Lawrence Arabia releases Singles Club Single No.12 ‘Just Sleep (Your Shame Will Keep)’

James Milne is a brave human. Whilst the sleeves of many artists are adorned with well-worn hearts as they release their complete albums into the world, as singer-songwriter Lawrence Arabia, James’ latest project offers a rare glimpse into the creative process through 12 separate Lawrence Arabia’s Singles Club releases – now available on digital services and soon on one handy LP or CD and bringing together an extensive list of VIP members.

And that, as they say, is a wrap! …well nearly…Twelve songs in twelve months. Written, produced, mastered and released digitally. Tick!

Next up is the release of the physical versions of this opus on March 29 2019, to be quickly followed by some out of the box show dates around New Zealand complete with a six-piece band.

“It truly was the perfect way to wrap up a fairly monumental year of music making.” – Lawrence Arabia

On November 18, 2018, Ryan Youens conducted a woodwind section and double bass playing Van Dyke Parks’ arrangement of the final single from Lawrence Arabia’s 2018 Singles Club, “Just Sleep (Your Shame Will Keep).” 

WATCH: A day of recording at Roundhead Studios in Auckland, NZ, shot and edited by Florian Habicht.

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 a 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.”

One day in late 2017, at his home in Auckland, James sent a message on a whim and suddenly found himself in an email tête-à-tête with Van Dyke. “The thrill was having the name Van Dyke Parks appearing in my email inbox and engaging the most florid parts of my vocabulary in order to respond to his brilliantly verbose communiqués,” he recalls. A “lullaby for neurotic adults,” ‘Just Sleep (Your Shame Will Keep)’ was originally written for Arabia’s psychedelic comedy podcast sensation, Mysterious Secrets Of Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium, but took on a new lease of life with the addition of Van Dyke’s piano, accordion, scratch woodwind and double bass. “Since I first heard of Van Dyke Parks, I’ve been fascinated by him, appearing as he did, Zelig-like, in the stories of people somewhat more famous than he, yet making some truly glorious art himself. I’d always nursed a fantasy of working with him.”

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.”

Woodwind and strings were recorded in Auckland’s Roundhead Studios with each track mixed in an office in the Dalmatian Cultural Society, surrounded by views of the city’s western suburbs and volcanic cones in the distance. “During the day there’s a constant hum of chit chat from neighbouring offices and the ping of the second-floor lift doors opening. At night, the building goes quiet, I’d turn the lights down low to evoke the sensation of a proper recording studio, but it never quite managed to shake the aura of the building’s bureaucratic past.” 

Bound with one seamless invisible thread, the album stands as a body of work capturing a moment in time. Like those buildings with their structure on the outside, Lawrence Arabia’s Singles Club exposes the inner-workings of what it takes to create a record and offers any member a one-way ticket to Dreamsville. “I’m delighted at how it all ended up flowing,” he tells. “I treated it like making a mixtape in extreme slow motion, so tried to make each song respond to the previous one the way you might when choosing a DJ set on the fly. Except this set was one year long, only twelve songs, and the songs had to be written and produced before they could be played.”

Just Sleep (Your Shame Will Keep)’
iTunes
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Credits:
Vocals – Lawrence Arabia
Piano and accordion – Van Dyke Parks
Flutes – Christine Kim, Luca Manghi
Oboe – Noah Rudd
Clarinet – Courtney Evison
Bass Clarinet – Andrew Uren
Double Bass – Bella Zilber

Produced by Lawrence Arabia
Arranged by Van Dyke Parks
Woodwinds, double bass and vocals engineered by Paddy Hill at Roundhead Studios, Auckland, NZ. Assisted by Emily Wheatcroft-Snape and James Dansey.
Woodwinds and double bass parts copied and conducted by Ryan Youens.
Strings engineered by Doug Lacy in Los Angeles.
Mixed by James Dansey at Wall Of Shit.
Mastered by Angus McNaughton at Auralux.