26. An EP Preview of Voyager EP by Stubai

Originally published August 7th, 2024

About the Artist

Stubai is an Indie-alt rock project joining our wonderful and growing Fifteen Minutes of Fame community from…. The land down under!

That’s right! From Sydney-Eora in Australia, Stubai is Matt, with the help of some of his friends and a drummer he hired out of Philly. Matt says Stubai is “guitar-based Indie rock, dream pop, and shoegaze sounds that draw upon influences including 60’s psychedelic, 70’s punk, 80’s jangle, 90’s grunge, 00’s indie, 10’s folk, and 2020’s legacy retro.” 

Stubai plan on releasing their debut album “We Were Here” in October this year, but to give of a taste of what we should come to expect, they are releasing “The Voyager EP” this Friday, August 9th.

You can follow Stubai on Instagram and Threads and check them out at their website here.

About the Music

“The Voyager EP” is a four song EP with a run time of just over 13 minutes. It features two songs that have already been released as singles to the forthcoming EP, Another Way and Broken Teeth. 

In response to Matt’s description, there is definitely influence from all around when listening to this EP. I definitely hear something to the tune of  The Killers and Mundy, among other influences. 

The Music

Once again, I agree with Matt’s self assessment. I love all of the layered guitars these songs have to offer. Voyager starts with this spacey effect, then comes into layered power chords, full kit, and bass, all led by Matt’s vocals. 

The chorus transitions into a subtle dissonance that is extraordinarily pleasing to the ear. Vocally, Matt’s voice is tenor-to-baritone. He has a pleasantly high register but his “wheelhouse” so to speak, is in the upper baritone area. It is here where his voice truly shines. 

The end of the song features a strong presence with backing vocals as he runs over the chorus one final time.

Another Way, which you can hear on Spotify already, features the full band again. But this time, an acoustic guitar is the foundational instrument, though lost in the layered and melodic sounds of the chorus. 

Even more so than Voyager, Another Way features backing vocals that just fill the room. The end of the song brings in what sounds like a viola? Not sure exactly what instrument it is. It is a great addition though.

Lyrics

Lyrically, Matt has shown us he is just as strong of a writer as he is a composer. In broken teeth, he starts with the lyrics “I can see you and it’s straight through. Every fiber. A nervous thrill.” In this verse, the narrator is lifting the object of his affections onto a pedestal. It seems as if he is speaking of a loved one who either doesn’t know him or is not reciprocating that love.  Perhaps a crush or the one that got away. He goes on the day “Follow you round. Stealth unsound. Peeking out from corners.” As the first and second verses continue on, it is shaping up to be more of a crush who the narrator hasn’t raised the courage to speak to yet.

In the chorus, there is a very interesting technique Matt uses where he seems to build off of one line. “I want you to. I want you to be. Open heart and open mind. Look beyond and see inside. I’ve got plenty more to give. You’ll see it in my eyes,” then goes right back in with “I want you to notice something. I want you to be in love with me.”

Those four passages. “I want you to. I want you to be.” and “I want you to notice something. I want you to be in love with me.” This is fantastic songwriting. It’s almost as if he is building the line throughout the chorus, taking us on the journey of he penmanship. The notion of moving from an ideal in his head to a finished work in one chorus. It was a very creative detail that was really exciting to read. It drew anticipation from analyzing the lyrics and, to pair with the melodic build of the chorus, it was just a great piece of writing.

Final Thoughts

Stubai is a wonderful band and it would be great to see this kind of energy live. I would challenge Matt to get some permanent pieces around him because this is music that could easily blend with much of the sound that is popular in music today. There is something in the water down in Australia. With musicians like The Teskey Brothers, Tones and I, and more coming from Australia and New Zealand, the market for musicians in that region of the world seems to be getting more and more appealing. 

The Voyage EP is out this Friday and looking on to October with great anticipation, “We Were Here” will be the debut album of Stubai. Stubai have shown me they’ve enough sound to fill a room, melody to give depth to their musicality, and a vocal performance that boasts exceptionalism; both melodically and lyrically.

Please visit Stubai, make sure to like and follow his profile pages, and mark your calendars so that you can be the first in line to hear all of their exciting new releases!

Comments

  1. Matt TAugust 7, 2024 at 11:09 PM

    Hi Jeff, thanks for the fantastic write-up! I checked out Mundy and can hear the similarities, will delve into his back catalogue some more. That viola-like instrument on "Another Way" is actually a Chinese erhu (played by Jazreel Luar of Singapore) - it fitted with the theme of the lyrics, which are based on the writings of Taoist philosopher Laozi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeff ThomasAugust 8, 2024 at 10:59 AM

    that is incredible. I almost wrote that it sounded like another Asian-influenced type instrument. That’s also a nice touch. I studied Taoism in college. I can really hear how that applies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt TAugust 31, 2024 at 2:20 AM

    What a coincidence - I also studied Taoism at uni in a Chinese philosophy course

    ReplyDelete

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