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New Zealand-based Lunavela—aka, singer, songwriter Steve Mathieson, former frontman of critically acclaimed NZ band Collapsing Cities, has just released Six-Out-Of-Ten Friend.
The new track also features drummer Alistair Deverick (Boycrush) and bassist Hannan Carter (Steriogram, NO), and comes ahead of the forthcoming album, Imposter Syndrome.
This radiant indie-pop track subverts an 80s post-punk aesthetic to create an alluring sonic landscape replete with wry lyrics, a healthy dose of irony and relatable observations around awkward social encounters. As Steve says of the new release, ‘Six-Out-Of-Ten Friend is not a misanthropic song. It’s more a celebration of setting better boundaries with people who don’t get you and laughing about social awkwardness, celebrating that awkward conversation of small talk in the pet food aisle of Tesco with an ex-work colleague or an ex-girlfriend’s husband. This is my idea of a pop song’. Lunavela’s new track utilises two distinct rhythmic features—a rolling drum groove in the verses, a more straight-ahead feel in the chorus—to underscore a series of strong melodic phrases wedded to a sharp-eyed lyric. The subject matter of Six-Out-Of-Ten Friend plays as equally an important role as the music, the style of presenting that concept, even more so. As Steve has said about the origins of his creative focus, ‘I grew up listening to Britpop, guitar music with universal themes, stories, songs about sexuality, interactions with people, subtext stuff that you think but don’t say, relatable singalong guitar pop.’ From the evocative distant guitar jangles to Steve’s restrained vocal performance, Six-Out-Of-Ten Friend is a finely rendered balance between sparkling alternative pop and mischievous emotional intelligence. As Steve says about his creative process, ‘My M.O. with songwriting on this project is to make you feel something in some form whether that makes you smile, laugh, cry, sing along, resent me, whatever.’ Six-Out-Of-Ten Friend captures a little of all these qualities: a condensed and truly noteworthy contemporary indie-pop experience.
