emotions throughout the song and how it's brought to life musically; beginning soft, subtle and reflective, gradually building into a climactic finish that's emboldened by strings and Gravolin's freeing vocals.

It also arrives with an official video clip - attached with a trigger warning for depictions of drug and alcohol use - that depicts the situation that Gravolin sings about, and brings these complex and multi-faceted emotions to life in another way. "The idea behind the video is similar – we felt that what is volunteered lyrically should be matched visually, in terms of candor. The song explains the situation, and the video depicts the reaction."

It's an incredibly powerful moment, and we have the feeling that Fantasia Famish will bring plenty more of them with its arrival this September. In the meantime, however, dive into Brilliant Blue and its video clip below:

Follow Agnes Manners: FACEBOOK