THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE HIGHLY PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE: Pickle Darling

As Pickle Darling, Lukas Mayo (they/them) has quietly releases a series of EPs, singles and albums which sneak up on you. We've written about their earlier Laundromat and a fortnight ago their new and more ambitious album Battlebots.

Mayo seduces with glockenspiel and hushed guitars to deliver fascinating miniatures which are very personal but also cleverly abstract.

Hard to describe but very attractive to immerse yourself in.

Given that Battlebots sees them stretching out a bit more while remaining true to an ethos of fragility, we thought it time to learn more about Pickle Darling.

So . . .

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Christchurch! 

Was music an important part of your childhood?

Absolutely! No one in my family was a musician or anything but my parents always had a CD collection so in my spare time I was always going through it and reading all the liner notes.

What are your earliest childhood memories of music which really affected you . . . 

I think it was The Beatles ‘1’ compilation and The Bee Gees 2CD greatest hits that were kind of the first albums I got into as a kid. And then I’d go to the library and borrow CDs and rip them to my computer, just a weird range.

That was probably how I got into a lot of the music I loved, I got Beth Orton ‘Trailer Park’ from the library and I remember being quite obsessed with it. And then I’d also get out all the music magazines, NME, Q, Rolling Stone, MOJO, and just read every single review and listen to everything.

I didn’t just like listening to music, I loved reading about it and getting an idea of how it all fitted together, or the general arc of people’s discographies, etc.

Was there a time when you felt it was going to be music and nothing else?

Yeah, probably in high school, as soon I got into writing and recording music, all my other grades kind of plummeted. I think to be in music for a long time, you kind of have to be bad at everything else, which I am.

There’s always more sensible options that can tempt you away from it. But if you don’t really have other options it makes it a lot easier to stay in music for life. 

When you started on your music career were people around you supportive or did you have to find those people?

I never really thought about ‘career’, I didn’t really grow up around musicians in high school, I didn’t go to a very artsy school, so I had no clue what a music career looked like.

I think people were maybe a bit surprised at how dedicated I ended up being to my music, I don’t know if people would have predicted that for me. But yea by the time I was through polytechnic, etc, all my friends were musicians.

The first song of yours which you really felt proud of was . . .? And why that one?

‘Mouthful’ which was on my first EP and album. I think I realised I didn’t know how to make anything that sounded like anyone else, I only knew how to make things that sounded like me.

I was trying to make something like The Go! Team or Sparklehorse, or The Postal Service, and it landed kind of exactly between all those three. 

Any one person you'd call a mentor, angel on your shoulder or invaluable fellow traveller?

Mousey! Sarena is one of my best friends and I feel like we’ve had a kind of parallel journey in terms of releasing music and navigating through it together.

Where and when was the first time you went on stage as a paid performer?

I did a bunch of in-stores but those weren’t really paid. I did a tour late last year that was kind of a double solo tour with my friend Ryan Fisherman.  We did three shows across NZ. 

Ever had stage fright or just a serious failure of nerve before going on stage?

Always!! Literally always. I never get used to it.

As a songwriter, do you carry a notebook or have a phone right there constantly to grab ideas they come? Or is your method something different?

My notes app! It’s my most valuable tool as a songwriter.

What unfashionable album do you love as a guilty pleasure?

Oh so many. Late career U2, like post-Pop, is kind of stuff I weirdly can go really deep on. But their album Zooropa is my favourite, maybe that’s probably on the cusp of being unfashionable.

Also I am a big fan of the first Seal album. Just an insane amount of bangers. Plus the first four Coldplay albums, though I feel like they’ve become a bit cool again.

Also I love Pearl Jam, I feel like I could write an essay on them. I listen to their bootlegs a lot, for me their albums aren’t amazing but their bootlegs are kind of the correct way into the band.

Honestly so much of the music I love is unfashionable, I don’t really care for a lot of the cool important bands. I don’t care for music by The Doors or Sonic Youth or like most of the Nick Cave albums. I’m so much more into pop song structures.

I love Carole King and Burt Bacharach, for me they are kind of where it all leads to, everything I love about songwriting kind of points toward to them. 

Any piece of advice you were given which you look back on which really meant something?

Honestly I feel like I’ve had to make up my own advice to give myself. My experience has been mostly trying to follow my own intuitions against maybe the ‘correct’ way to do things.

In the music world, there are a lot of people giving you advice or telling you how to be more professional. The thing is, those people all have jobs in the music industry, but none of them would have jobs if it weren’t for the musicians that they are so happy to give advice to.

So now my rule is to always kind of just do what I want. I don’t go for industry showcases or things that always cost money but with the promise of success! I would never pay to go to some music industry mentoring event on how to market your music better.

None of that works.

You don’t need to keep spending money on these things or putting your time toward these things. I don’t think they do anything! 

It's after a performance/concert and you are in a hotel room or back at home, what happens then?

I make a cup of tea and hang out with my cat.

Is there any fellow artist you admire for professional and/or personal reasons?

At the moment an artist I think about a lot is the writer Anne Tyler. I like people that are ‘lifers’ in their medium, that keep chipping away at their thing at their own pace and aren’t necessarily making big grand statements.

All her books are maybe about the same thing, they’re all about families, but the fact that she keeps kind of digging deeper and deeper into one thing I think is really admirable and maybe the sort of career I’d want.

I love Guided By Voices and Michael Hurley (rest in peace!) and The Reds Pinks and Purples, they’re just releasing records because that’s what they do. Not waiting for inspiration, and not making big grand statements. Just doing it because that’s their way of processing the world.

I like that work ethic. I’d want to put out a record every 2 years until I’m 80.

And finally, where to from here for you do you think?

I’ve written the next album!

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You can hear and buy Pickle Darling's music at bandcamp here.