After a busy weekend working, I think I might be struggling more than most this Monday. I’m keeping my eyes on the Christmas holidays prize and reminding myself that freelance work will start to dry up soon enough as my business clients break for the festive season. Until then, I just do what I can to get through it. So I don’t need big, bold music to perk me up this Monday morning. I need something more subtle to keep me calm. I’ve found it in the tunes from Lucas Laufen, an Aussie-born folk singer living in Berlin.
Lucas has been making waves abroad, playing more than 80 shows across Europe, so he’ll be in fine form when he returns home for an East Coast tour this summer. He’ll bring us music from his debut full-length album, which he’s currently writing and recording, as well as songs from earlier releases. If delicate, honest folk tunes are what you’re after, you’re going to love Lucas Laufen.
7 December 2017 – The Little Guy, Sydney
9 December 2017 – The Old Bar, Melbourne
10 December 2017 – Grace Emily Hotel, Adelaide
5 January 2018 – Flow Bar, Old Bar
6 January 2018 – Two Goats Cafe, Armidale
7 January 2018 – Junk Bar, Brisbane
14 January 2018 – Boston Bay Winery, Port Lincoln
Image used with permission from Little Acorn Music
You’re living in Berlin, which is a long way from your Melbourne home. What made you leave Australia behind?
Well I guess you can never fully leave Australia, not that I would want to anyway, because the internet, especially Facebook, keeps you connected with friends, family and fans. But in terms of the timing of leaving Australia for a while, I had come to a point where I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with music and my creativity. I had so many ideas, half finished songs, half recorded songs but I needed a clean canvas and to separate myself from all my home comforts to distill my ideas and take the good bits of my past and fuse with the freedom and fire that comes from living in a fresh vibrant cultural capital like Berlin.
I was drawn to Berlin having visited before and drawn to the rich cultural/artistic activity. There is just so much happening all the time and being able to cycle between all of it is an added bonus. I love having the opportunity to refine my vision in this fresh environment and having the whole of Europe at my doorstep. For example, last year I did a tour of Iceland and as you know, now we drive only three hours and we’re at our first stop in Poland.
You’re touring Poland with Aussie girl Phia who’s been there before. Did she given you any indication of what you can expect?
I heard from Phia and a few other friends (also Australian) that Poland is a really cool and beautiful place to visit and the audiences are keen to hear fresh new music, very open minded.
What is it about Phia that made you want to join forces with her?
Well, I think we both bring a very contemporary version of the solo artist to our shows. People can often think of solo artists as being a person and their acoustic guitar, which is a totally cool and valid way to express yourself. But with my own background in live looping and now moving into the use of Ableton/laptop on stage with my guitar and voice I’m creating a big package but it’s my vision. Phia too has her unique way of storytelling, building textures and grooves with the most minimal of gear a Boss looper, kalimba and an octave pedal with voice and vocal percussion. I mean for a package of instruments that fit in a bag there is something intimate, sophisticated, honest and very cool coming through. So, yeah, we sound quite different but we are part of a new breed, I think.
The tour is well timed as you’ve just released your debut single in Europe, “Move Towards the Light.” What can you tell me about the song?
Well it’s got big beats, swirly synths, jangly guitars, and a friend of mine said it has “toms that would make Phil Collins envious.” I think it is a really great balance between the familiar and unfamiliar both in its textures, catchy melodies and in the story behind it. When you see those movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the kid is drawn to the unfamiliar which then subsequently becomes the familiar. I just launched the film clip which you can check out on YouTube, which was filmed before I went away in an old farm in the Victorian countryside with the additional props of tennis balls and kerosene. I don’t want to give too much away to your readers but in the clip, there is a sport to it, an avoidance, a battle, but in the end the person submits to this light and is embraced by something quite alleviating and beautiful.
The track comes from your forthcoming EP. How’s that recording shaping up?
