The second single in this collaborative series is Nothing Really Ends, a track originally recorded by Belgian band dEUS. It was the first song Joyce Prescher recorded with Lachlan Bryan – a beginning marked by a song about endings.

For Joyce, dEUS is more than just a band, they’re part of the fabric of her youth. “I’ve listened to them since the mid-90s,” she says. “They have been with me throughout my life, and I always come back to them. This song to me has this depth, this melancholy, but also a sense of calm and peace.”

“These songs – starting with Nothing Really Ends – opened a whole world of music to me that I was previously unaware of but instantly drawn to. At a time when seeing the world was literally impossible, Joyce and I were able to kind of escape to Europe through making these songs. For me it felt new and exotic, for her it meant going home.

There’s a cinematic feel to this version – layered guitars, strings, and a rhythm that simmers just below the surface. It doesn’t rush. It unfolds. Lachlan and Joyce trade lines like two people trying to make sense of a shared memory, their voices weaving together and pulling apart. It’s richer than a stripped-back ballad, but still intimate – the kind of arrangement that reveals more with each listen.

“We recorded this song fast, in a very instinctual kind of way”, says Lachlan. “We would grab hold of the instrumental hook from the original and try and reimagine it, but because I didn’t know the song very well it quickly became its own thing. I was learning it from Joyce rather than from dEUS, and I think that’s part of the charm”.

The emotional terrain of Nothing Really Ends – longing, ambiguity, resignation – felt like a perfect mirror for long walks and long talks through the empty streets of Melbourne. There’s a tension in the song, but also acceptance. “It doesn’t scream, it just lingers,” Joyce reflects. “That’s what I love about it. To me it’s about understanding that endings aren’t always clear. Sometimes, the things we think are over never really leave us. They’re always there, in some form.”

Nothing Really Ends captures the fragile beauty of that idea—a reflection on the things that persist, long after they’ve passed. It’s a re-imagining of a song that’s always felt deeply personal to Joyce, and through her collaboration with Lachlan, it becomes something even more intimate and reflective.

With this second release, Joyce Prescher continues to reveal new layers of herself – not just as a songwriter, but as an interpreter, curator, and collaborator. These aren’t just songs she admired from afar; they’re part of her personal history, now reshaped and re-voiced with care.
Nothing Really Ends is available on Friday 23 May, through Cheersquad Records & Tapes.