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After a year filled with personal hurdles, a smidgen of in-band conflict, a completely re-written album, and a whole bunch of touring, Eyes On Satellites are finally ready to release their newest EP. It’s called The Illuminator, it hits April 6, and it’s a six-track banger filled with such raw post-hardcore emotion and energy, that the only true downside is the fact that it is only six songs deep.
Even with all of the outside forces seemingly working against the Lowell band, the commitment to roll with the punches shows in this effort. And while frontman David Longval Jr. admits that it was a lot of work to pull it off, he, as well as the rest of the band, are more than happy with the final product, as he feels it shows the true artistry the band has been capable of all along.
“After we started writing this record, we had a come-to-Jesus moment where we knew we could do better, so we pretty much scrapped everything and then re-wrote it,” Longval tells Vanyaland. “Once we started to re-write it, we had this concept of how everyone has this spark within them, and how you should be proud to show it, so that’s what The Illuminator is — someone not being afraid of who they are.”
The title track, released in January, represents the light at the end of the tunnel, when you’ve reached that point in life where you realize that you are you. This month’s “She Bends Her Arms To Look Like Wings” provides another intriguing glimpse into the EP.
“When you listen to the album in succession, it really kind of follows a story,” says Longval. “It tells a story of being who you are, and how hard it can be to become that person, which is what you hear in ‘She Bends.’ ‘The Illuminator’ is the part where you start to tell people that you’re comfortable with who you are, and I’m hoping, with the future of this album, that people can think ‘I am The Illuminator,’ because they’re a musician, or a painter, and they can show who they really are.”
As opposed to the title track, “She Bends Her Arms To Look Like Wings” is on the other end of the spectrum, as it seeks to present a visual of coming from a place of struggle and mental degradation while being told what you should become. And while the track isn’t autobiographical per say, as it represents, to a degree, the feelings of the other guys in the band (guitarist/vocalist Will Lopez, guitarist Andrew Webster, and bassist Daniel Matthew). Longval admits he found it easy to write as he shuffled through his own emotions and experiences with that same feeling.
“I wrote ‘She Bends’ in one day, just sitting in front of my computer, because I was just feeling this certain feeling so hard,” he says. “The first line of that song, ‘Let me be, pull me harder ‘til my heart strings break’, is really just a plea for people to let me be me. Let me be who I am, and stop making me feel like I shouldn’t be doing this.”
The Illuminator shows a maturity in the band’s sound, mixing in new elements, while still remaining loyal to the hard-driving guitars, booming rhythm section, and the contrast between Lopez’ vocal intensity and Longval’s gut-wrenching screams that have helped Eyes On Satellites continue their ascent into the stratosphere.
Eyes on Satellites continue to show that their passion isn’t plastic, and that they aren’t only concerned with how their music comes out, but also how it affects their fans on a deeper level. The rest of the album won’t be available in full until next Friday, but fans are in for a treat, as Longval himself admits that the best is yet to come.
Featured photo by Rickelle Taveres.