Seamless

With experimentation always at the forefront, Lyndon Blue has managed to incubate and hatch an impressive brood of sonic projects over the past three years. Although Seams is the closest to pop of Blue's many projects - Solar Barge, Leafy Suburbs, Heathcote Blue and the newly-formed Spirit Level with Erasers' Rupert Thomas - the band's ethos still reflects a desire to mess with expectation.

“In Seams we wanted to take that classic band configuration and do a whole heap of different things with it,” Blue explains. “We're not super unique of course, but I don't think it's something that many people are trying to pursue here. I love heaps of bands in Perth - but with Seams I take inspiration from a bunch of American bands who in turn have a lot of tropical influences. We've been listening to Brazilian music, but also bands like Tune Yards with a strong African influence. I don't know if that many people are trying to channel that in Perth, but maybe they are and I just don't know of them.” 

After a steady stream of single releases, with local and international remixes as B sides, Bad Prisms is Seams' first extended release, coinciding with a turn to more sombre subjects. “It's definitely not a concept album or anything, but this time it felt right to have this group of songs together,” Blue reflects. “A lot of the tracks have something to do with caves, bones… and ice. It wasn't a conscious thing but it just kind of started to all make sense. It's a bit grimmer than some of the releases we've done before. But at the same time still not too bleak - we're trying to still make it fun.”

Blue counts particularly vivid dreams and recent visits to the Catacombs in Paris and caves in Thailand as part of the album's inspiration. “There's one song on the album set in Paris from the perspective of this guy Décure who carved a statue inside the catacombs of a fortress and prison he'd been kept in. He was a quarryman, but then in his spare time he was carving this elaborate sculpture. I believe he was eventually crushed by stones in the tunnel he was carving in. That song's called Deep Bones.

“There's another song that's based on a dream I had in a car once. In the dream I woke up in a cave and I was really old. It was just about getting to the end of your life and feeling like you'd run out of time. Feeling kind of cheated by that. That was the vibe of the dream anyway.” 

Mortality might have seemed at odds with the enthusiastic tropical pop of the group's sound, but Blue explains that the preoccupations of the album merged easily. “It's not moaning about death, it's more like a conversation. Celebrating something that exists in spite of those feelings.”

Blue and bandmates Louisa Burton and brothers Daniel and Ben Firkin are equally committed to pushing Seams into new territory and evolving their sound. “I guess our aim is just to have better songs every time. The band is about always trying new things, trying to bring things into the mix that don't necessarily make sense to us straightaway. I feel like this record's got a fairly consistent sound through it - maybe it's some kind of a plateau and we'll go somewhere else next time.” And true to form, Blue's solo projects are equally on the move… “I might revamp Solar Barge with a jazz flavour.”

Seams will be playing the following dates:

Friday 19 April - Mojo's Bar, Fremantle WA