Australian multi-instrumentalist Bineal Roy is also a member of three-piece band Adaptors, showing he has quite a wide reach across the music industry! After reviewing his latest release Olden Eyes, I wanted to find out more about this fascinating musician – see how we got on below!

By Jane Howkins

You recently released a single titled Olden Eyes. What can you tell us about the track?

Olden Eyes is based on the idea that although we might reincarnate into different bodies across our lifetimes, our eyes remain the same. This is how we recognise souls we’ve met before (or in the future) and sometimes get that feeling or instant connection with certain people that we don’t get with others.

How has the reception to Olden Eyes been so far, and where can the song be purchased?

The reception has been great, for both the song and the music video. There’s been quite a few write-ups in blogs and online magazines, as well as lots of Spotify playlist ads. The song is available for purchase on my Bandcamp site, where you can pay what you want or download it for free. I don’t mind either way!

The song also features Munia. How did the collaboration come about, and is it something you plan on doing more of?

Munia and I have been close friends for almost fourteen years! She’s got a breathtaking voice and I’d always wanted to collaborate musically. When I was first working on this song (almost 8 years ago) and just had the opening guitar motif, I remember she absolutely loved just that little snippet I’d shown her, so I thought it would be nice to bring her in on a song I knew she loved. I would love to do more songs together if the opportunity arose, especially as music is one of the main things we’ve bonded over – we still send each other music all the time.

Do you plan to release any more singles in the near future?

It’s definitely on the cards, the hard part is deciding which song to record! I’ve got heaps of songs which are fully written and complete, although it probably won’t be until next year.

Are there any plans to release an album or EP anytime soon?

I would love to do this, but financing an album or even an EP independently is pretty difficult, especially in the current financial climate with rising prices. I also think the music industry has become very strongly single focused again due to the rise of streaming and the figurative ‘death’ of physical media. I feel like people are more likely to just listen to the one song or a mixed playlist than listen to a whole EP or album, so I’m likely to just stick to singles at this time. However, it’s a definite goal of mine to release an album at some point.

Your music has an indie-folk sound. What/who influences you most as an artist? What have you been listening to recently?

Olden Eyes does have an indie-folk sound but actually, if you hear my work with my band Adaptors, we’ve covered a few different styles – my first single Maybe was a bit more like r&b influenced pop than the current single, and my next single could easily be something like funk rock or trip-hop. As an artist I’m a big fan of diversity of style and a lot of my favourite artists are ones who are able to try different styles, so they don’t get pigeonholed into doing one thing forever. Paul McCartney is probably the touchstone for me here, as throughout his career (both solo and with the Beatles) he’s probably covered almost every genre/style imaginable. Artists like Stevie Wonder and Prince also come to mind for their ability to adapt and give their songs a wide array of styles and arrangements. Most recently I’ve been listening to Joni Mitchell, The Smiths, Depeche Mode, some Bollywood music and I’ve also been meaning to check out the new Janelle Monae album. Oh and I’ve been blasting Rage Against the Machine while I run at the gym, so that might give you an idea of the diversity of my influences!

You’re from Sydney. What is the local music scene like at the moment?

I used to gig pretty regularly with my band Adaptors, but we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus since the pandemic started, which obviously had a huge impact on the scene. So since restrictions have eased I haven’t really gone back to gigging a lot, and don’t quite have a feel for the scene at the moment, but it seems to be coming back on track. I do a run a small independent acoustic night with some friends called Songs x Sunset. We try to host artists that are mostly from some sort of minority background, be that based on ethnicity, sexuality or even age. These events have been pretty popular and they’re quite engaging for both the artists and audience. In fact, I performed and launched Olden Eyes at our most recent one.

Do you have anything else exciting coming up this year?

We’ve got a little BTS (behind the scenes) video of the Olden Eyes music video shoot lined up which will come out soon on YouTube. Other than that, it will mostly be writing and hopefully some recording.

Do you have any tour dates lined up for the UK?

I would absolutely love to visit and perform in the UK at some point, but there is nothing lined up at the moment unfortunately. One day!

Any last words for the fans?

Support local music! Go to local gigs and share the music of small independent artists – word of mouth makes a world of difference.