"Am I too late to get on the train / become someone new again?"
Singer-songwriter Steven Viney’s airy voice is accompanied by sparse piano, plucked bass and haunting strings. The melody circles like an artist pacing back and forth, waiting for inspiration – tilted, pensive, staggering.
For Viney, Hello Image serves as a place where he can channel his poetry work into song. Traversing genres with ease, the project is experimental and undefinable, bringing on a rotating cast of characters depending on what the moment needs.
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Started a decade ago when Viney was living in Cairo, Egypt, the project is an auditory melting pot, offering new sounds and aesthetics at every turn. Aside from Viney’s signature insightful lyricism and saturnine sonic palette, each release is worlds away from the next.
Take 2021’s DOTS (Don’t Over Think Shit). Written and recorded by Viney, the four-track EP is a dark electronic romp full of eerie pitched-up vocals and danceable synth lines. The newest single, Parabens, is folky and raw – more Leonard Cohen than Crystal Castles.
Released in early November this year, Parabens is an adaptation of a poem of the same name, included in Steven Viney’s latest poetry collection Tell Me How You Really Feel. Parabens comes as the lead single of a yet-to-be-named EP featuring songs Viney has been performing across Melbourne for the past year.
With cover artwork by New York-based photographer Liz De Sousa, mixing and mastering done by Sterling Sound and backing vocals by Viney’s wife Nicole Music, the track is a meandering jaunt through the mind of the artist himself; an introspective look at themes of joy and perception in the modern day.
To keep up with the latest from Hello Image, head here or follow him on Facebook or Instagram.
