London-based artist Alfie Templeman has made a lavish return with “Eyes Wide Shut,” his first new piece of original solo music since his acclaimed 2022 debut LP Mellow Moon. Grooving with dance-floor-ready guitar licks, the song is a bubbly cocktail of pop maximalism and ‘80s-funk – one that unexpectedly brims with existential dread underneath its surface.
“Eyes Wide Shut” is derived from snippets of Alfie’s daily journal; the cathartic entries that he would jot down when he was awake for the first ten minutes of the morning and wading through those moments of overwhelming anxiety that creep in at the crack of dawn.
“’Eyes Wide Shut’ is an amalgamation of ruminations I faced on tour,” says Alfie Templeman. “My brain always seems to be on full volume after a show and I find it really difficult to wind down. The adrenaline used to turn sour pretty quick once you’d get back to your hotel that looked the same as every other hotel. ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ helped me express those feelings and since we started playing it live I often use it as a reminder to go easy on myself. It deters the burn out. Musically, Eyes was the first song I wrote for my upcoming album. I knew I wanted to make big, weird pop songs. At the time I was rinsing Prince and Talking Heads a lot, lots of crazy staccato synth textures and nutty bass lines.”
Having just turned 21 years old, Templeman is almost entirely self-taught as a producer and musician (playing eleven instruments). It’s a swiss-army-knife set of skills that’s led him to becoming a sought after collaborator, having teamed up with Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Todd Rundgren on his recent album “Space Force”, Dom Valentino, Anna of the North and Boy Pablo’s producer Bob Junior on their recent outputs and co-wrote and produced the worldwide breakout track “Dizzy” by Chloe Moriondo.
Fresh and inventive, Alfie Templeman sees a sometimes grey world in vibrant technicolor.
