If you’ve been following JOVM over the better part of the past year or so, you may be familiar with the Perth, Australia-based band, The High Learys. The quartet formed in 2011 when cousins Jamie Turner (vocals, bass) and Matt Williams (guitar) met Mike Mutt (organ) in high school. Adrian Macmillian (drums) was later recruited to finalize the band’s lineup.
Over the past few years, the quartet have received attention both across their native Australia and internationally for a sound that’s been described as a contemporary take on 60s blues-inspired psych rock, bubblegum pop, and garage rock; in fact, their sound bears resemblance to some of that era’s beloved bands, including The Doors, The Who Sings My Generation-era The Who, The Animals, The Turtles, The Beatles and more contemporary Brit pop acts such as Oasis, and others.
The Australian quartet’s latest single “Letters to Alice” will further cement their reputation for crating 60s-inspired rock, as the song is comprised of intertwined, twisting and turning guitar and organ chords paired with a persistent and propulsive rhythm and Turner’s nasal, Liam Gallagher-like vocals. Although as its core, the song is a romantic ode to the narrator’s beloved Alice while simultaneously evoking tripping on hallucinogens in a verdant meadow, reminding the listener that being in love is much like being high as your very perceptions of the world are altered.
