Birmingham psych-rockers Solar Eyes share scorching new single, ‘Set The Night On Fire’, the latest taste of forthcoming album, Live Freaky! Die Freaky!.
The track is a stomping, high-energy affair, the single burns with oomph, vigor and power. “I wrote this in a field in Havant, on my own after needing to escape the city and its demons for a few days, with nothing but an old guitar,” recalls vocalist/guitarist Glenn Smyth. “It’s all about the devils’ temptations and the desires to cause carnage. Mainly to myself. Very much a dark song but in a major key. So, it gives it that upbeat feel. I think they call it a banger!”
‘Live Freaky! Die Freaky! is the second album from the duo of Smyth and drummer Sebastian Maynard Francis. Due for release September 26 via Fierce Panda Records, it follows on from their critically acclaimed self-titled 2024 debut.
Listen to ‘Set The Night On Fire’ on the Birmingham City Fan playlist.
Recorded at Courtyard Studio in Oxfordshire (home of Radiohead, Supergrass and Band of Skulls over the years), the album was co-produced by Ian Davenport and mixed by long term collaborator Jeff Knowler. Live Freaky! Die Freaky! was first conceived with the track ‘I See the Sun’ in 2021. Jeff had heard the rough demo of the said track and thought it sounded like it should be on a Tarantino film. He suggested Glenn go watch ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ – which set the frontman on a journey to get to know more about the infamous Manson Family.
After reading the book ‘Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties’, which refers to the covert CIA program Operation CHAOS and investigates the background and motives for the Tate-LaBianca murders committed by the Manson Family in 1969, Glenn then fictionalised/visualised himself as a member of ‘The Family’ – who manages to escape before the murders. So that’s him, driving off into the sunset, on penultimate track ‘An Eagle Flies Alone’.
When coming to choose the title of the album, in a bizarre coincidence Glenn had written down several titles over the years from various sources. He liked the look of Live Freaky! Die Freaky! and after a google, realised it was the title of a film about Charles Manson – starring Billie Joe Armstrong.
The end result sees Brummies Solar Eyes take the Spaghetti Junction Western vibes of their debut and add in darker, broader, bleaker shades of ragged glory. Smyth himself uses words like ‘sinister’, ‘brutal’ and ‘vicious’ to describe the lyrical themes, for this is an album about heroes lost in battle, an album which squints at the dark side of the West Coast sun, an album influenced by The Doors, The Stooges, BRMC, Ennio Morricone, The Velvet Underground and even a touch of Charlie Manson himself on closer ‘Hello Charlie’.
