2 days ago
INTERVIEW: Davey Lane is a Guitar-Wielding Man of the Cloth
It's My Party & I'll Cry If I Want To
Starting with the recent single and sumptuous piece of Neil Finn-esque pop Over, Over & Out, Lane explains that the song, like its parent album, is demonstrative of a comfort he's developed with allowing his foundational influences to show through. While there can be a sensitivity or even stigma among some musicians when using sounds established by artists that have become the bedrock of contemporary music, Lane's at ease with not trying to reinvent the wheel.
'When I was younger and started making my own records, I thought, okay, I'm going to make a concerted effort to embrace new influences that've been percolating in my head. Nothing I make is going to sound like You Am I or The Beatles,' he explains. 'But eventually I thought, who cares? That's in my blood 'til the day I die, so why deny it? I'm now mature enough not to worry about stuff like that, and while I really hope people enjoy the record, I'm making it for my own creative satisfaction as well.'
I don't think Lane should harbour too many concerns about whether listeners will enjoy his latest effort. 'Finally, A Party Record' is a highly rewarding and richly layered exploration of his musical identity, and despite the impressive variety of sounds on offer, the whole feels more cohesive than it might in a lesser musician's hands. From sleek synths that call to mind the neon skyline of '80s Miami to biting guitars that echo The Replacements, the album wears its influences on its sleeve. Yet, it never approaches the derivative. In fact, it's a fantastic example of one of pop music's great traditions: pairing catchy melodies and soaring musicality with deeply personal and, at times, dark lyrics.
'I try to write positive, upbeat songs, and you know what? That's hard. It's fucking hard.'
'I can't do it without feeling disingenuous,' Lane laughs with a hint of self-deprecation. 'So if I get into that zone where I'm feeling anger or whatever, I'd rather write a song than say something I might regret.'
This approach has served Lane well across his new 10-song collection, whether it helped realise the boy-girl dynamics of Absent Lover, the beautiful yet heart-wrenching despair of God, I'm Fucked Up Over You, or Remedies' potent sense of isolation, acutely expressed in the lyric 'How clearer can I say that I am not okay?'
When it comes to the latter of these, Lane reveals the song was written while he was enduring Melbourne's notorious COVID-19 lockdowns: 'Like a lot of people, I was at a point where I was just drinking all day. Any time I see a picture from around then (not that a lot of pictures were being taken at the time), I look ruddy and puffed up, because what the fuck else was there to do? So the song is about that. There have been other songs on vices that are certainly more profound or articulate, but this is just another one of them.'
Remedies is a better song than Lane gives himself credit for, although it's arguably overshadowed by the track that follows, If It Can Rain, It'll Rain. Closing out the album, it starts as a grand slice of '60s pop—something like an Australian sibling to The Beatles' A Day in the Life—before transforming halfway through to become a glorious, bittersweet singalong that's utterly infectious.
