Perth might just be one of the finest musical cities in Australia right now. One of their current brightest talents is Hector Morlet, a swooning crooner who’s groovy and textured indie pop faintly recalls Unknown Mortal Orchestra.
He released his latest single, “We’re So Tight It Hurts”, last week, a hip slice of sonic sunshine. On his track of the year, the producer and multi-instrumentalist layers slinking vocals over bubbling beats, luring the listener into his wavy world.
And as Morlet told Rolling Stone AU/NZ, there’s great depth to his new single. “Last year I spent at least two months (no exaggeration) trying to work out how to properly record drums,” he said. “This included during my first bout of COVID-19 which was thankfully quite mild.
“By “properly record drums” I mean without too much software funny business, keeping it close enough to what I played in the room. Although I still needed to chop up some bits, I could get close to the sounds I wanted eventually with a couple mics using the Gabriel Roth ‘Shitty Is Pretty‘ method.”
For the woozy bass that permeates the track, he looked to fellow WA outfit Special Feelings (BADBADNOTGOOD and Surprise Chef were also huge influences), while he aimed to use a dominant 5 chord alongside a sharp 9, flat 9 nine leading line.
The lyrics, meanwhile, detail “the uneasy start to the most intimate relationship” of Morlet’s life (not dissimilar to some of UMO’s material). “I wanted to tell the audience about something cheesy and dramatic but I wanted it to be somewhat based on my actual life, so I got thinking,” he recalled. “When my partner first said ‘I love you,’ I didn’t say it back.
“I don’t really know why. I know I felt strongly so I think I’m just a nervous little boy. We never really fixed that one up until recently, so I was thinking about it a lot and I suppose it was meant to fit into this song.”
“We’re So Tight It Hurts” is the follow-up to last year’s well-received Music For Squares EP, a collection of songs that explored similar bedroom pop territory. You can listen to Morlet’s new single – and watch the accompanying music video – below.
Hector Morlet’s “We’re So Tight It Hurts” is out now via AWAL.
