Methyl Ethel continue in a rich vein of form, unveiling their new single and music video for Matters. Matters is whip smart, addictive art-pop and a true dancefloor filler; whether the dancefloor is the club or your kitchen, you won’t stop moving from start to finish.
“I was living in LA while writing this song. After being there a while, I realised that I knew nothing about what to do if there was an earthquake. It occurred to me that there is the ever-present danger lurking beneath your feet. It’s just something you have to learn to live with, this aura of danger. There are fault lines that run through all of us, threatening to open when we least expect. As the world begins to reckon with a certain cracking of the foundations, I thought it would be interesting to explore the frenetic, reactive feeling, of danger,” says Methyl Ethel’s Jake Webb.
Of Matters glitchy music video, Webb explains, “I love how powerful the cameras in our pockets are. It’s amazing how quick on the draw people can be when there is something to document. I guess, everything has value as an image on the internet. I thought it would be interesting if we (the band and I) basically all filmed a video from our perspective.” Watch the video clip for Matters via YouTube below or stream it.
“The song deals with the idea of something catastrophic looming over you. What better way to represent that frenetic, anxious feeling than with shaky phone footage. So, we taped our phones to our chests and shot a video in a cellar in 2 hours. It’s instant and, I think, echoes the reaction a lot of people have to catastrophe, they pull out their phones.”
Director Duncan Wright (Pond, San Cisco) elaborates, “Jake and I were really interested in creating a video clip which felt quite intense and claustrophobic while also pushing the bounds of phone camera technology and live performance video. We filmed in the cellar of a wine-store and taped the band members’ phones to their clothes, recording from their point of view. A lighting crew lit the cellar with harsh pulsing lights which really pushed the cameras video capture capabilities. I then played with various techniques in post-production to distort the image further, creating this complex yet visually intriguing live clip.”
Matters follows on from recent single Neon Cheap, which is approaching one million streams and saw Methyl Ethel sell out multiple headline shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as two additional Sydney shows as part of Vivid Sydney.
Methyl Ethel – the nom de plume of West Australian songwriter, producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jake Webb – makes music that draws from myriad influences and a history of new wave and indie rock, whilst sounding like its own thing entirely. Both familiar and alien, intimate and aloof, you never quite know what you’re in for, but the trip is bound to be enchanting.
Across three albums (2015’s ‘Oh Inhuman Spectacle’, 2017’s ‘Everything Is Forgotten’ and 2019’s ‘Triage’) and three EPs (2014’s ‘Teeth and Guts’, 2020’s ‘Hurts To Laugh’), Webb has proven to be a prolific and masterful purveyor of eccentric alt-pop. Methyl Ethel has attracted two Australian Music Prize nominations, a top 5 Hottest 100 placement with the ARIA Platinum single Ubu, an ARIA Gold single in Twilight Driving and an AIR Best Independent Album award for Everything Is Forgotten.
Over the years, Methyl Ethel has evolved from a solo bedroom recording project into what is now a seven-piece live band, touring extensively at home and abroad. The band has appeared at internationally renowned festivals including CMJ, SXSW, Outside Lands, Strangewaves, Levitation, Green Man, Austin City Limits, Field Day and more. In Australia, they have graced the line ups of Sugar Mountain, Groovin The Moo, Falls Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Yours & Owls, Spilt Milk, A Festival Called PANAMA and Laneway Festival, as well as selling out headline shows at some of Australia’s largest and most prestigious venues.
A series of remixes for Matters will follow in the coming weeks.
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