New Zealand-based alt pop singer/songwriter Lontalius shares new single and the title track from his upcoming album.

Eddie Johnston (AKA Lontalius) comments on the track, “‘Life On The Edge Of You’ is so melodramatic to me, as a phrase. It never worked in an earnest, acoustic type of song. When me and Jeff were working together in LA, he had started making this 60s, almost Motown sounding instrumental. It’s not something I would describe as typical Lontalius, but there was something about its melodrama and yearning quality that I loved. This song to me is full melodrama, leaning into its silliness. It’s pleading to someone to treat them how you deserve, to be let into their heart and be loved.”

“For me, listening to music, it’s always been something where I want to hear a song randomly one day and think, Oh, they’re talking about me. That feeling that someone’s written something specifically for you,” says Eddie.

Forthcoming album Life on the Edge of You, finds Johnston in his mid-20s and on the precipice of adulthood in all its nascent fits and spurts, moments of growth and regression, thoughtless impulses and newfound control. On his own again after moving back in with his parents in Wellington, New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic—not unlike many young adults his age—Johnston is taking stock of his life: the relationships that may be, the periods of adjustment, the person he is and the person he hopes to become.

Produced by Jeff Kleinman (Beyoncé, Frank Ocean, FKA Twigs), Life on the Edge of You finds Johnston elevating his intimate, confessional alt pop songwriting across a new musical landscape. Over lockdown, the pair sent pieces of songs back and forth, building tracks in a surprisingly fruitful collaboration melding alt pop with flavours of hip-hop and R&B. “I think we were just on the same vibes at the same time,” Johnston says, “which was exciting, because making music has often just been sitting in my room with a guitar, writing pretty traditional songs. My whole career has been a history of working with internet producers and sending verses from the other side of the world, and it felt really good to be doing that again, but it forced me to write in a different way.” 

What emerged was a new sound, and a new set of melodies and confines within which to write, that imbue Johnston’s diary-like confessionals with a fresh sense of what he calls a “confidence that is not necessarily in such an introverted or fearful way.”

Photo Courtesy: Fraser Chatham