EP PREMIERE: Normal Heights – ‘The Trees’

The new EP from Melbourne-based folk project Normal Heights, The Trees is “to be enjoyed with your morning coffee, staring out your window”.

The debut effort from the outfit, premiering today via The Music, is officially out tomorrow, October 20.

“Normal Heights is a brand-new conspicuously-named project inspired by my time wandering around, playing shows, and sleeping on couches in Normal Heights, San Diego over the last decade,” Broni Lislé told The Music.

“I’ve had some of my favourite musical experiences there and met some of my favourite people. So when I felt I needed to shed my old, tired and dormant ‘solo’ project in favour of something new, this evolution felt like the obvious choice.

“I’ve spent so many years in many different projects writing songs to meet the expectations of other people (often imaginary). Whether they are expectations on lyrical content, song length, style etc. I even used to structure albums with a quirky song seven based on an old theory my friend Heath had in high school.

“It wasn’t until I was working on While The Bridge Was Still Standing with Kenneth Pattengale in July 2019 and I told him, perhaps ironically, that I was struggling to find the bridge (of the song, not the structure from which I was drawing inspiration) and he said, ‘I’ve written so many bridge-less songs, not every song needs one.’

“I mean, this is simple right, and I knew that. I knew there were a zillion songs I’d loved that had no bridge, but in that moment Kenneth gave me permission to stop trying to meet expectations (my own as well as those of all the imaginary people in my head).

“Over the next few weeks, I wrote the rest of this record with the goal to just allow myself to sing about the stuff I’d avoided singing about for a long time, to let songs finish whenever I felt like it and to put less pressure on myself to strive for structural, lyrical, or sonic perfection. I also stopped singing entirely about my damn self. What a novel idea, telling other stories.

“The result is this quick dip into my head and back out again before you’re finished drinking your morning coffee - because it’s hard enough spending time in your own head, no need to spend too long in mine. In any case, though, I hope you enjoy your time in there, friendo.”

Check out the full EP above.