Here’s what it looks like to lurk in the background of a Methyl Ethel clip.

Over the past five or so years Jake Webb, who creates under the moniker, Methyl Ethel has established himself as one of Australia’s most intriguing musicians. Dipping his toes into sugary melodies, whilst also taking his listeners into the dark euphoric depths of his mind, his artistic integrity remains untarnished on the mantle beside his ARIA Platinum and ARIA Gold singles ‘UBU’ and ‘Twilight Driving’, respectively.

Today’s release ‘Neon Cheap’ is another instantaneous alt-pop gem, complete with off-kilter guitars and piercing sirens, backed by a solid beat, it feels like a sonic mixed-media collage that Webb has paintstakingly stewed over. That semi-chaotic experimental style is represented nicely in a visual sense by director Tay Kaka whose inverted and washed out edit feels like a homage to early 90s music vids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS3CjEOupYc

Lyrically the tune looks at those semi-lucid times when what we’re seeing on our screens filters into our dreams… we think. “Picture yourself scrolling, mind-numbingly at 3am,” Webb says. “Now, instead of scrolling, you’re traipsing some Vegas-like strip. All the events and people you’d normally read about are there as you walk around, inoculated, casually observing. For me, this is ‘Neon Cheap.’”

Methyl Ethel will be teaming up with the Perth buddies POND for a couple of hometown headline shows on the 30th of May and 1st of April and will also be hitting the road for a run of East Coast shows in July – dates and info here. But for now, peep the BTS of ‘Neon Cheap’ below, shot by QC visuals: