The Electric Eyes are a new band from the East of England and they describe themselves as being psychedelic baroque garage rock, all subgenres of classic rock that I very much love. If it’s late 60s inspired music, I want to hear it, I can’t get enough of it! One of the members of the band, Conor Doyle recently got in touch with me on Instagram to share the group’s debut single, “Dead Butterflies”, which is streaming on Spotify. If you like modern psychedelic rock like Tame Impala, The Crystal Teardrop, The Babe Rainbow, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, and Temples, you’ll love The Electric Eyes’ debut single. He’s also in a group called Dream Collective.
I asked him if he wanted to do an interview and be featured on The Diversity of Classic Rock and he said yes. If you want to learn more about Conor, his musical influences, and journey, keep on reading!
Angie: How did you get into classic rock?
Conor: As is the case for many people, it all started with The Beatles for me! I clearly remember being a kid and the Sgt Pepper cover standing out in my dad’s CD collection. I guess looking back it feels like, when growing up, there was something almost mystical pulling me towards The Beatles without me even making a conscious effort to get in to them, like there was something just so right and comforting about their music. That all became fully realised one night that I remember so clearly; it was 2009 and the 40th anniversary of Abbey Road, the BBC had put on an evening of Beatles programming and I just randomly decided to watch it, as I say, not really having much knowledge of the Beatles story. As the night went on, watching, I just became more and more hooked. I can recall the feeling clearly now – it was so exciting and I remember thinking that these were the four coolest guys to ever exist! That evening immediately ignited a love affair with The Beatles that has lasted just as strongly to this day. I often think what would have happened if I hadn’t put the TV on that night as it’s a night that truly changed my life – it started me down a path that led to learning guitar, writing songs, starting bands and it took me to the place that I’m at today.
Angie: What makes psychedelic rock special to you?
Conor: I think the thing I love the most is just the sonic textures of the music, so that could be guitar tones, keys sounds, backwards guitar, track panning or guitar layering. I also adore how much psychedelic rock as a genre of music can transport you to another place, like I really feel as though it can take you forwards and backwards through time! Then simply, I’m so influenced by the fashion and aesthetics that surround classic psychedelic rock; that plays a huge part in the vibe of The Electric Eyes.
Angie: How did you get started playing music?
Conor: So once I became obsessed with The Beatles I wanted to write and play music like theirs, however that just felt so unobtainable at the time as they seemed almost god-like! That was until I saw the John Lennon film Nowhere Boy in 2010 and I realised that even the great Mr Lennon had to start somewhere!! That was what initially inspired me to stop procrastinating and just get on with learning guitar. So yeah, I bought an electric guitar and started getting basic lessons from my uncle, but I must say I was never really interested in becoming some great guitarist – I just wanted to get good enough to start writing my own songs. Songwriting was what really interested me about music and that’s certainly still the case to this day. The next step was starting a band with school friends (we were an indie band called ‘Midnight Birds’; it was 2011 after all!) and then, yeah, I guess I was off on my journey then!
Angie: How did Dream Collective and The Electric Eyes get started?
Conor: Dream Collective got started in 2019. Two of us are brothers, so that always helps with the introductions! And I’ve known our lead guitarist since school. Throughout different lineup changes we were all in the same band (Midnight Birds, mentioned above) for a few years and we actually just started the project to play some of those old band songs again. After a couple of sessions though we couldn’t help but introduce some newly written tunes to each other, we liked how they were sounding and it went from there really. In terms of The Electric Eyes, this project started a year or so ago. The music that heavily influences The Electric Eyes is the music that I truly love and it just felt like the right time in my life to kinda set off on my own and make that music. I can’t even remember the specific point that I started to write/record for TEE, but it just began as very much a home project and gathered steam from there.
Angie: What is the difference between your work with Dream Collective and The Electric Eyes?
Conor: I think the biggest difference really is that The Electric Eyes is unashamedly influenced by a very specific time period of music, that being late sixties psychedelic/garage rock, whereas Dream Collective has a wider variety of influences – all the way from fifties doo-wop to eighties synth pop and everything in between. Because of this, it’s much easier to come up with the artwork and all the aesthetics surrounding The Electric Eyes. However, both projects very much share the same spirit and ethos of a kind of DIY attitude, and of course an unwavering love for the music we’re creating.
Angie: What was it like recording “Dead Butterflies”?
Conor: It was very challenging! Basically from scratch I had to learn how to record in my home studio set up – hence it taking over a year of this project to produce one song! I self-taught how to record, mix and master, there was a lot of trial and error and there were so many moments when I thought that I wouldn’t be able to reach the point I wanted to. But, because of all this, it made it all the more rewarding to get to the place of releasing “Dead Butterflies”. It was also just so fun and exciting to craft the first Electric Eyes single; to layer each track and feel the song and project come to life was the absolute best!
Angie: What have you been listening to lately?
Conor: I’ve been listening to lots of music related to The Electric Eyes, so 60s Pink Floyd (especially the two songs “Paintbox” and “Julia Dream” – I absolutely love that side of Pink Floyd), Cream, Donovan, the Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request and the late sixties British psychedelic band The End. In terms of new music, I’ve been constantly spinning this year’s records from Wolf Alice (100% my album of the year so far), CMAT and The Crystal Teardrop. The Crystal Teardrop released their debut album this year and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough to fans of 60s garage/psychedelic rock!
Angie: Who are your favourite classic rock (inspired) bands and artists?
Conor: Ahhh, so many! Some of my absolute favourites though are The Beatles (of course!), The Doors, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Scott Walker (he’s a huge influence on some of the melodies and chord changes for The Electric Eyes) and Dylan. Also, Arctic Monkeys are one of my favourite bands and I adore their last two albums, both of which are very 60s/70s influenced.
Angie: Any future plans for your music projects?
Conor: Just to keep going with releasing music with The Electric Eyes for the time-being! I’ve got a nice little backlog of songs written and I’m very excited about the direction that they could go in musically. I’m actually hoping to have the next single out in the next month or two as the last few touches are currently being put to that, and I’d also love to put out an EP within the next year just to have something that’s a singular body of work for The Electric Eyes!
Angie: Any words for your fans?
Conor: Just thank you honestly! The reaction to “Dead Butterflies” has been so much more than I could’ve expected and it’s been really gratifying to see. So yeah, stay along for the journey as there’s more to come, keep being cool and keep the good vibes going!!
You can follow The Electric Eyes on Instagram.
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