The Median Man spoke with Made of Eyes about all things music.
The Median Man spoke with Made of Eyes about all things music.
EMOTIONAL FEEL
What inspired the name of the band and what are your influences?
I think (like all band names) there’s such a worry in getting that perfect one. loads of different ones are tried out to see what sticks. To be honest… it was only until ‘Made Of Eyes’ got a chance to be tried out—was when the name ended up having more of a meaning for us, (hearing from others) about how it gives off an emotional feel towards things. Giving imagery towards the likes of a relationship, or as an individual—being that person in life that worries about anything and everything (having that worry of the world watching & waiting for you to make a mistake) just humanised so much for us. It actually inspired us to write our songs in a certain way about our own personal worries—in the hopes that it helps a person out in their situation.
We really have such a wide range (when it comes to influences). In some cases—it’s easy to say our obvious ones would be from the 2000s pop rock era, but there are definitely bits of inspiration and sounds—being so unusual (in connection with our band), that inspires—from the smallest (to the biggest) of decisions in our music. For example… there is a song (to be released after ‘Honesty’) that just would not have existed if it weren’t for The Weeknds ‘Trilogy’ album and Childish Gambinos ‘Because The Internet’ Album. Just having such a love for those, really set inspiring things in motion for that song to come. Not to mention more artists like that—affecting us as a whole, artists who have stopped and changed the direction of chart music: The 1975 and Billie Eilish to add to that list, influencing a whole movement in the music industry that people/artist/labels will be following behind for the years to come.
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
We all have a hand in the writing and interestingly it can sometimes range from things such as: pitching each other lyrics/melodies/recorded demo sessions, and we’ll all work off of what’s being pitched and each other when we can. Other times—it can be whole songs, already there (musically/lyrically) and conceptualised, and (because we all have an individual style of writing) we’ll come away with such a wide variety of songs which is really refreshing for us and changes things up from time-to-time. We’ve been experimenting far more now that we’ve got a handful of singles under our belts, with a little more unusual tracks—it has really given us a bit more freedom to try things that are a bit more risky sounding.
CONCEPTUALISED
CONCEPTUALISED
How do you approach songwriting? Are there any themes that you are keen to explore when you start off?
We all have a hand in the writing and interestingly it can sometimes range from things such as: pitching each other lyrics/melodies/recorded demo sessions, and we’ll all work off of what’s being pitched and each other when we can. Other times—it can be whole songs, already there (musically/lyrically) and conceptualised, and (because we all have an individual style of writing) we’ll come away with such a wide variety of songs which is really refreshing for us and changes things up from time-to-time. We’ve been experimenting far more now that we’ve got a handful of singles under our belts, with a little more unusual tracks—it has really given us a bit more freedom to try things that are a bit more risky sounding.
CONSENSUS
Why do you write the sort of music that you do?
We’ve got this consensus which is “If something can at least be said through music, it deserves to be speaking volumes for the one listening”. With the level of uncertainty and divisiveness out there—we want to raise awareness where we can, aiming to highlight issues that affect many people and ourselves. Having this sudden need to write about scenarios that can tell our own struggles as individuals and hoping it helps tell a story for people in their own lives.
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We adapt as many as we can, although we do have some “album-like/EP interluded” songs being worked on at the moment… but so far—it’s been all of them. The way we’ve been treating our song writing is “song (on-track) comes 1st—live comes 2nd”. it’s made for some really interesting tracks that we just simply would not have made being cooped up in a rehearsal space going round in circles and limiting ourselves to what we’ve got in front of us. It’s a much more refreshing take on translating it to live as well. Gives the audience a far greater reason to come see us live and hear these tracks in a new light.
ADAPT
ADAPT
How do you decide what songs to perform live and how do you transpose them into that live setting?
We adapt as many as we can, although we do have some “album-like/EP interluded” songs being worked on at the moment… but so far—it’s been all of them. The way we’ve been treating our song writing is “song (on-track) comes 1st—live comes 2nd”. it’s made for some really interesting tracks that we just simply would not have made being cooped up in a rehearsal space going round in circles and limiting ourselves to what we’ve got in front of us. It’s a much more refreshing take on translating it to live as well. Gives the audience a far greater reason to come see us live and hear these tracks in a new light.
WHAT WORKS
HONESTY
What plans do you have for the future?
April 2019 was great for us so it’s only right that we release Honesty in April 2020. Easily being our best written work so far. A relationship has its struggle—it’s never a perfect thing, think that’s what this track shows. Not being forthright and judging each other for actions, even though—what we’re doing is just as bad. there’s such a vulnerability to that and the hardest thing in anything is showing that to the people around you.
We currently have more songs than we know what to do with, releasing ‘Honesty’ and also another single (that we can’t go too much into at the moment) is our main objective. We are also going back into the studio in a few months time to record two more songs, we hope to get our first two music videos for these new tracks and look back to our current demos for a possible (Part 1 & 2) EP.