Fables – Eyes Closed: 13th Floor New Song Of The Day

Fables returns with the third single, ‘Eyes Closed’, from her forthcoming debut album, Change is a Slow-Moving Beast (due 2026 via Home Alone), just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Written by Bailey and recorded with bassist Cass Basil (Tiny Ruins, King Sweeties), multi-instrumentalist Dave Khan (Marlon Williams, Reb Fountain), drummer Arahi (Te Tokotoru, Pony Baby), and Dan Luscombe (The Drones), Eyes Closed unfolds as a delicate indie-folk dreamscape, moving at a sedate, unhurried pace. Ending with a swelling rush of synthesisers followed by a spare acoustic coda, it’s a pretty song that conceals darker emotional currents beneath its glossy surface.

In December, Tāmaki Makaurau singer-songwriter Jess Bailey, aka Fables, unveiled ‘Enough’, the second single from her forthcoming debut album.

Since its release, ‘Enough’ has been selected for Spotify’s Fresh Finds Folk playlist (95,000 followers), celebrated by Undertheradar.co.nz, Rolling Stone AU/NZ, Coup De Main, NZ Listener, and The 13th Floor, while rising to the top of the 95bFM Top Ten chart and appearing on the national Hot 20 Aotearoa Singles and Hot 40 Singles charts.

Now Fables returns with the album’s third single, Eyes Closed, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Written by Bailey and recorded with bassist Cass Basil (Tiny Ruins, King Sweeties), multi-instrumentalist Dave Khan (Marlon Williams, Reb Fountain), drummer Arahi (Te Tokotoru, Pony Baby), and Dan Luscombe (The Drones), ‘Eyes Closed’ unfolds as a delicate indie-folk dreamscape, moving at a sedate, unhurried pace. Ending with a swelling rush of synthesisers followed by a spare acoustic coda, it’s a pretty song that conceals darker emotional currents beneath its glossy surface.

In Bailey’s words, Eyes Closed explores the distance between expectations and reality, and the emotional weight of situations we never saw coming. “It’s the sting of ripping off a band-aid after the wound has started to itch,” she explains.

“Eyes Closed is about naming the uncomfortable gap between what you hoped something could be and what it actually was. I wanted the song to feel gentle and pretty on the surface, almost reassuring, while holding something heavier underneath, that quiet dread that comes from knowing, deep down, that something isn’t right. Physically I couldn’t tell you where I was when I wrote Eyes Closed, but I know emotionally it was dark. I just visualised the partnership that I wanted versus the one that had. The arguments I never wanted to have let alone lose and then, I just wrote the song.

When she sings, “I would have loved you with my eyes closed,” Bailey is describing the experience of knowing something is wrong but choosing not to look too closely, hoping to endure the hesitation rather than confront it. Inevitably, though, moving blindly through life is never enough.

“‘I would have loved you with my eyes closed'” was my way of unpacking the memories of all of the times that were good and blissful, appreciating that they were almost enough to keep me in the relationship. It would have been easy, as long as I never looked at what was happening in front of me. But the song ultimately acknowledges that moving through something blindly comes at a cost.”


Bailey produced the song alongside Dave Khan, Reb Fountain and Dan Luscombe; engineered by Joshua Strand at Parachute Studios; mixed by Luscombe; and mastered by Emily Wheatcroft-Snape. An accompanying NZ On Air supported music video sees Bailey take on art direction duties, working with a small, nimble team including Finn Johansson of Finnsoft (director, editor, colour grading, VFX), Ali Burns (director of photography), Willa O’Neill Cameron (first assistant director), Harriet Ellis (best boy), and India Wray Murane (make-up).

Starring Bailey and Joel Rindelaub, the ‘Eyes Closed’ video was shot between Paradise Ice Skating and Coco’s Cantina in Tāmaki Makaurau. “I wanted to lean into a more exaggerated editorial look and feel,” Bailey says, “like old-money alpine Gucci chic meets whimsical but quietly fuming Kate Bush.” Moving between intimate seated close-ups, a pasta date night on Karangahape Road, and scenes bathed in blue and purple light on the ice rink, the video feels equal parts surreal and hyperreal: like a transmission from a past that feels lived-in, but may never have existed at all.

Catch Fables performing Eyes Closed, along with Sundown, Enough and other songs from her upcoming album when she tours the North Island in the coming weeks with support from HINA and Frances Ellen. Tickets are available now from Undertheradar.co.nz

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