Welcome to a new era of Trophy Eyes. The Australian rockers are back with what may be their most emotive collection of songs yet in ‘Suicide and Sunshine’. Having arrived as their first album in 5 years, it is a masterful and poetic ode to both life and death.
Largely written about vocalist John Floreani’s experience in losing his best friend to suicide, the record is an emotional journey into the deepest depth’s of the singer’s psyche. Songs like “Sean” and “Life In Slow Motion” are likely to summon tears, while others, such as the slightly more upbeat “What Hurts The Most”, embody the band’s motto of disguising sad songs as happy ones. The record puts Floreani’s impeccable songwriting on full display, and there’s a relatable song in the mix for anyone who’s ever experienced deep loss.
“‘Suicide and Sunshine’ is a telling of my life, however microscopic and insignificant. The good and the bad. Each moment, a flicker of light and sound, lived through me as the man behind the camera. A life, just like yours, marching bravely into every merciless wave of time. Over and over, our shells slowly crumble, until our tiny end. A blip in the never-ending inky deep.”
Trophy Eyes leads a new wave in rock music, blending their punk and hardcore roots with modern rock and pop sensibilities. Hailing from Newcastle, Australia, the 4 piece continue to edge away their own path selling out shows across the globe. Known for their brutally honest and emotional storytelling and lyricism combined with one of the most energetic live shows you can find, Trophy Eyes is set to take over.
Just like the title ‘Suicide and Sunshine’, Trophy Eyes’ fourth album is about contrast. About light and dark, about beauty and tragedy. About the full spectrum of human existence, with each song plucked from the pages of frontman John Floreani’s life.
The singer’s willingness to dive so deeply into the most personal parts of his life is matched by the band’s desire to explore the very boundaries of the hardcore genre, incorporating dark modern pop (“My Inheritance”), electronic flourishes courtesy of co-producer Fletcher Matthews, and atmospheric, swirling synths (“Runaway Come Home” and “Sydney”).
That desire came from a place of desperation. As COVID sent the world into lockdown, the band feared it was all over. “We all thought, let’s make this our last record, put everything we want to say into it, every sound we want to do,” says Floreani.
Somewhere in the process of creating the record, however, it became clear that ‘Suicide and Sunshine’ would not be their final album. Recording in Bangkok with longtime producer Shane Edwards (who also played guitar on the album, alongside Floreani and former six-stringer Andrew Hallett), the group remembered why Trophy Eyes is so special to them.
It’s a fitting sentiment for an album that Trophy Eyes at one point thought would be the last. Instead, it breathed new life into the group, reminding them of their proud past and, crucially, their promising future. “It’s where we are, it’s who we are just doing the stuff we like. It was just the guys getting together and focusing on our relationships, being brothers and being in a band again. And that’s what this record was for Trophy Eyes – a very happy revisiting of why the fuck we’re doing this in the first place.”
‘Suicide and Sunshine’ Tracklisting
1. Sydney
2. Life in Slow Motion
3. People Like You
4. My Inheritance
5. Blue Eyed Boy
6. Runaway, Come Home
7. Burden
8. Sean
9. What Hurts the Most
10. OMW
11. Kill
12. Sweet Soft Sound
13. Stay Here
14. Epilogue
