Wisconsin bedroom pop artist Kyle Andrews has made a name via his videos, which have included mass participant water fights and cameras launched into the stratosphere on weather balloons (winning awards from the Guggenheim in the process). But as recent single ‘Old Fashioned’ showed, it is always the songwriting which comes first. “The song lands on the reflective, wistful end of Kyle Andrews’s pop-inflected folk style,” as we wrote earlier this month, “though is shot through with the kind of authenticity and warmth which has come to mark his every release.”
With new album, The Whims of a Manic Moon, on the horizon, Andrew has returned with brand new single ‘Unfocus Your Eyes’. Unfurling with an easy melody and effortless energy, it explores the strange internal rhythms of the creative process, asking why it is that creative blocks can sometimes be hurdled when you zone out and forget about the details. An ethos which happens to have an important role in the record’s origin story. “‘Unfocus Your Eyes’ informed me how I could write the rest of the album,” Andrews explains. “If I attempted to steer or direct, no words would come. If I focused too hard on my immediate desire, it would not come. If I kept my mind quiet, chords and lyrics flowed easily. This meditative place reminded me of those “magic eye” images where you unfocus your eyes to see a 3D image.”
You make it look easy
Unfocus your eyes
Follow your heart
Unfocus your eyes
Watch the surreal video filmed by John Andrews and Kyle Andrews below:
‘Unfocus Your Eyes’ is out now via streaming services. The Whims of a Manic Moon is slated for release next month, so keep your eyes peeled to social channels for more information.