As Sydney’s Restless Leg gear up to release their forthcoming album, Dream Buffet, in June, the acclaimed quartet have now offered up the music video for their recently-released new single, “The World’s a Room”.
Having first formed early last decade when former bandmates guitarist/vocalist Ben Chamie (Peabody) and drummer Jared Harrison (Peabody, Infinity Broke, Bluebottle Kiss) found themselves at a “musical loose end”. Before long, the recruiting of Fiona Whalley (The Exile Co.) on bass saw the group rounded out, with a live debut taking place after barely a fortnight of rehearsal.
Since then, the group have shared two stunning albums, including their self-titled 2013 debut, and 2017’s Some Kind of Restless, which brought with it the addition of guitarist Adam Taylor (Sam Shinazzi Band). With slick compositions and down-to-earth lyrics, the group’s summery sound found them gigging relentlessly over the years, forever earning comparisons to the likes of The Clean and The Velvet Underground.
With new single “The Wheel It Turns” arriving in March, and their first album in four years arriving this June, Restless Leg have now offered up both their latest single – “The World’s a Room” – and its accompanying music video.
Featuring production from Bluebottle Kiss’ Jamie Hutchings, it’s a slick, hook-laden jangly piece of classic indie-pop that helps kick off the record. However, while Chamie explains that it might be the first song on the record, it was the last one written, with the track coming together at the height of Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown last year.
“It was probably around the same time that D.C. Cross released his record of classical guitar compositions (Terabithian) of which he said ‘were not at all concerned with the current social state [i.e. the pandemic]. Total escapism through music’,” Chamie explains.
“In stark contrast ‘The World’s A Room’ stares directly into the time-bending tic-toc of lockdown and invites you to dance, by yourself, to some Flying Nun compilation tape you dug out from the early-1990s. It kinda comes at the same problem, but from a different angle.”
In keeping with the monotonous inspiration of the track, the song also comes accompanied by its own Darren Cross-directed music video, with the members of Restless Leg performing the track in isolated quarters, undoubtedly hoping for music to serve as a form of escape.
Restless Leg’s “The World’s a Room” is out now, while new album Dream Buffet will be released on June 11th.
