When he’s not onstage drumming in bands Anti-Violet and Tina Growls, you might find Lewellyn Irving performing around town under his own name, with just a guitar and his voice. However, with the release of his debut EP, he quickly makes it clear that he’s not to be considered as just another singer-songwriter playing straightforward solo songs.

I’d Rather Not kicks off with ‘Empty', which opens unassumingly with some acoustic chords, before bursting open with layers of blown-out guitars and a driving rhythm section. Across the track’s four minutes, it constantly shifts unexpectedly in tempo and feel, but plays as an impressive introduction to Lewellyn’s crafty songwriting ability and distinctive bluesy vocals. Next up is the woozy ‘Insane', which begins with shimmery guitar chords over a drum machine beat, before eventually opening up into a cruisey cut of bedroom psychedelia, full with blissful guitars, wandering bass lines and a tasty slow-jam groove.

Lewellyn shifts things again with ‘Sometimes', perhaps the darkest moment of I’d Rather Not. Opening with the murky combination of metallic guitars and sinister organs, with Lewellyn’s voice off in the distance, the track expands into a swampy garage tune that wouldn’t feel amiss in a Quentin Tarantino film. Finally, the EP closes with the brooding ‘5am', which sees Lewellyn strip things back to voice and acoustic guitar but shows off Lewellyn’s poignant songwriting style one last time.

Full with enough twists and turns across the tracks to keep the listener constantly digging deeper, I’d Rather Not is a really masterful debut release and showcases a songwriter who is well on the way of forging his own path. To celebrate the new EP, we had a chat with Lewellyn to find out all about it.

TJ: Hey Lewellyn, wanna tell us a bit about yourself?

LI: Well I'm a (just) 25 year old musician that grew up in North East Melbourne around Eltham and Greensborough and currently living in Windsor. I play drums in two bands Anti-Violet and Tina Growls. I'm not that exciting otherwise haha, I really enjoy reading on the tram on the way to work in the morning, and I mostly go out only to play gigs and quite enjoy staying at home with my cat and/or girlfriend.

You’ve just dropped your debut EP, what’s the story behind I’d Rather Not?

I started to learn guitar slowly over the past few years after playing drums for so many years exclusively. I was itching to expand my musical capability and really begin to understand songwriting from a melodic perspective. So funnily, as I was beginning to study a Bachelor in Music Performance in about 2015-16, I would stay home more and more to play guitar and practice my songwriting. Over time as I felt more confident with the things I wrote I began thinking about having something recorded. This EP is the end result of that experience.

You drum in Anti-Violet and the EP songs are a little darker and moodier than your stuff with that band - what influenced these tracks?

I was coming out of a fairly turbulent time in my life dealing with the stresses of inter-personal relationships and finding meaning to our modern times. I was struggling with an emotional hangover where I was unsure if what I was doing with my life was the right thing, and really if what I thought I had come to understand about the world was real, or at least reasonable.

You also played everything on the EP, what was recording the tracks like?

Well nearly “everything" haha. On the most part yes, I recorded the guitars, drums and vocals (with Darcy, the singer in my other band Tina Growls giving some backup on the chorus of ‘Sometimes’). We had done some simple recordings earlier before starting on the final recording and since we did those I bought a 12 string Danelectro electric guitar and wanted to use it for my songs and live. I did one show at the end of last year and it was killer on the hands, especially since I'm fairly new on guitar. So as we began doing all the main guitar tracks over multiple takes it became a bit of a game of stamina.

All the songs started with the progressions and melodies I had written, just on guitar, it wasn't until Ashlin and I sat down and talked about recording them that we formulated having the songs with more instruments. So when we began I found it easy to know how I wanted the drums to sound and to record them, however Ashlin helped a great amount with some of the bass lines and more interesting production additions.

We usually ask the artist what they’ve got planned for the next few months in this interviews, but I just heard it was your birthday this weekend - much happen?

Well Common Cult's birthday event is coming up on the 26th of July which is when I'll be playing next, as well as with Anti-Violet and Tina Growls, so I'll be a triple threat that night. Otherwise the two bands are playing various gigs in the next few months so check out our Facebook pages for our next dates!

My birthday? Not much to be honest haha. I turned 25, which some think is a milestone? I don't tend to like to make too much of it, just spent the afternoon with friends at the pub or a bar.