Music / Features
Track by Track:
FeelsClub - After The Fall
FeelsClub - After The Fall
Before they jet off on a run of shows across the east-coast, we got in touch with Brisbane synth-pop group FeelsClub, to dig into the charismatic "trash-pop" that makes up their debut EP After The Fall.
Having originally formed in 2016, FeelsClub’s debut EP has been a long time coming for the group, finally emerging following a handful of well-received singles over the past few years. Steering away from the sunny pop sounds heard on these previous releases, After The Fall finds the band heading in a new direction, as they begin exploring the concept of the “suburban cult”.
According to FeelsClub, the “suburban cult” refers to the modern expectations of society, that focus on the supposed shortcomings of many while only benefiting a few. Tying this concept with their emerging new genre of “trash-pop”, After The Fall combines raw, unapologetic emotion with infectious instrumentation, made up with uplifting synth sounds, intricate guitar-work and catchy beats.
Immediately showing their transition into their unique “trash-pop” sound, After The Fall opens with ‘So Done’, with its dreamy synths and striking hooks, while frontman St Johnnie’s lyrics revolve around relationships ending and the need for moving on. Next up is ‘Forbidden Fruit’, with its pulsing backbeat and waves of dense synths and ‘Magic’ gets us moving with its fast-paced groove and plenty of cowbell, the themes of the EP beginning to reveal themselves. ‘Excuses’ slows things down as St Johnnie tackles classism and inclusivity, set to a backdrop muted keys and emotive vocals, before After The Fall sends us out on an uplighting note, with its euphoric melody, sweeping synths and pounding grooves.
To find out more about the new EP, St Johnnie has taken us through each moment on After The Fall track by track.
According to FeelsClub, the “suburban cult” refers to the modern expectations of society, that focus on the supposed shortcomings of many while only benefiting a few. Tying this concept with their emerging new genre of “trash-pop”, After The Fall combines raw, unapologetic emotion with infectious instrumentation, made up with uplifting synth sounds, intricate guitar-work and catchy beats.
Immediately showing their transition into their unique “trash-pop” sound, After The Fall opens with ‘So Done’, with its dreamy synths and striking hooks, while frontman St Johnnie’s lyrics revolve around relationships ending and the need for moving on. Next up is ‘Forbidden Fruit’, with its pulsing backbeat and waves of dense synths and ‘Magic’ gets us moving with its fast-paced groove and plenty of cowbell, the themes of the EP beginning to reveal themselves. ‘Excuses’ slows things down as St Johnnie tackles classism and inclusivity, set to a backdrop muted keys and emotive vocals, before After The Fall sends us out on an uplighting note, with its euphoric melody, sweeping synths and pounding grooves.
To find out more about the new EP, St Johnnie has taken us through each moment on After The Fall track by track.
So Done
Live in the revelry of how unfair existence is until you have had enough. Then take a deep breath and keep going. It’s simply not enough to be done with life and expect it should change due to your lack of comfort. Be done with it and then move on to something else.
Live in the revelry of how unfair existence is until you have had enough. Then take a deep breath and keep going. It’s simply not enough to be done with life and expect it should change due to your lack of comfort. Be done with it and then move on to something else.
Forbidden Fruit
Be who you wanna be. Don't deny yourself the truth of who you are inside. It will only cause pain and suffering for yourself, and those who come after you. Own your decisions and come to terms with being the truest version of yourself while maintaining respect for others, even those you cannot see eye to eye with.
Magic
The pressure and inevitable heatdeath of using sex to define your personality or to sustain a relationship.
Excuses
You know that post coital bliss you get after making love with an acid trip where you want to just change the whole world for the better? Yeah but then you have a nap and cool off only to wake up to find yourself using plastic straws and showering for 30 mins. Well yeah it’s about that. It's a piss take to the middle class who get in a group and hype up all these ways to save the world, but turn their nose up at the kid at the train station with a bum bag and nikes on and act like the "druggos" from the bad neighbourhood are poor because they didn't "try hard enough". SERIOUSLY FUCK THOSE ASPIRATION CLASS FUCKS. Saving the world means saving everybody, even people you don’t like.
Be who you wanna be. Don't deny yourself the truth of who you are inside. It will only cause pain and suffering for yourself, and those who come after you. Own your decisions and come to terms with being the truest version of yourself while maintaining respect for others, even those you cannot see eye to eye with.
Magic
The pressure and inevitable heatdeath of using sex to define your personality or to sustain a relationship.
Excuses
You know that post coital bliss you get after making love with an acid trip where you want to just change the whole world for the better? Yeah but then you have a nap and cool off only to wake up to find yourself using plastic straws and showering for 30 mins. Well yeah it’s about that. It's a piss take to the middle class who get in a group and hype up all these ways to save the world, but turn their nose up at the kid at the train station with a bum bag and nikes on and act like the "druggos" from the bad neighbourhood are poor because they didn't "try hard enough". SERIOUSLY FUCK THOSE ASPIRATION CLASS FUCKS. Saving the world means saving everybody, even people you don’t like.
After the Fall
This song was inspired by a breakup a member in the band had. I remembered them talking about how down they were about the shitty behaviour their ex kept winding on with, and how they just kept blaming themselves for it. So I asked them what music they had been working on and they gave me these 16 bars that was this useable verse bridge chorus structure. I could just hear the heartbreak in the instrumentation, and then when I started rearranging it and adding lyrics and other elements I wanted to really try and come from the same place that the song had started in, but not having been through a breakup recently I was finding it hard to be truthful and not cheesy. Then I realised the melancholy wasn't coming from the loss of a person they clearly now disliked, it was from this feeling of guilt and blame despite doing all the right and kind things to end it and it still being horribly blamed on them.
So I broke that down and felt I could relate it to that emotional situation you end up in when you have tried your best to make something you care about work, and it all just fails and you can't help but kick and scream internally. In those cases you are both people in the break up, but internally, as you try to assess what is the best next step all the while holding blame and hate for what you had done to cause this failure. Mental health is a bitch but it matters to be kind to yourself and understand emotions aren't the outcome, just the signal to what has happened in order to decide where to go next.
This song was inspired by a breakup a member in the band had. I remembered them talking about how down they were about the shitty behaviour their ex kept winding on with, and how they just kept blaming themselves for it. So I asked them what music they had been working on and they gave me these 16 bars that was this useable verse bridge chorus structure. I could just hear the heartbreak in the instrumentation, and then when I started rearranging it and adding lyrics and other elements I wanted to really try and come from the same place that the song had started in, but not having been through a breakup recently I was finding it hard to be truthful and not cheesy. Then I realised the melancholy wasn't coming from the loss of a person they clearly now disliked, it was from this feeling of guilt and blame despite doing all the right and kind things to end it and it still being horribly blamed on them.
So I broke that down and felt I could relate it to that emotional situation you end up in when you have tried your best to make something you care about work, and it all just fails and you can't help but kick and scream internally. In those cases you are both people in the break up, but internally, as you try to assess what is the best next step all the while holding blame and hate for what you had done to cause this failure. Mental health is a bitch but it matters to be kind to yourself and understand emotions aren't the outcome, just the signal to what has happened in order to decide where to go next.
Have a listen to After The Fall above, and catch FeelsClub on the road over the next few weeks as they take their show across the east-coast of Australia.