Well, actually I just got the final master last week and it’s six really fantastic tunes I’m very excited about sharing. The sounds are really cohesive despite reflecting my varied influences and point in the direction of where I’m going (album?). It moves from Fever Ray-esque slow tempo synth worlds, to Coolio in the Bermuda triangle, a bit of LCD Soundsystem meets Grizzly Bear and New Order melancholia. A friend who came to a show recently said that it was “thought-provoking pop but you can dance to it”. I like that.
I draw my sounds from a variety of sources in trying to paint just the right vision; some of it was over-driven drums recorded in a lounge room on my laptops in built mic, to phat analog synths, ’80s/’90s drum machine samples, lots of guitar pedals. I try to build something quite epic, yet somehow retain the intimacy of the songs’ bedroom workshop beginnings. I’ve been collaborating on the production of the EP with the Todd Brothers: Joe Franklin and Oscar Dawson from Planet Love Sound and previously Dukes of Windsor. We started working together when we were all in Berlin and then finished it off via the interwebz when they moved back to Melbourne.
I decided to release the single first and when the time is right release the full EP. I’m already brainstorming the next film clip with a friend of mine here in Berlin and hoping to find a label that understands where I’m coming from and what I want to achieve. If not I’ll just release it myself. Continue reading “Q & A with Mez Medallion”→
Melbourne born and German based singer-songwriter Phia is showing she’s truly a citizen of the world as she tours through Poland this month with fellow German based Aussie Mez Medallion. I caught up with her recently to chat about the European dates, her love of pop music, and life away from Oz. Tune in tomorrow for an interview with her touring partner Mez!
You’re currently based in Berlin, which is a world away from Melbourne. What inspired you to make the big move?
It was partly based on timing – I wanted to have lived some of my life in Europe, and suddenly it just seemed the right time. I didn’t have anything tying me down in Melbourne – no full time job, or mortgage, or university! It was also a career thing; I wanted to explore opportunities over here for my music. Berlin seemed an obvious choice: it’s cheap, there are heaps of artists here. I also have a German passport as my grandfather was born here, so that makes the visa side uncomplicated!
How does life in Berlin compare to living in Australia?
I find it hard answering this question. A lot of answers that I come up with, I wonder whether they are concrete differences, or rather, changes that have come about because my mindset/attitude has changed somewhat from moving overseas. There are some obvious differences of course. I love the travel I’ve done over the last eight months as everything is so close and affordable! I’ve been to Iceland, Poland, around Germany, the UK. In fact, last month someone from the south of France was in Berlin and saw one of my shows and invited me to play at their birthday party. That was fun! I also love not owning a car. It’s an easy city to get around. I ride my bike a lot, and also ride my bike to gigs which is so great. Now that I always play solo, I can fit my gear in a backpack. I’ve had some beautiful serene bike rides home at 3 am on a weeknight, riding down cobble-stoned roads, past canals and bridges, and some seriously old buildings.
You call your music pop, which is a term that’s almost fallen out of favour in recent years. Why do you embrace it?
Because I love pop songs! I grew up mainly listening to the Beatles and then got into contemporary music in the late ’90s, a really great period of mainstream pop music, in my opinion! Those early Britney Spears songs, the Spice Girls, early Destiny’s Child. They had some great songwriting teams. Now I listen to tune-yards, Lykke Li, Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear. Pop is such a broad church, and, at least, the first two have a hint of some of those ’90s influences. I’m not aspiring to be Lady Gaga, but a pop song is defined by being catchy, having a clear message and a hook.
Also as I was writing this I realized another reason I love pop is the diversity of great female artists who are out there making pop music, so inspiring.
What makes your pop music different from the stuff that made the term such a dirty word?
When I’m describing my music to people, I do always feel the need to add a precursor to the word “pop” with another, like “experimental-pop”, or “art-pop”. People often hear “pop”, and think you mean disposable music, or at least heavily produced. The songwriting of my music is pop, but the sounds I use are more diverse and intimate, a bit playful. I loop my kalimba on stage and layer my voice, which includes beat-boxing, hand claps and finger clicks, so it’s a bit DIY and a bit experimental at the same time.
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You’re currently based in Berlin, which is a world away from Melbourne. What inspired you to make the big move?