Although Jack Senff cut his teeth as a member of the now-defunct Merchant Ships, then followed it up with Midwest screamo stalwarts William Bonney, his new solo work under the name Boy Rex bares no resemblance to these other projects from which most might be familiar with his name. Rather than heavy instrumentals and harsh vocals, Senff’s debut solo LP Better Vision instead employs an acoustic guitar, trumpets (courtesy of his father), and a more mature, layered lyrical process.
The first taste of Better Vision comes in the form of “Fortune Tellers” which deals with some heavy lyrical content revolving around an intersection of personal and metaphysical fantasy, and features a nice trumpet riff from Mr. Senff. Check out our exclusive premiere of the beautiful track, along with a quote from Senff, below.
“Fortune Tellers” is the first one I got to work. I tinker a lot with my songs, but this one came easy and I just sort of left it alone. It was going to be the first song on the album, and the lyrics went, “there’s been talks of a ball these past few months–a formal occasion where we do our hair up, up, up, and we dress our best to try and impress the man with a hood pulled over his face.” I’m telling you this because I still like how it sings in my head, and because it’s interesting to look at how different the song is now, even though the chords and the structure never changed. Hell, it’s wild how different the entire record would have been if I had kept those words, that concept. Changing them directly informed how I put together the rest of the album. It’s fitting then, I guess, to have it be the first single. This one always felt right, even if tells a different story now.
Better Vision is out 5/19 on Near Mint. Pre-order the record, along with Senff’s collection of stories, essays, and poems loosely tied to the themes and events of the record here.
