Photo Credit: Amelia Handscomb
(NSFW – You’ve been warned!)
After a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign in January 2018, and a year-long public gestation, during which Lawrence Arabia wrote, produced and released twelve monthly singles, Lawrence Arabia’s Singles Club is available today to the public in its complete form, on LP, CD and digital, accompanied by a brand new NSFW music video for early single “Everything’s Minimal,” a duet with Tiny Ruins’ Hollie Fullbrook.
NSFW Watch: Lawrence Arabia’s ‘Everything’s Minimal’
With thanks to NZ On Air
Both director Loren Taylor and Lawrence Arabia had a few words to say about their not-so-family-friendly music video, a deeper environmental message ebbing beneath the surface:
Lawrence Arabia: “I suppose this song was a bitter shot across the bows of the kinds of people who represent their lives on social media as being all happy afternoons doing crafts with their children on Danish mid-century furniture. Behind closed doors, they’re probably swearing at the little shits while mopping up puddles of urine.
Loren Taylor: “The lyrics spoke to me about the inherent hypocrisy of affluence – beautiful, harmonious, immaculate, hygienic living spaces where all our shit is made invisible to us. So I wanted to make something that showed what a filthy species we can be (the rhythm of the song lent itself to comedy humping). The dump was a revelation. I wish every person could stand on those mountains of our stinking rubbish and contemplate their consumption choices. And there, where you’d least expect it – the utter breathtaking beauty of a murmuration of gulls and pigeons.”
Lawrence Arabia: When I received Loren’s treatment, apart from laughing a lot, I had this thrill that we were doing something a bit subversive and naughty. Seeing it now, I’m delighted that it’s been able to extrapolate on the theme of the song and add some pretty vivid and disgusting, yet beautiful, images to people’s experience of the music.”
Following hot on the heels of the album and video release, Lawrence Arabia takes to the road next week, beginning in Christchurch on Wednesday April 3, with a six piece band featuring Heather Mansfield (The Brunettes), Claire Cowan (Blackbird Ensemble), Anita Clark (Motte) and usual suspects, Tom Watson, Alistair Deverick and Hayden Eastmond-Mein. It’s a show of psychedelic meditations, chamber pop arrangements and full noise rockouts, featuring an all singing band and about as many instruments as you can fit onto a club stage.
Lawrence Arabia Singles Club NZ Tour
Christchurch – Wed 3 April – Blue Smoke
Oamaru – Thurs 4 April – Grainstore Gallery
Dunedin – Fri 5 April – Captain Cook
Queenstown – Sat 6 April – Sherwood
Wanaka – Sun 7 April – Festival of Colour (11am show)
Napier – Thurs 11 April – Cabana
Wellington – Fri 12 April – San Fran
Paekakariki – Sat 13 April – St Peter’s Hall
Auckland – Fri 26 & Sat 27 April – Hollywood Cinema
Tickets Available Now from Banished Music and Undertheradar
Support Artist Announcement:
Wellington-based, Christchurch-native “violin witch” Motte (aka Anita Clark) is supporting all dates.
https://mottemotte.bandcamp.
https://www.facebook.com/
Auckland bills include Being. on Friday 26 April and Hans Pucket on Saturday 27 April
BEING. is the moniker for Auckland based Indie artist Jasmine Balmer. The music of BEING. is “crushingly tender, open-hearted surf pop with clear-eyed lyrics pressed through tumbling guitars and the magnetic vocal tone of Jasmine Balmer.”
https://www.facebook.com/
Wellington-based indie pop trio Hans Pucket are a pop band made up of Callum Devlin, Oliver Devlin and Jonathan Nott
https://www.facebook.com/
Launched as a Kickstarter to write, record and release a digital single every month in 2018, Lawrence Arabia’s 2018 Singles Club saw more than 368 backers pledge NZ$ 23,710 to help bring the project to life. Talented pals contributed to the project including The Ruby Suns’ Ryan McPhun, Hollie Fullbrook of Tiny Ruins (singing on ‘Everything’s Minimal’), Heather Mansfield from The Brunettes (singing alongside Liam Finn’s drums on ‘A Little Hate’) and a dream collaboration with psychedelic hero, Van Dyke Parks. “The whole experience was initially terrifying but ultimately heart-warming and encouraging,” recollects James. “The energy from all that rampant human positivity ended up pushing me into the process of producing twelve new songs with some sense of manic, irrational vigour. It was pretty exciting.”
Constructed in Lawrence Arabia’s revered bedroom recording style, each Singles Club offering was built with ruthless ambition. ‘Everything’s Minimal’, ‘Cecily’, ‘Meaningless Words’ and ‘Oppositional Democracy’ began through the course of the year and were completed in the following months whilst other songs were revived from rough demos that followed 2016’s Absolute Truth as quickly and instinctually as possible. “The time pressure of the process definitely influenced the way I arranged the songs – I had to make bold decisions and stick to them, or tear them apart brutally and start again pronto.”
Lawrence Arabia Online:
Official Website: http://www.lawrencearabia.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/
Bandcamp: https://lawrencearabia.
