Recording your sophomore album can be an intense experience, what with all the pressure to match past success and deadlines looming. Having to do it in the middle of a natural disaster certainly doesn’t make things easier, but that’s exactly the story of Norwegian psych rock outfit Electric Eye’s latest album. Earlier this year, the band members were holed up in Broen Studio to begin work on the follow-up to their 2013 debut record, Pick-Up, Lift-Off, Space, Time, right as a hurricane began raging across Norway.
Despite the studio walls shaking under the onslaught of thunder, lightning, and gusts of wind, the band stayed plugged in. They embraced nature’s manic energy and channeled it into their upcoming record, Different Sun, out February 5th on Jansen Plateproduksjon. Contrary to the tumultuous weather that circled around the record, their latest single, “Bless”, has far sunnier, drier origins.
“I was traveling around the deserts of the southwestern part of the US last year,” frontman Øystein Braut tells Consequence of Sound. “Even though this track was recorded in Bergen on the west coast of Norway, known for its intense rain all year through, ‘Bless’ is all about capturing the desert vibes that we drove through in our ’72 Buick Skylark muscle car; dust, heat and straight roads that go on further than the eye can see.”
The feverish vibe he describes is immediately apparent on the track. The shuffling drums and atmospheric guitar noodling at the beginning steam like heat rising off the pavement or the last drop of water evaporating out of a canteen. Braut’s vocals feel like a distant mirage, beckoning the listener from far away. Even as the guitar lines get heavier throughout, they never lose that sense of heat and desperation. The accompanying video only adds to the effect, featuring psychedelic images of barren landscapes and sparse highways.
“[With] the video we wanted to add to the dark, spooky, psychedelic desert-vibe of the song,” Braut explains. “It’s part abstract, but still there’s some recognizable elements in there. The song also stay true to the musical aesthetics of the last album and at the same time give hints of what to come.”
Watch the video below.
