(GOOD) GARBAGE, the project from Tom Laverty, started off as a musical challenge…

The goal from the Northern Rivers-based South Australian was simple in theory: write a handful of songs, each in a different genre, while somehow keeping them connected. We say “in theory” because the reality is switching up your style each time you pick up a guitar is bloody tricky, maybe impossible, but the bedroom recordings that resulted in PILOT prove that it’s been a more than fruitful endeavour.

The EP begins with the moody ‘December’ where Laverty sums up that feeling of returning home and subconsciously measuring yourself up against those around you. “[It’s] is loosely about leaving home behind, only to return at Christmas and find that everything has changed, at the same time, nothing has,” he says. “It’s about questioning whether you’re doing enough with your life, whether you’re on the right path, and facing the battle of resisting comparison to others.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsfNZPuEe7Q

‘Strength’, the following tune, is this garage-psych number complete with half-time breakdowns and some wailing on guitar that is seemingly designed to blow your haircut off. And my god, it does. Next up, Laverty injects some shroomy grooves into the project with the washed-out number ‘Strange Powers’, which feels like the stoner cousin of ‘Strength’ — it’s a dreamy circuit breaker on the EP.

Things pick up again with ‘Got Your Back’, which sounds like These New South Whales meets The Chats. That is to say, it’s got a bit of punky blues stuff going on, with punchy vocals that see Laverty get caught up in this deranged delivery that’s way too fun.

The line “now time wastes me” is the best lyric on the EP, and it comes during the closing ballad ‘Motivation’, which Laverty says is about his inability to stop moving. “‘Motivation’ is sort of about a battle with time,” he says. “I can’t sit still, I find it really hard to relax, I sort of see that as wasting time — which is probably not a great trait haha. Time is such a wild concept. Getting older scares me, but why should it, since it’s inevitable? I try to stay as busy and proactive as possible, driven by the fear of not achieving enough in my time. But in doing so, am I just speeding time up? Weird times.”

The connective tissue throughout the record is Laverty’s very Aussie-flavoured delivery, which sways between haunting and straight-up powerful. The secret sauce? Getting out of the house to record them. “I was always too embarrassed to do them at home, so I’d jump in the car and drive to a quiet car park at the beach or in the bush,” he says. “I wouldn’t listen to the takes at the time, I was just trying to get in and out of there. But I’d usually return home and hate all the takes, so I’d have to drive off again.”

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