The Living End's Andy Strachan Has A New EP & Told Us All About It

Veteran Aussie muso Andy Strachan — best known for his long service with renowned rock trio The Living End — has been expanding his personal horizons of late, and now he's ready to unleash the result of his dedication on eager ears the nation over with the release of his debut solo EP, Follow The Sun, today.

The record is a deeply personal affair, right down to the album art — that smiling young chap on the front is none other than Strachan himself, before time does what it does, while the track listing on the back is handwritten by his six-year-old daughter, Abby — and The Music is stoked to be in possession of a track-by-track rundown of the tales behind the tunes, straight from Strachan's brilliant mind to your eager ears.

Strachan manned all the instruments on the four-track EP (with the exception of bass and some guitar on CCTV), with old friend Woody Annison handling recording, production and mixing duties. Red Door Studios' Dan Caswell engineered the release.

"I had a lot of fun doing it, and I'm fairly proud of the results," Strachan said in a statement. "It's been a real challenge and a steep learning curve trying to do it all on my own but I've really enjoyed it and can't wait to do it all over again. Turn it up and have a listen. Hope you dig it!"

Better do as the man says, then — give the EP a spin below and enjoy the backstories below.

Follow The Sun

This tune originally had the working title Heavy Guy and it was essentially all about the riff. I started messing around with lyrics and melodies and got stuck on the topic of suicide and people jumping off of bridges for some reason. I really didn't want to be singing about that, so I scrapped everything except the riff and put it on the backburner.

Six months later, I came back to it and decided to have another crack. Within a few minutes, this negative song about suicide had turned into a super-positive, get-off-your-arse-and-do-what-makes-you-happy-'cause-we-ain't-here-forever song.

Nothing Left To Lose

This song was a lot of fun to record. It's a little bit quirky so we kinda went that way with getting sounds too. There were lots of laughs when we were tracking, especially when we did the percussion parts.

I didn't want to do anything "normal" with it, so I raced out to the kitchen and grabbed the cutlery tray, which came up really well, and for the first time ever I recorded a triangle! #lifegoal

CCTV

This is about a dream I had. I was lost in a busy city and felt so small and insignificant. Everyone was looking at me, the walls were closing in and, everywhere I looked, there was a CCTV camera staring back at me. I tried to recreate the dream and make it sound as creepy and claustrophobic as possible.

Out Of Time

I challenged myself with this one to write a song with no guitars or bass. I sat down at my kids' electric piano and, strangely enough, it started to take shape really quickly. I sent a rough version to Woody, and he was into it.

When we got into the studio, he added some synth sounds that sit under the track and give it a real mood. It's certainly the most "different" track on the EP.

Andy Strachan's Follow The Sun EP is out now. Check it out on iTunes here.