One of Perth’s most exciting musical exports, Alter Boy is gearing up for the release of their debut album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore.
Following the reveal of opening singles Don’t Hurt Me (I Used To Be A Baby) and Portrait of God, their latest offering Prepare The Moon is a love song dedicated to its author, Alter Boy singer Molly Priest, from the imagined perspective of an ex-lover.
“I spent many years writing love songs and preparing gifts and accolades for entitled and arrogant men, so I wanted to write a love song for the self I was at that time,” Molly says.
“To recall myself from the perspective of the person receiving me, naïve and pining, fresh off god and searching for a surrogate.
“I think the person who is infatuated and desperate to please is degraded for building that kind of attachment, but this song is like ‘hey you thought you were entitled to it, this is embarrassing for you'”.
Molly goes on to share the band’s shared vision for creating pop music in the 21st century.
“Different frequencies of sound induce different states in people,” Molly says.
“There’s a lot of frequencies we can’t hear, but that doesn’t mean the silence doesn’t affect your reality. I like that we’re seen as accessible, that people think we play pop music, because we do.
“We also play music that aims to help people step outside their subjective reality and see the world differently.”
Looking to the album itself, Molly explains the album is guided by four movements of US psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom’s existential fears – freedom, death, isolation, meaninglessness.
“Understanding narcissism changes my understanding of life,” Molly continues.
“The process of writing the album helped me to deprogram the parts of myself that had learned to outsource reality and seek out a God-figure to worship.
“I was suddenly living in a completely different world and this led me to a fascination with consciousness. The album is an attempt at purging old stories with this impossible desire to see it all with clean eyes.”
Life Finds A Way has received massive support, recently earning triple j Unearthed’s Track of the Day.
The accompanying Auslan music video showcases the way Alter Boy not only incorporates Auslan into their music, but celebrates Auslan as an integral part of their artistry.
I Don’t Live Here Anymore will be out on Friday, 6 September.
Image: Treh Ivory
