Social Circle brings 80s synth soundscapes and poppy present sounds into a fertile middle ground that delights listeners. “The Look in Your Eyes” will set your body free with the dreamy synth sounds and high energy beats. The vocals showcase Social Circle’s honest and pure songwriting that are meant to transform sadness into motivation and self-discovery. Social Circle have brilliantly married the sounds of 80s power pop anthems and dance club hits, combining both with an irresistible chorus. “The look in your eyes” shows their progressive, beautiful and infectious songwriting at full stretch.
Social Circle is a quartet from Lafayette, Louisiana and is made up of good friends Matt, Jacqueline, Gabe and Frank. The group aims to push boundaries with genre-bending soundscapes and songs that engage and uplift listeners. Matt, the lead singer explains: "We want our fans to know that we're here to party and love on them all at the same time; that it's a great time getting to escape from all of the bullshit, but we aren't afraid to admit that it's unavoidable at times. We don't ignore the hard stuff. We just turn it into something beautiful."
Bathe yourself in glitter and neon and stream “The Look In Your Eyes” today on Spotify!
Keep scrolling for Social Circle's interview with BuzzMusic.
Hi All! Thank you for taking time out to speak with us today! Can you start by telling our readers a bit more about Social Circle and how long you’ve been together?
Hi! So, Social Circle is an electronic pop band out of a small town called Lafayette, Louisiana. We draw a ton of influence from 80's power pop like Phil Collins, David Bowie, Madonna, and ton of new stuff like Empire of the Sun and CHVRCHES and Troye Sivan. We've been a band for about 4 years now and love putting off the energy of a power pop band with a killer, energetic show. We're a quartet on stage, made up of male vocalist Matt McElveen (that's me), female vocalist Jacqueline Davis, bassist Gabe McCassey, and drummer Frank Castro. Off-stage we've got a cowriter and producer named Paul Broussard who's basically a 5th member of the band.
Can you tell us the meaning behind your new album “The Look In Your Eyes”?
"The Look In Your Eyes" is a lyric that came from one of the songs on the album called "Bring On The Fire," but best represented the honesty that this album is really working for. One of the most revealing things about a person is generally the looks that they give off with their eyes, and no matter what, they're the ultimate tell-tale sign of how you're feeling in any given moment. People always say I'm a terrible liar, because my eyes always give it away. Despite being an anthemic, electronic record with a lot of dance influence on it, it's lyrically pretty raw and honest, so the name "The Look In Your Eyes" really made sense. I'm probably the most proud of the fact that we were able to capture some of the most emotionally intense scenarios in this album without weighing it down, but instead found clever ways to wrap them up in these dancey, powerpop wrapping papers. But, no matter how fun some of these songs sound, if you look and listen carefully, you can really hear what each song is honestly trying to portray emotionally.
What about the 80's pop genre is appealing and influential for you?
A lot of people lately tend to refer to the 80's because of the aesthetic or because of the cool, vintage synth sounds, but the biggest thing for us with the 80's is the sincerity and power and drama behind the actual songwriting. I love that, in today's landscape of intensely and insanely produced pop music, a lot of those songs still seriously hold their weight. Anytime I hear 'Easy Lover' by Phil Collins or "I Would Die 4 U" by Prince or "Take My Breath Away" by Berlin, I'm so sincerely moved, maybe even more so than I am by some modern stuff. So many of those songs are just iconic, and not because of their cool sounds, but because of the drama in their incredibly memorable vocal melodies that stay with you and songwriting that you absolutely have to sing along with. Those songs have always just been so powerful to me. One of my favorite 80's tracks is "I'm Free (Heaven Helps the Man)" by Kenny Loggins from Footloose, because the vocal melodies are filled with all of this insane drama and urgency. It's cinematic in a way you just don't hear anymore, and that's the part of the 80's pop genre that influenced our album the most.
What does your group’s creative process look like?
It can vary, but generally it'll start with a sort of raw song idea that I've cooked up in my spare time. I'll have either started something on an acoustic guitar or started with a production idea, and write and record a demo for it late into the night. The next day, the rest of the band is waking up to an e-mail with the subject line I'VE GOT A NEW SONG FOR US like it's the Bat Signal, and next thing you know, we're all assembled to address and work on the song as a band. It might getting live drum or bass tracked, or new vocal recording from our female vocalist Jacqueline. It might even just be all of us just sort of critiquing and rewriting it together. Eventually it goes from being an idea I started with to a piece of work that we've all constructed and refined together.
What’s next for you guys?
Now that this album's finally seeing the light of day, we're looking to just keep riding the wave we hope it stirs. First we'll release more video content for this album, like a music video or a live performance video. Then we're really just hoping to start getting on the road and showing the rest of the world just what we're made of. Playing live is our favorite part of this whole thing, and we've built a live-show that's out of this world with infectious energy, so it's time for us to take that show on the road. Hopefully, we'll be posting a long list of tour dates before 2019 is over. And in the midst of that, we've even considered releasing some acoustic versions of some of these songs! You never know what we'll be up to!
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