Darth Vader Helmets & David Lynch Endorsement Tweets: It's All In A Day For Tiny Ruins

"I think any words of encouragement – to an artist, they mean a lot more than I think maybe people realise," Hollie Fullbrook, who originally conceived Tiny Ruins as a solo project before it morphed into a four-piece band, opines. "But certainly those ones were," she laughs, referring to the time when David Lynch tweeted a recommendation that everyone should listen to Tiny Ruins.

We just have to know how Fullbrook got wind of this tweet. "Well the strangest thing is that I was talking about David to a coworker - I worked at the Auckland Central Library for a couple of years - and we were having this conversation, he's also a musician, and I was having a real, 'I don't know how much longer I can do this,' conversation with him the night before. And he said, 'Oh, you know, maybe you should try transcendental meditation, it works for David Lynch,'" Fullbrook recalls. "And we started talking about David Lynch and kind of laughing about it and, you know, it was just a funny conversation. And then the next morning that same coworker friend texted me and said, 'Have you seen what's just happened?' And my phone just started going crazy, like, I was receiving all these calls and messages from old school friends going, 'What is actually happening?' [laughs] because this was also happening [back when] we'd maybe only ever played in New Zealand - I don't think we'd done many shows overseas, you know, as a band - so it was pretty amazing, and my coworker friend and I still think that it was really spooky. 

"It was like [Lynch] was tuning into our conversation almost. It was very, very unnerving and I still don't quite know how the whole thing happened. But it was actually a year later that I ended up meeting [Lynch] and recording with him, so there was a little bit of time between that and then kinda getting my head around meeting the guy."

The resulting track, recorded and produced by Lynch, was Dream Wave, released as a Tiny Ruins single in 2016. So Lynch's tweet obviously had the desired effect. "I couldn't have asked for more encouragement, you know?" she concurs. "And it's been one of those things where I think most artists second guess whether they should be doing what they're doing on a daily basis, like, it's just a natural part of having a really uncertain job, and putting so much of your heart and soul into something. I don't think there's anyone that doesn't doubt what they're doing really frequently. So I still have those doubts, but certainly having that encouragement – I'll never forget that. Having that belief is a hugely powerful gift to be given... I mean, everyone needs reminding and encouragement – not just once in their life but, you know, definitely ongoing. Even if you are massively famous and huge – like, I'm sure Taylor Swift needs encouragement." 

Reflecting on the germination period of the band's upcoming third album, Olympic Girls, Fullbrook observes, "It's taken quite a while. I started writing it around the time that we were touring the last album [Brightly Painted One]. So I started writing it in 2014 and continued writing through 2015, 2016 we started recording and then the recording itself took a year. And then gearing up to releasing it has also taken about a year." 

Tiny Ruins guitarist Tom Healy produced both of those aforementioned albums and actually played in Jen Cloher's band. When Olympic Girls was completed, the band decided to shoot it off to some select "dream people" to find out what they thought of the album. "So we sent it to Jen and Courtney [Barnett] and I didn't really expect to hear back from them. But straight away - it was like almost a day later or the same day or something - they both got back to me immediately and said they loved what they were hearing and really wanted to be involved so, yeah! It was a big deal because [Barnett and Cloher's record label, Milk! Records] hadn't released anyone from outside of Melbourne before. It's a huge honour for us to be included on their roster.

"It was like [Lynch] was tuning into our conversation almost. It was very, very unnerving and I still don't quite know how the whole thing happened."

"Spunk Records who, like, discovered me and put out my earlier records really looked after me and they were an awesome label to be on," Fullbrook continues, "but I got to the point - and this was for globally as well - where I just felt like I really wanna search it out for myself, and seek out my team for myself, rather than kind of just accepting what came along to me and, yeah! It was a real kind of attitude change of being more proactive and making decisions for the band - not just for myself, but for the four of us - and I think it's been a bit of a growing up process as well." 

If you've been to a Tiny Ruins show lately you would've already heard the Wes Anderson-esque real life story that inspired Holograms, the latest single to be lifted from Olympic Girls. While riding through a forest in Zanzibar, Tanzania, Fullbrook fell off her moped. She was wearing a Darth Vader novelty helmet at the time and when she came to, Fullbrook was surrounded by a group of kids staring down at her. "It was a huge day," Fullbrook recounts. "I broke my shoulder and my foot and my hand and unfortunately the hospital– I was in Zanzibar, which is also kind of a crazy thing in and of itself. And I was actually breaking up with my partner at the time..." She trails off and laughs at the poetic tragedy of it all. Heartbroken and literally broken? "Yeah, I was very, very broken and they didn't have a whole lot at the hospital in Zanzibar. I ended up sort of just being in a hotel room for ten days while we tried to get all of this documentation for my travel insurance and, yeah! I just had no painkillers and it was a very kind of strange experience because I didn't experience that much pain – it was weird! I had three broken bones and I was really scratched up and, like, had a lot of grazes, but I was quite calm and I just read a book.

"Then after ten days, I finally got flown back to New Zealand and straight to the hospital, they re-broke my hand and put my foot in plaster and all of those things. I had to cancel a whole huge European tour that was gonna be my first [international] tour and I was very worried about my hand. And it's still not quite the same, actually, as my left hand. And I've still got a metal plate and pins in it so it does get a bit stiff, but, you know, what doesn't kill you..." she laughs again.