RINSE released his new EP STARFISH* yesterday, and one of the record’s highlights, “Breathe”, is on constant repeat.
The rising Melbourne-based dream-pop artist collaborated with Grammy-nominated producer Jorge Elbrecht, who’s known for his work with artists like Sky Ferreira and Japanese Breakfast, for the track, which also features drums performed by Beach House’s James Barone.
But despite the obvious quality of “Breathe”, the track sat in his vault for years.
“‘Breathe’ was maybe the first RINSE song I ever wrote, but I felt a bit disconnected to it at the time”, he reveals. “It ended up sitting in a folder gathering dust for many years. After rediscovering it, I spent a couple of weeks refreshing all the parts and fell back in love with it in the process. This experience reminded me that sometimes songs aren’t always meant for the moment they are written, and the time will come when they resonate with a future self better than ever.”
Elsewhere on the EP, RINSE explores themes of self-reflection, growth, and lost love, traversing ’90s-indebted shoegaze and swooning dream-pop.
“Creating music for me has always been an incredibly visual thing,” he says. “I feel like when I’m onto a good idea or song it’s because I can imagine the picture it’s existing inside of and it just writes itself.”
RINSE is the solo project of Joe Agius, who has been in the music industry for a while, making a name for himself as a co-writer, performer, and producer for Hatchie.
His previous EPs as RINSE, Sinker and Wherever I Am, were released to good reception, but STARFISH* may just bring in the additional appreciation that the RINSE project thoroughly deserves.
Following the release of STARFISH*, RINSE will celebrate his EP with launch shows at Sydney’s Oxford Art Factory and Melbourne’s Bergy Bandroom in August. The Sydney show is free to attend, while tickets to the Melbourne show can be found here.
RINSE’s STARFISH* EP is out now via COHORT.
