Melbourne musician Davey Lane returns with his fourth solo album titled Finally, A Party Record [August 15th release]; a personal requiem of self-reflection, regret, reconciliation and parting ways with old habits.
Best known for his tenure in You Am I, Lane has also spent time as an esteemed gun-for-hire playing with Jimmy Barnes and Crowded House.
His side project The Pictures kept him busy too, when he wasn’t on the road with You Am I – a chance to explore pop rock ditties on his own terms.
Now, on his new solo album, Lane doesn’t shy from a spot of retrospection, feeling freer to share more about himself than he ever has.
Davey Lane spoke to The Write Drop for our At The Bar series. He talks about three new songs and what inspired them; and how singer songwriter Peter Gabriel helped him dig deep.
MY CITY
I don’t profess to be a particularly seasoned traveller, but I have visited a few places internationally over the years, each time expanding my culinary palate and outlook on life and the world. With very rare exception, Melbourne has somewhere for each and every one of those curiosities to be sated. It’s home.
FAVOURITE FOOD MEMORY
Thailand is a regular destination, and the food is a big part of it, so if I had to pick one food memory discovering Thai food would have to be it. I first went there close to 20 years ago when I was playing guitar for Jimmy Barnes. His wife Jane is Thai and experiencing food through their family lens was revelatory, still is in fact, Growing up in ‘90’s suburban Melbourne, Pad Thai and curry puffs with sweet chili sauce were the extent of Thai food. It’s a never-ending adventure. You’ve got to have an adventurous palate if you want to reap the extent of the rewards it has to offer but those rewards are to die for. Korean food is pretty outstanding too and it’s great to see it become increasingly prevalent here in Australia.
DRINK THAT DESCRIBES YOU
Old Fashioned. I’d like to think my world outlook and views are more of this day and age but my aesthetic tastes in music, fashion, art are pretty much all exclusively of a bygone era. And an Old Fashioned is my favourite of all the cocktails.
BEST HANGOVER CURE
My current favourite soup of Kombu broth, sashimi salmon, Udon noodles and two soft boiled eggs. Crushed sesame seeds and red pepper flakes. Restorative and one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. Easy to make too.
BEST INTERSTATE BAR
The Moon Café in Perth. Maybe it’s because I met someone who I had a crush on there, but it’s a great bar and has great cocktails. The Midnight Special used to be a regular when up in Sydney, but it’s been a while.
OVERSEAS BAR
The Great Georgiana, Brooklyn NY. I may be biased as it’s run by one of my best friends. It’s in one of my favourite spots in the world and feels far flung and homely all at the same time. Also, The Fox in Nashville is a favourite and I can’t wait to go back there. I also ache for a country pub somewhere in England. I’m not fussy, any one’ll do as long as it’s a few hundred years old!
FAVOURITE WINE
I’m no sommelier, and I have friends that are far more versed in wine, so I usually just go along with them. I just scanned my photos for a bottle I took a picture of – Azienda Agricola Bassi Pinot Bianco. I remember that one being particularly extraordinary. It was in Bologna, when I was on tour there a few years ago, I haven’t had it since sadly.
NEXT DESTINATION
I’m always skippin’ around the country, at this very second, I’m on my way for a few days in regional Victoria with You Am I. Internationally, probably the States later in the year. I have a few music making friends over there so there’s always music to be made, and my heart’s drawin’ me to New York and Nashville for some reason.
What inspired your new album?
Sorry to be a downer, but the brink of complete mental collapse did – to not put too blunt a point on it. Musical ideas I accrue reasonably regularly and with ease if I’m feeling inspired enough. But some life events a couple of years back gave me a bunch to write about. I sure ain’t grateful for the experience, but I am for it fuelling the creative fires in a weird way. I was almost going to call the album The Great Unravelling – because it kind of diarises a deep personal unravelling, and how I began to claw my way back from it. It’s also about being in my mid-40’s and finally finding some answers as to why my dang brain is the way it is. I wish I’d known in my 20’s as I could have saved myself a lot of anguish and self-flagellation, and been a way better partner, friend, son and brother. But better late than never huh? There’s a lot to write about there if you’re open enough to self-reflection.
Three songs and what they represent?
God I’m Fucked Up Over You – wrote this about a person I loved who fell off the face of the earth. I couldn’t finish the last verse. I eventually found out what happened to them and I finished the song. Musically I suppose it’s my love letter to 80s art pop, which I was listening to a lot at the time, still am! Can’t stop won’t stop.
If It Can Rain It’ll Rain – I love writing songs on piano. I wrote this pretty quickly. It’s the closing song on the record. I played a gig and recorded a crowd of 40 people singing along to the outro. We tracked it three times over to sound like 120 people and that’s what you hear at the end of the record. I suppose it’s a nice sentiment in its own screwed up way. “That was a fucking mess then, I’m sorry for my part in it, and I hope we can meet down the road sometime” is the crux of it basically.
Not Expecting To Fly – This is a bit of light relief from the reality of the other songs. I pulled out a keyboard that had been sitting in a box for years (the Roland J8-XP for synth nerds), switched it on and the first preset set me off. That sound and that keyboard wrote this song really, one of those cases where you feel like you’re just a conduit. The song was always there, I was just the lucky soul who got to catch it. It’s a ‘80’s pop/rock stomper and it’s got 4 guitar solos.
An album that changed your life?
The one that most immediately springs to mind is Peter Gabriel’s third self-titled solo album. The one fans refer to as Melt. It’s sonically so adventurous – anything that leaves me unable to comprehend how particular things sound the way they are just intrigues the hell out of me. I was listening to a lot of Peter Gabriel when making this album. With the odd exception, there’s not a heap on the record that sounds like him, but I suppose his music carries such emotional weight it gave me the courage to not be afraid to document my own emotional scars.
Over, Over and Out – a catchy new track with plenty of meaning – how personal is it for you?
Yeah, it’s reasonably personal. It’s about the seeming disconnect into the black of silence with minimal regret, emotion, or regard or empathy shown toward a situation. Not to say that regrets of my own aren’t etched into it too.
What makes Melbourne’s music scene different to anywhere in the world in your humble opinion?
There is certainly an element of community unlike anywhere else in the world here. I do sometimes wish it was a little less divided into genre-specific factions though. I make things that veer toward funk but I’m too rock for the funk people, I make DIY punk stuff occasionally but I don’t really fit there either. And power pop is in my blood, but there are some pretty certain parameters in that world that adhering to doesn’t interest me. Sometimes I feel a little adrift in Melbourne dabbling in all kinds of sounds but not really fitting in any one scene. It’s hard to be a dilettante sometimes ya know! Ha. But on the whole, there are some great venues and record stores like Rocksteady, Greville and Round And Round who are supportive of good music regardless of what it is.
DAVEY LANE – FINALLY, A PARTY TOUR
**TICKETS ON SALE NOW – AVAILABLE HERE**
THURSDAY AUGUST 28 – John Curtin Hotel, Melbourne
FRIDAY AUGUST 29 – The Chippo Hotel, Sydney
SATURDAY AUGUST 30 – The Outpost Bar, Brisbane
