In recent times, they have supported The Reytons, The Mercians, and Kelsy Karter. Their sound has matured with them, leading to the release of their exceptional EP ‘Éternel Romantique’. Following their recent UK tour, we spoke with lead singer Joey Greener to uncover "what’s to blame" for their music, storytelling, and future prospects.
Talk to us about your band’s name - who or what’s to blame for its inception?
I play in a band called The Public Eye. I’d say the person to blame for the name is Jonah (bandmate), and for its inception probably both me and Jonah. We met playing FIFA together in a big Pro Clubs team. I was already doing some music - I was super young, recording bits here and there - and then I met Jonah. He hadn’t learned guitar or anything yet, but we had similar music taste and it all kind of went from there. We formed The Public Eye.
The name just came out of nowhere really. Jonah came into band practice one day after we’d gone through a massive list of terrible names - we were thinking of being called Blue Station at one point, so I’m very glad that didn’t stick. We came up with the meaning afterwards: if you’re in ‘the public eye’, you can never not be in ‘the public eye’, if that makes sense
What or who would you say is to blame for your music career?
Two things: secondary school and COVID. Before I was even into music, I was into acting. I was a little theatre kid and did loads of that. When I moved up to secondary school, there was no option to do drama. So immediately I went to the second most creative thing: music. I learned guitar - I don’t think I’d have ever done that if drama had been an option, so thank God.
Then COVID happened, and that’s where everything really came into itself. I was trying to write songs before, but nothing stuck until the entire world shut down. Being cooped up in the house gave me loads of time to focus on music. I did a little driveway gig for my neighbours that got me some attention and it spiralled from there.
I saw stats saying 57% of adults said music helped them through lockdown, and a million adults took up an instrument. Everyone was sad and locked up, so they put their emotions into more creative things.
Who are the biggest musical inspirations for the sound you’ve curated?
It changes all the time. For the music we’ve just released, there’s lots of Kings of Leon, Bloc Party, that early 2000s indie sleaze stuff, maybe even a little bit of what people call your landfill indie bands.
Recently we’ve got a bit moodier - like Fontaines D.C. I feel like they’ve influenced everyone these last few years. They’re like this generation’s “every band’s favourite band”, kind of like how The Beatles were.
Derby seems to play a big role in your identity and storytelling, what about the city is to blame for shaping your attitude and creative direction?
People say Derby’s ‘angin’, but I like Derby, I think it's really nice. It’s a very underrated city in the UK. When it comes to music venues, it doesn’t have the pick of the bunch like bigger cities do. Where most people might feel that would drag you down, I think in Derby the scene is actually thriving because everyone has this hunger to do something with the city they love.
For us, it’s a great landscape to write about. Authors like Alan Sillitoe used the East Midlands - Nottingham and Derby - as a canvas for their art because it’s very factory-based, industrial. That’s the opposite of creativity, which creates this moody, dystopian backdrop to write lyrics over.
You’re currently on a UK tour - what’s behind the decision to hit the road now, and how has the experience been so far?
We released an EP and we really wanted people to hear it, to see their live reactions. It’s been great. We did some shows with This Feeling, booked some of our own, and it’s been super fun. We met some sick bands along the way. In Liverpool the singer of Stone came down to watch us, and Overpass were in the crowd too - not necessarily to see us, but it was cool they were there.
Liverpool was a complete sellout days before the show, which was a massive high. A bunch of Scousers jumping about to music that relates to them as much as it does to people from Derby. We finished in Manchester supporting Cottons, who we’re good friends with, and that was sold out too. It's been a really fun string of shows.
Let’s talk about your new EP - in your eyes, what’s to blame for the themes and direction of this project?
I’d honestly say pretentiousness. I mean, the EP is called ‘Èternel Romantique’. The whole point of it is looking at the world through rose-tinted glasses - how lovely it’s meant to seem - and then that moment when the glasses come off and you see things for what they are. Just the way these kinds of things are taking form, particularly the modern day, interests us a lot.
These modern relationships interest us as not just romantic ones, but friendships too. Every track is about love in different forms. ‘Divine’ goes into casual sex, ‘Gently’ is about love for your friends, ‘Bones’ is about the loss of love, ‘Girl’ is also about the loss of love but slightly more romanticised, and ‘Julia’ ties it all together. There’s a bit of a George Orwell-style dystopia sprinkled across the whole thing, too.
How would you say your songwriting in the new EP has changed from your other previous projects?
I put a lot more pressure on myself now than i did when I was younger. It was like, “la la la, write a song about going to the pub” - like every 16 or 17-year-old band does. Now there’s so much amazing music around, especially in this country, so I push myself more.
We also spent more time writing the songs acoustically, the bare bones first, before putting the full band on top. We’d never really done that properly before. It meant we focused more on crafting the words and the basic guitar part before turning it into a big arrangement.
As a young band moving quickly through the UK scene, what has been the biggest help to gaining momentum, and what advice would you give to other young bands trying to break into the scene?
Persistence and just not stopping, as easy as that sounds. It’s easy to get downhearted; you’re a small fish in a huge pool of people exactly your age who want the same thing, but only a few will actually get to do it.
The music industry is one big sausage machine - and it’s up to you whether you come out neatly packaged or get shot straight into the ocean. Strange analogy, but it works. Just persist and persist and everything will fall into place.
When you picture the future of The Public Eye, what do you think will be the path you take from here?
Hopefully more of the same thing - as long as we’re enjoying it and slowly scaling things up each time. I’d love to release an album in the next five years, but we’re mainly focusing on just keeping banging out singles, EPs, giving people music, and playing shows. If every year gets slightly bigger, I’ll be super happy.
‘Èternel Romantique’ is out now on all streaming platforms. If you’d like to catch it live, tickets to upcoming gigs are available via their linktree.
Emma Monaghan
Image: Jack Betts @bettsview