Baybeats 08 Band Interview: The Lucksmiths (AUS)

Related Link: The Lucksmiths Profile

Meet The Lucksmiths (TL), four boys from Melbourne whose spare, summery, spirited melodies go straight to your heart.

E: Your music’s got an honest, no-pretence folk-pop feel (that reminds me a little of The Smiths, The Beatles and The Housemartins), but with a bit of heartbreak to the upbeat melodies and understated, funny lyrics. What are your motivations and inspirations?

TL: We’ve certainly taken influence from The Smiths and The Housemartins in the past, but not so much the Beatles. I guess when we started playing together in highschool, we were going for a direct songwriting approach, a la Billy Bragg or Ray Davies or Lloyd Cole, but with a gentler approach to the music, like that frost-on-the-lawn feel of the Cowboy Junkies. Soon after we started playing shows we found out about bands like the Velvet Underground and Jonathan Richman, and then Marty heard The Wedding Present, and that certainly helped shape his approach to songwriting.

E: We especially like Under the Rotunda, Fiction, Broken Bones and T-Shirt Weather, all works of fine songcraft. Which are your personal favourites?

TL: Hmm, well, we have some really fun new songs that we’ve been playing live like A Sobering Thought (Just When One Was Needed), but of the older songs, I like those ones you’ve listed, and I really enjoy playing stuff like A Downside to the Upstairs and Midweek Midmorning. I’m also quite fond of the two EPs A Little Distraction and Staring at the Sky.

E: It’s pretty unusual for the drummer in the band to be its lead vocalist at the same time. How did that come about?

TL: It was really just born of necessity. We didn’t know any drummers that were that fun to hang out with and we didn’t own a drum machine. Our singer Tali did however own a snare drum, so he just started banging away on that. That was our entire drum kit for about five years. Then we added a full-time tambourine and that changed our sound entirely, ha, just kidding. But then he discovered that banging on a floor tom as well made it sound more like a regular drum kit, and he’s since then developed a weird-looking way of playing drums that is funny to watch.

E: With six albums released, is a 7th on the way?

TL: We’re actually about to pack our guitars and drums and stuff into Louis’ station wagon and sail on the ferry over to Tasmania where we’ll start recording a bunch of new songs in this great shack that’s tucked away amongst mountains in a rainforest valley. It gets really cold down there this time of year, and we’ll only have the heat from a large pot of soup on a woodfire stove to keep us warm, so we’ll be doing jumping jacks and push-ups in between takes and drinking some lovely Tasmanian pinot noir to keep us warm. Hopefully we make it out alive and get the album out by the end of the year.

(E): Esplanade’s editor

Posted with permission from the Esplanade. Information correct as of 21 May 08. For a whole lot more on Baybeats 08, please visit the official website at www.baybeats.com.sg.

Baybeats 08: Observation Deck
Meet-the-Artist: The Lucksmiths (AUS)
Sat, 30 Aug 2008
4.00 – 4.30pm
Open Stage, library@esplanade