Melbourne melodic hardcore band Spectral Fires have shared the good news of an EP on the way! They’ve also released first single “Just A Mirage” along with a music video filmed by Cian Marangos. Turn Toward The Sun releases on 7th December, and follows on from their 2016 release Wayfarer. The EP was recorded and produced by Jay Maas and mixed and mastered by Christopher Vernon.
Within a few bars it’s already vibing like signature Spectral Fires, courtesy of Jack Jeffree’s passionate and raw yell tangling up with distant echoing melodic guitar. Both recorded and live, I find Spectral Fires to have an uncontained quality to their expression, and “Just A Mirage” is no exception. Slamming beats and intertwined layers create a sense of tension and frustration, and there’s something satisfyingly nostalgic about the chorus.
While lyrically “Just A Mirage” seemed to relate to a relationship, the music video didn’t seem to correspond to that. Showing interactions between two men at a party, I was wondering how the video married up to what I’d assumed was a romantic connection. Driven by curiosity, I asked the band for some insight.
Vocalist and guitarist Harry Pratt shares that he wrote “Just A Mirage” together with Jack, and aimed to touch on “the disparity that can exist between perception and reality”. Harry shares that the lyrics “speak to the perspective of someone who has reached a point of disconnectedness in a relationship without having noticed along the way that things were breaking down, because, superficially, nothing seems amiss”.
Harry describes the chorus as an extension of this, but is more about the pitfalls of nostalgia; “How we often have a tendency to view the past through rose tinted shades, and give certain times a reverence and aura of glory they might not actually deserve, in a “grass is greener” kind of way.”
By way of the video, Harry offered the insight that the younger man and older man that are present at the party are actually versions of the same guy: “One who’s older and going absolutely berserk at a low-key gathering but having a good time, and one who is younger and is refusing to open himself up to the idea of happiness for its own sake”. As we see in the video, the two clash and there’s a confrontation and realisation, with the young guy only remaining (with the old guy literally ‘just a mirage’), then able to fully enjoy himself.
Connecting the two, Harry shares that “You can end up in a bad place in life despite best laid plans, and longing for times that seem like they were better, but that it’s never too late to change things, and at any rate, things aren’t always as bad as they seem”. Watching Spectral Fires in action (including frontman Jack’s infectious joy) adds to this feelgood happy ending.
It’ll be interesting to see/hear if these ideas of optimism show up in Turn Toward The Sun. The EP can be pre-ordered here: smarturl.it/TTTS-PreOrder. Watch “Just A Mirage” below.
That old guy is so good