Coming of age in fast-paced, land-scarce Singapore, Subsonic Eye vocalist Nur Wahidah sought refuge in traces of nature within the urban landscape.
“Ever since I learned to appreciate nature, I’ve become kinder to myself,” she says. “If you’re hiking and it starts raining, you’re like, ‘Okay, this just happens.’ You learn how to cope with it.
“I was living so out of rhythm with everything before, but now I feel like I’m able to solve everything in life just by comparing it with what I see outside. It’s just beautiful, and I think we all need that.”
“I think we have a knack for taking Western influences and making them our own. We kind of make it a bit more complex than it needs to be.” – Daniel Borces
Fittingly, Subsonic Eye’s 2021 record Nature of Things formed a love letter to the outdoors fueled by climate anxiety. Then, the indie rock quintet explored these themes with a more optimistic slant on fourth album All Around You, released via Topshelf Records last September. Managing a confident drawl on the pressures of early adulthood (“J-O-B”) and endless corporate slog (“Machine”), Wahidah ultimately finds solace in her surroundings on closer “Everything.”
There, she sings: “Watching the gold bathe the birds/ Bringing song into cities/ Bringing luxury in our souls.” Mirroring Wahidah’s poise, the almost-9-year-old band strays from the dreamy leanings of earlier work, further rooting themselves in raw, fuzzy guitar interplay – like a brighter, mathy Sonic Youth.
“I really dig their whole sound, so whenever I write the demos, they sound like Sonic Youth,” says guitarist Daniel Borces. “The rest of the band are not as into them as I am, so, naturally, our sound kind of takes shape in its own way. I feel like we really took their melodic stuff and made our own thing out of it.”
SXSW hosts Subsonic Eye’s first-ever gigs in Austin, but also marks the third consecutive year that they’re taking time off work to play shows almost 10,000 miles across the world. Borces, who has seen fans sporting other Singaporean bands’ merch at their U.S. shows, says the overseas achievement still feels surreal. They’ll be the island’s only representatives on Jaded’s all-Asian FRIENDS: FOREVER lineup at Empire, following Singapore band Sobs’ participation last year.
“It’s really crazy to see that people are genuine fans of Singaporean music,” says Borces. “I think we have a knack for taking Western influences and making them our own. We kind of make it a bit more complex than it needs to be.”
On his home country, he theorizes: “Maybe that’s why there are so many math rock bands here.”
Subsonic Eye
(unofficial Shows only)
This article appears in SXSW 2024 Festival Guide, Part II.