Aotearoa/New Zealand “Bedroom-Pop” composer, multi-instrumentalist, Lukas Mayo aka Pickle Darling returns with their sophomore album, Cosmonaut (out May 21st on ZTapes) and shares two songs, ‘Rosary’ and ‘A Deep Breath’.
‘Rosary’ – listen here: https://smarturl.it/aryle
‘A Deep Breath’- listen here: https://smarturl.it/dthr
“And if you think it feels like work, I’m willing to put the work in,” sings Lukas Mayo, aka Pickle Darling, on their 48 second song ‘Rosary’ released today. ‘Rosary’ is accompanied by fellow single, ‘A Deep Breath’. Both tracks are from their new album Cosmonaut, an album about long distance relationships but inspired by the world of science fiction and space travel.
Mayo reveals about the shortest song he’s ever written, “Rosary is my favourite song on the album. It’s two lines and I’m always pushing my songs to be as short as possible. I became obsessed with the short stories of Lydia Davis; some of her stories are about a single sentence long but contain a whole world. Almost as soon as I started writing it, it felt finished.”
‘A Deep Breath’ is the track that took the longest to write, Mayo explains, “there’s so many intertwining parts and I was trying to do the Philip Glass / Steve Reich thing of taking simple little melodies and just shifting them forward or back a tiny bit until everything sounded super intricate and detailed. There’s some banjo shredding on this one lol.”
Pickle Darling’s upcoming album Cosmonaut finds them leaving not only the bedroom but… the atmosphere. While earlier releases spring onion pancakes EP and debut album Bigness pulled from the world of mumblecore films, Cosmonaut pulls from science fiction and space travel, as seen in the album’s artwork (a tribute to the art of classic science fiction books such a Dune and The Rings of Saturn), the song titles (‘Achieve Lift!’), and the live band’s outfits (the band wears boiler suits looking almost like a training space crew).
Earlier this week Pickle Darling released the instrumental version of the 2019 debut album, Bigness. On its first release the record was welcomed internationally with open arms garnering the coveted nod of Bandcamp’s Album of the Day with the writer extolling “the very embodiment of the kind of bleeding-heart intimacy that should define bedroom pop convention, but rarely ever does.” Indie tastemakers, Goldflakepaint waxed lyrical describing the album as “inspired little flashes of magic”.
2020 found Pickle Darling touring with indie-pop dream boats, The Beths, and 2021 will have them releasing Cosmonaut with a full 12-date New Zealand tour, continuing to compose the soundtrack for an LGBTQIA+ indie game called ShelfLife (an RPG about a non-binary art student), as well as finishing up their third album.
“It’s an album that immediately throws you into a world bursting with colour and excitement, and maintains it throughout.” – soundsgoodblg (Bigness)
“a wide variety of beautiful, meticulously arranged sounds.” – indiebrew (Bigness)
“each track that Pickle Darling crafts is bold and unnerving, unashamed and not allowing one element to overbear the others.” – Goldflakepaint (springonionpancakes)
“’Bigness’ is adorable. Hand-knit sweater giving among friends followed by an extended group hug session adorable.” – Counterzine
“the ramshackle nature of that genre spruced up (reinvented) and allowing the inspired little flashes of magic to shine” – Goldflakepaint (Bigness)
Follow Pickle Darling Online:
Bandcamp: https://pickledarling.bandcamp.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pickledarlinggg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pickledarling/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pickledarlingmusic/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLqaUR0LzenMCSoaWc0Oy3w
Game soundtrack: https://www.shelflife.pizza
