'No More Of This Nonsense': I Know Leopard Have Gone Live On Their Debut LP

Sydney-based synth-pop enthusiasts and soft-rock disciples I Know Leopard have been releasing music here and there ever since 2014’s Illumina EP. But with the April release of their sparkly full-length debut, Love Is A Landmine, and a national tour in May to support it, lead singer, songwriter and keyboardist Luke O’Loughlin is stoked to finally be kicking the band into high gear after years of work. “It’s exciting, but it’s also fucking scary,” laughs O’Loughlin. “It’s weird because we’ve been living with these songs for so long, so I think the scary thing is that it’s gonna be open to scrutiny.”

Lucky for him, and the rest of the band, Love Is A Landmine absolutely rules. While it’s most definitely a synth-pop album to its core, the debut record also sees the group fully embracing their ‘70s soft-rock influences more so than ever before. “It’s really, really nice to put out a full body of work and properly get across what we're all about, it’s a good feeling.”

Where I Know Leopard triumph most gloriously over other modern records of the same yacht-rock-y ilk is in their use of intricate chord progressions. “We do have a real passion for fancy, or whatever you call it, 'jazzy'-sounding chords. We just love a lot of major sevenths and minor sevenths, they're often quite dreamy-sounding chords. It just comes from listening to a lot of that music and just enjoying it. Listening to it and going, 'Oh, I really wanna achieve that,' and then figuring out how to do that, even if it can take a whole day.”

"No more of this nonsense, let's be a real band, let's play it."

Produced entirely by Jack Moffitt of The Preatures, I Know Leopard's debut record is unsurprisingly a real treat through a good pair of headphones. Years ago, O’Loughlin first met Moffitt through Preatures bandmate, Luke Davison, who coincidentally also played all of the drum parts on Love Is A Landmine. Now a good mate of his, O’Loughlin immediately felt comfortable with Moffitt taking the reins as the producer of such a huge release for the outfit. “Jack’s such a good friend, and we’ve always gotten along really well and we see eye to eye on most things, which is great.”

Undoubtedly, having access to Moffitt's large collection of analogue synths was a big deal for I Know Leopard and the throwback sound they’ve spent years chasing. But according to O’Loughlin, most of the album’s authentic personality comes from Moffitt's unusual choice to track most of the album live as a band.

“It is unusual for a synth-pop album, and it's very unusual for us generally. Because up until that point we had never tracked anything live. The way we'd made music was that it'd start off as a demo and then from that demo, we'd slowly add things to it until it became the real thing. So it'd be a recording project, and then once it was done then we'd learn how to play it as a live band.”

It’s a shift in the creative process that’s paid off big time, both in the studio and on stage. Recent live performances by the band – especially their recent, warmly received set at Austin's SXSW – have sounded eerily faithful to the record, a tricky translation that synth-oriented bands often struggle to pull off. "The synths are quite dry. We used to use a lot of reverb, but there's really not much reverb on the album. We just wanted to be quite punchy and dry and not over-polish it. Quite raw in that way.

"When Jack first came in it was like, 'No more of this nonsense, let's be a real band, let's play it.' It was an awesome experience because it just opened up the songs to so many different possibilities. A few of the songs just took such dramatic changes from what they were intended to be, which was great, very exciting.

"And out of recording live, you get those little imperfections which really give the record a lot more character and you embrace it. They're actually some of my favourite moments on the record!"