Get familiar with Angeles right here.

If you caught the debut track from Sydney’s Angeles when it dropped about a week ago and thought ‘this voice sounds familiar’, you’re not alone. Angeles is the new project from Pete Sotiropoulos who you may know as the frontman of indie-pop outfit Betty & Oswald, and while the vocals stem from the same source, he’s tapped into a new well of inspiration, constructing a different (but equally as intoxicating) new sound.

‘Crush’ walks the line between melancholy and heartstrung masterfully, with Sotiropoulos ditching polished pop trimmings in favour of sludgey rhythms and darker flashes. It’s got that low-fi bedroom recording grittiness to it, with melodic hooks that get right under your skin – an addictive sonic elixir. It’s certainly got us excited for what feels like a lush body of work to come.

Play it loud and check out our interview with Angeles below:

First up, how have you been coping with iso? Where have you been locking down?

I’ve been pretty good. I actually moved to The [Blue] Mountains just as Covid took over, so I kind of made the most of a shitty situation. It’s funny, I went mushroom picking one day with my girlfriend and we stopped by to check out this buddies house as a potential spot to spend a couple nights, but as soon as we saw the place and the birds and felt the cold, it just felt right you know.

So we moved there the next week and I guess I’ve spent the last six weeks unfolding myself into this little mountain cottage. I was building an aviary out back for our pet lorikeet the other week, but usually I’ve just been spending my time walking around, reading, painting, cooking etc. I’d been craving the bush connection recently and wanted to be closer to the dark nights so it really just came about at the right time.

Tell us how writing this music was different to Betty & Oswald. Was it a conscious shift in direction or was this sound bubbling underneath the whole time, waiting to explode?

I guess the sound came from the process of learning. It started with me writing alone, late at night experimenting with how to record and how to manipulate sound and program drum machines and play bass and all that. It was an exploration for me and a very big shift in attitude from the very acoustic origins of Betty & Oswald.

At the time of writing I was doing lots of film photography, and I had this really old camera that you can only focus by guessing the focal point, so it would produce these incredible photos where the focus would draw your attention to certain unexpected parts and blur other details in the shot. To me it felt similar to the way pain or love or anger works, when you feel this intense emotion and you hone in on certain details and don’t see others. Those details to me are what make the feelings real. So the music was basically inspired by blurry amateur photography haha.

How would you describe the sound in three words?

Blurry film photograph.

You’ve said you shared the music you were working on with close friends as you wrote, was that helpful in shaping what would become Angeles? Why was it important for you to do that?

I think it was really important because it kept me going, it held me accountable and got me excited for the songs in a different and new way. Sometimes I found it hard to detach from the songs as I was writing them, but even just showing a demo to a friend enabled me to look at it in a different light.

That idea of disorientation is something I love and it helped me look at the songs in a way I’d never seen them before. Plus it’s fun to share things you make with friends, it’s like sharing a meal you cooked, or a movie you love.

What were you listening to when you were writing these tunes?

As always it was a real bag of sorts. I discovered Elliot Smith at that time (and haven’t stopped listening since), but also was bouncing off bands like Neu!, Sonic Youth, Johnny Jewel, The Pixies, Yuck and Frank Ocean.

What was it like working with Dean Tuza? How did he affect the end product?

Dean is an absolute dreamboat in every way. To work so closely with him was one of my greatest experiences and I consider him now a close friend. We just hit it off, we both obsessed over dystopian books and Joy Division and Francis Ford Coppola but in the end he just gave me the confidence to pursue the sound. The songs were quite complete when I took them to him, which made our time together even more fun I think. We just kept chasing these worlds and we’d bounce off each other and next thing it’s 3am and we’re getting another coffee and jumping back in for another session.

Dean would do this thing (and he’d probably hate me for saying it) but whenever he’d listen back to a take, he’d close his eyes and move his head through the air like he was letting the sound wash over him. I always liked to think he was swimming through the layers, like a little Nemo in the seaweed, and he’d always emerge with a feeling that we could focus more on, or a path that we should explore. Everything was intuitive.

For some reason, when I listen to ‘Crush’ I’m visualising a boiling hot day, a sprinkler spraying in the background and my crush riding by on a bicycle as I dream about our life together. What does ‘Crush’ look like visually to you? Any video clips on the way?

That’s adorable, I really love that. To me the song feels like chasing railroad tracks in the night, skeleton trees and the steam from your breath as the air cools. But I love how music and art can be ambiguous enough to feel your own truth. And yeah in terms of a video, I’d like to have a go at shooting a little something myself, which I’ll probably start in the next week or two.

Is ‘Crush’ a stand alone single? Part of an EP/LP? When can we get some more?!

‘Crush’ is one side of a 7” Vinyl. I have a second track that we recorded at the same time that’ll be side B. I want to start with just two tracks, a small body of work to get rolling. I’m writing and demoing tracks at the moment for an EP that will come next. I really like the idea of small bodies of work at the moment.

Are you thinking Angeles will be a full band project or is it something you’re wanting to be able to perform solo? Or both?

Both I think! It’s hard to tell, I’m really excited to play around with the band, especially because it’s made up of some of the greatest people I know (Mitch Sexty guitar, Sammy Sudhakar on bass and Oscar Henfrey on drums). But I think the songs will also carry in a stripped format, and it would be nice to not restrict it to only band settings.

What else is coming up for the rest of the year for Angeles?

I’m just going to keep getting lost in the trees. Just keep writing, demoing, learning and will start playing shows as soon as we can :)