PREMIERE: Eli Greeneyes Shares New Self-Titled E.P

DON’T LET THEM KNOW

Is about not letting yourself be turned into somebody’s victim because of what they did to you, using it as fuel to become stronger mentally. Learning from mistakes and turning them into knowledge and power. Yes, it happened to you, and yes, it has affected you, but NO, you won’t let them hear you call yourself a victim of their actions. Don’t let them win.

I demoed this one a fair while ago, and all the production came together right before the mix was sent out to be mastered. I had to mute about twenty stems and concentrate on bringing to life the most important elements. The original demo was actually quite sad and desperate in feeling, even with the same positive lyrics. It was only in the final version of the vocal, which was recorded by Ben Matei in my lounge room, that it was given that positive energy. I have been engineering and producing my vocal for this whole EP, but towards the end of the project, I’ve been getting my friend Ben over to talk me through certain emotional angles and press record, so I have someone to bounce off. He’s actually amazing at it! He comes from a performance and acting background, so he has to connect emotionally big time. It's nice because I can really get in my own way sometimes.

TOWN OF THE LIVING DEAD

Is about Port Hedland. I was on a tour with my friends, and this particular night, we played at the Pier Hotel, which was pretty wild there were a bunch of fights after the show on the street that we were kind of watching in horror. It's basically about how hard and awesome touring can be. Went with more of a journal entry style of writing for this one. 

The production on this song, again, took many forms! I had my mate Brody Simpson play the drums over the whole song and then chose a pop direction very last minute for the EP, so I kept them for the verses and then made some slappy, high-energy, pop drums for the chorus break.

FLOWERS

I was given flowers in a relationship which, at first, I felt really weird about. It seemed like there was an underlying meaning, but I pushed it aside as me being problematically masculine. So I enjoyed the beautiful gesture only to later find out there was an underlying meaning. The person I was with bought me flowers because they thought I would mirror their actions and spoil them more. 

I wrote this song in probably half an hour, but the production and demo phase took lots of different forms before the final version of the EP.  I was lucky enough to have some production help from my friend James Mooney towards the end of the process, who added some drums. I think I spent over 40 hours mixing this song. Sometimes you spend so much time on something that you're not even sure if it's good or not anymore, and I was definitely getting to that point before its release and getting in my own way, I think.

NOT ENOUGH

This song was super different from anything I had made for this EP. I don’t even remember how it came about in the production, it's a bit of a blur.

I wrote it about not being enough for someone because of my low self-esteem at that time. 

I wanted to make it more positive, so right at the end of the song, I sing, “It's so hard to say to you I’m not enough, 'cause I am enough”. I’m all about the positivity that hardship can bring these days, so even if it's the last line that aligns with that idea, then so be it. 

PEOPLE (piano version)

People Is about a time in my life when I felt like I was drowning mentally, and I thought, “what would I want to hear in a song right now”? So I got writing with that angle in mind. It's meant to be a self-soothing song. Something to listen to when you're not doing well, and you can’t see a way out of your situation or circumstances. Which I have felt many a time.

I recorded a single version of this song and chose to record and film a Piano ballad version with Ben Matei. It actually turned out to be everything I wanted from that song, and for that reason, I chose that to be on the EP, not the pop-produced version. It’s definitely made me realise I need to take my time with songs in the future and give all of my songs the best possible homes.

Listen to the full self-titled E.P below before its release on Monday.