You'll want to stay forever on the sublime upcoming second album from Newcastle's Eat Your Heart Out, with Can't Stay Forever officially out next Friday 9 September via Fearless Records.
Equally a coming-of-age odyssey as well as a sharp new sonic chapter for the band, Can't Stay Forever welds balanced elements of emo, pop and hard-hitting instrumentals, with plenty of melodics and raw emotives ready to pounce throughout the album's 11 tracks.
Showcasing Eat Your Heart Out at their most assured and commanding to date, Can't Stay Forever is equally a snapshot of the band's significant development as musicians and humans in general, with the band turning to new creative influences and branching beyond their comfort zone without sacrificing their trademark moments of buoyancy and chant-ready choruses. And with one week to go until the release of their sophomore album, EYHO vocalist Caitlin Henry is unveiling some behind the scenes secrets for Can't Stay Forever. From wholesome sleepover recording vibes to filming three videos in one week, read on below to tide you over until this kick-ass album drops into the world!
SCHOOL CAMP RECORDING VIBES
Can’t Stay Forever recorded out in a studio that is essentially somebody's shed converted into an Airbnb-style studio out in the Hunter Valley, we hired it out and we pretty much lived in there for five weeks. All of the guys slept in this one little room with like four or five little camp beds in there. It was like school camp, sleepover vibes, it was pretty cute!
We would play Crash Team Racing every single night after we clocked off, it would be the wind down, which was really fun…but it got really competitive. Me and Jack Newlyn who produced the record, we really got very into it, there were definitely a lot of insults thrown around during that. We were both on the same page though, you know, what is said in Crash Team Racing, stays in Crash Team Racing, that’s the rule.
IN-HOUSE ALBUM COVER
The album cover up was made by our bassist Dom Cant and his partner, Jackie, who's a designer. They created it, which was really cool to have that done within the team and not have it outsourced. It's the image of somebody running towards an exit sign, it's kind of like the idea of moving from one space into another. Dom and Jackie did such an awesome job, just the whole aesthetic of it turned out really, really cool. And it made it special that it was made in-house, not just some random person that's like: okay, here's the picture. And I love the colors, it’s so eye-catching and really, really cool.
EAT YOUR HEART OUT ON TAPE
One of the physical items that we've done for the record, we’ve obviously done the normal CD and vinyl, but we've also done a cassette this time as well, which is really cool. I feel like it’d fitting because a lot of people always say our music has a nostalgic kind of edge to it. I think having Can’t Stay Forever on that cassette is really cool because it's that throwback and aligns with our whole “nostalgic” vibe. I've actually ordered myself one and I'm excited for it to arrive! I don't have a cassette player though. I realise that’s a problem, but it’ll be fine (laughs).
REMOTE DIRECTION
We’ve released three music videos so far for the record, we’ve had Down, Sour and Twenty Something. And we actually filmed them all in the same week, we basically just did one week where we filmed them all. Kieran from Crystal Arrow who does all of our videos was meant to fly in from Adelaide to Newcastle to film them all…but he got COVID literally the day before the shoots were supposed to start - and we were going to Europe the next week, so we were already on a really tight deadline. So, he actually ended up…I don’t know how he did it, but he managed to wrangle a couple of different videographers to come in and actually shoot on the ground, and he was directed them over FaceTime, which was wild! I honestly don't know how he did it, but he did it and it all turned out really well! With music videos, I don't know anything about the actual filming process or anything like that, I wish I did, but I just leave it up to the professionals, and Kieran in particular. We just show up and do our bit, but I honestly couldn't believe how quickly he wrangled this plan B like, honestly biggest props to Kieran. This is why we always go back to him because he just gets stuff done. And, he's a phenomenal filmmaker. That was a bit of a stressful week, probably more so on his end. But yeah, it was pretty funny at times too, just him kind of lying in bed FaceTiming with the videographers just to make sure the shots were all what he wanted. That was an experience for sure.
EXTERNAL INFLUENCES & DEMO VOCALS
I was definitely listening to a lot of different stuff at the time when we were writing Can’t Stay Forever. I know a lot of the press releases have covered some of that where I'd mentioned some of the old emo sort of stuff that I always go back to, like Jimmy Eat World and stuff like that. But I was also really into KennyHoopla when we were writing. You can't really hear it in the end product, I don't think, but when Hostage was being written, KennyHoopla was kind of like the main reference that I'd initially mentioned. And Poison Devotion was actually inspired by 20 seconds : 20 hours by Vein, which is really kind of random, and again, not something that I necessarily think you would pick up from the end. But I really love that song, and I wanted a song that had this feeling on the record.
And Poison Devotion actually came together pretty interestingly. When I’d said I wanted a song like 20 seconds : 20 hours, with that kind of vibe...our drummer Jake Cronin had made this drum loop on Logic, and it had nothing else on it. It just sat in the Dropbox for a while, and then one day our guitarist Will Moore was playing this little thing on the guitar. And I was like - wait a minute, hold that thought, I think this would work perfectly with that drum loop! So we played the guitar over the drums, and it just fit perfectly! Then I tracked these demo vocals for it, I was literally just lying in my bed while I was in lockdown, and I tracked the vocals and sent it to Jack who produced the record. And he was like: this is really cool! Once we got into the studio and started building it, a lot more production and stuff was added, and we actually went to re-track the vocals, and I just couldn’t get the same feeling as the initial vocals. So, the vocals that you hear on the album are actually the demo vocals that I tracked in my bed. It was weird, It was the first time I’d ever had a one take kind of thing. Nailing a vocal first time never happens to me! But I’m glad it did this time round!
EAT YOUR HEART OUT'S BRAND NEW ALBUM CAN'T STAY FOREVER DROPS NEXT FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER VIA FEARLESS RECORDS. FOR MORE INFO, HEAD HERE.
CAN'T STAY FOREVER TRACKLIST:
Forget Me
Down
Scissors In My Skin
Twenty Something
Heavenly
Hostage
Blood
Sour
Poison Devotion
Deep End
Headfirst
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BY TIANA SPETER