In pop music,
specifically pop music, there’s always “a next big thing”. They come and they
go. Some live up to the initial hype and stick around a while. Some struggle to
make the cut beyond that first fateful brush with fame. Others are merely figments
of some publicist’s over active imagination and are usually undeserving of the
tag in the first place.
In a local (New
Zealand) context, every once in a while, our own next big thing goes on to
become a very big thing on the global stage – in recent times think: Lorde,
Unknown Mortal Orchestra, perhaps Broods and one or two others. I suppose “very
big thing” starts to become subjective, relative, and a little cloudy beyond
only the most obvious of names (Janine and The Mixtape, anyone?) …
And so we come to
19-year-old Wellingtonian Eddie Johnston, aka Lontalius, aka Race Banyon, aka
New Zealand’s latest teenage prodigy; an unassuming young man with an enormous
amount of genuine talent. I’ve seen Johnston perform live a few times wearing
his Race Banyon hat, in Auckland and in Wellington, and it’s fair to say I’ve
walked away from the gig on each occasion utterly convinced that I’ve just had
a rare glimpse into the future.
It’s under the
Lontalius guise that Johnston has just released his official debut album, I’ll
Forget 17. I say “official” because he released something akin to an album as
Lontalius on Bandcamp a few years back (a giveaway set of very short tunes),
he’s released several digital-only albums of covers, and he’s also put stuff
out under the Race Banyon moniker, most notably, the terrific Whatever Dreams
Are Made Of EP release of mid-2013.
I have to be
completely honest here though: as much as I’ll Forget 17 showcases just how
talented Johnston is as a songwriter and as a composer, it doesn’t really speak
to me as a grizzly middle-aged man (read: cynical greybeard). I much prefer the
Race Banyon work – intense warm electronic glitchy techno.
In all fairness, I
get that I’m probably not the target demographic for Lontalius, and although the
album doesn’t grab me – it’s a little too Drake-influenced, too heart-on-sleeve
“emo” (for want of a better description), and I’ve a natural aversion to all
things autotune, of which there’s an awful lot – that doesn’t mean I don’t see
it or appreciate it for what it is: beautifully crafted pop music made for the
generation of its creator. I’m pretty certain this one will hold huge appeal
for my teenage daughters, for example.
Johnston shapes
these ten songs with all the precision and maturity of a production veteran,
giving them requisite amounts of drama where needed, and vast swathes of space
when they need to breathe. Songs like ‘All I Wanna Say’ and ‘Glow’ are things
of rare beauty, heartfelt and intimate, close and claustrophobic, and there’s a
very real sense that this is Johnston putting it all out there, laying it bare
as honestly as only he knows how. This is bedroom pop taken to another level.
Dare I say it,
putting aside the notion that autotune or processed vocals represent something
of a cop-out to listeners of a certain generation, we may all look back on this
release one day as the first giant stride towards the pop masterpiece that
Eddie Johnston (in whatever guise he chooses) is surely destined to make. I’ll
Forget 17 isn’t quite all that (yet), but you’d be foolish not to acknowledge
the massive potential on show.
One of the pesky
issues confronting those lumbered with that awkward “next big thing” label –
and it isn’t a tag always welcomed wholesale by the bearer – has always been
the tendency for young artists to become typecast too soon, or to be stifled by
an inability to move on or evolve musically. I really don’t think we’ll see
that with Johnston. There’s real talent here and certainly enough
self-awareness to make the often difficult transition to the next phase of his
career. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, just as Johnston himself
surely isn’t. That’s for the future, and pop music is nothing if it’s not all
about the now, the present, and living in the moment. So watch this space.
Postscript: The
Wellington version of the album release party takes place at Prefab this Friday,
April 15. It’s officially an “all ages” gig but I had to laugh when Johnston
joked on social media a few days back that he was going to put a “cool teens
only” sign up at the door. Clearly he knows his market. I also know my
place, so I’ll stick to Race Banyon sets for now.
