VIDEO PREMIERE: Sarah Levins - Eye Spy

Sydney artist and producer Sarah Levins is set to release her single Eye Spy this week, her first bit of music since her last release Are You Having Fun? In 2023. Trailing the line between intense, whimsical storytelling, ballad-like folk, and sincere and subtle crooning (all held together by the strings of her acoustic guitar), Levins is a placeholder in the hearts and minds of music lovers who dare to dream and dare to feel.

Her new single Eye Spy is a doting manifestation of wholehearted, human introspection that is all about “noticing that everything is linked and there is always more than meets the eye”.

“There are so many patterns in giant things like outer space that then repeat themselves in much smaller things like river systems or wrinkles on your face - the more you dig, the more it seems to be connected,” she said.

“To me, that connection is both really intense and serious and completely unserious and joyful at the same time (‘Nothing is coincidence/Nothing is so serious’). I wanted the music to mess with scale for the listener to create this feeling of contrast between the micro and macro, building to a big, pressure-relieving point of catharsis at the end of the song.”

The music video for Eye Spy is co-directed by Levins and James Tarbotton, who has previously worked with Montaigne, Jerome Blazé and JOY. Opening with a shot of Levins occupying a seat in front of a warm, sun-shaped formation, guitar in hand, the artist leads us from verse into hook. As the camera zooms out, Levins is joined by her band, the glowing embers of the circular light behind them providing a sense of rebirth or completion, perhaps alluding to the organic and innocent connectivity between life, journey, nature and death.

The setting changes to an idyllic, grassy seaside midway, aligning with a switch up in the song's tempo. In a press release, Levins writes: “The song has a dramatic tempo switch up halfway through which felt like night and day, so we took this concept and ran with it visually. The video swaps between a dark, orange-hued setting with a large circle set piece looming over the band, to a sunny, outdoor beachside setting. The location change really captures how the song sounds to me. This video is the first of four chapters of visuals that play with a key, unrevealed concept that I can’t wait to share. More on that soon.”

While there is so much more yet to be revealed by Levins and the musical journey ahead, Eye Spy maintains a mesmerising, lengthy moment that is bound to keep our cup full until we meet again.

You can watch the music video for Eye Spy by Sarah Levins, premiering exclusively on The Music, below.

Sarah Levins will also celebrate the release of Eye Spy with a co-headline single launch for the release with emerging alt-folk band Beryl at Puzzle Gallery on November 30.