Laneous Normal Music (Purple)

Laneous is back with a new 4-track EP ‘Normal Music’—the long-awaited follow-up to his 2020 singles ‘Elsewhere’ and ‘Flawless’. Touting this release as “cootie-free entertainment”, ‘Normal Music’ is the latest recorded evolution of one of Naarm/Melbourne’s (via Meanjin/Brisbane) most influential musicians.
With the exception of Perrin Moss (Hiatus Kaiyote) on drums, Laneous played everything else, writing three of the four songs mostly on-the-fly at The Grove studio in Coburg. Grammy-nominated Nick Hererra (Hiatus Kaiyote, 30/70, Nai Palm) once again handled recording, production, sonics and mixing.
‘Normal Music’ displays Laneous’ unique modus operandi that distinctly combines subtly humorous lyricism, catchy ditties and stunning chord progressions. It’s a gorgeous, whimsical ride showcasing the evolution of his trademark ‘mutant-soul/croon punk’ sound that will make day one Laneous fans rejoice.
‘Normal Music’ is out 16 November via Soul Has No Tempo.
01 Work Play
“‘Work Play’ is a song that is basically about wanting to be paid better. Less work and more pay. So that I can afford to lie around in bed and share memes. And so that I can have more time in bed with my many kept lovers. Who I look after financially so that they can also hang around in bed.
The song was mostly written on the spot in the studio, I only had some lyrics and a couple of chord ideas before we started laying things down. After Perrin put the drums down he also added lots of pretty wild percussion including one of those skin tambourines that you change the pitch of the skin with your fingers. A star of the song indeed.”
02 Socially And Emotionally Distant
“This is a song inspired by online life during the covid lockdowns in Victoria, the longest lockdowns in the world, which I absolutely loved, despite how weird socialising mostly online can be. The song talks about people misinterpreting other peoples comments and intentions because of a lack of nuances and humanity in text based communication, and how I learnt to not bother getting involved in online arguments.
This song only existed as the chorus line before fleshing it out in the studio.“
03 Nice Work
“‘Nice Work’ has no deep meaning, just a bunch of cool sentences with pop culture references and a bit of braggadocio stuff about being a cool guy. A lot of this was written as I was recording it, which is my favourite way to make music. The lyrics really wrote themselves, I could go on forever with that formula.
Me and my housemate Sam Hall (who made the ‘Flawless’ film clip) made a clip for this in lockdown, a few sessions getting drunk and dancing around the house with my other housemate Kingu Pouf.”
04 Smart Enough
“This song is about self awareness and alcohol. Being just self aware enough to acknowledge you're not very self aware. And using alcohol to be less self aware. As both a positive and negative thing. Apologies to anyone who is offended by any of the language used in this song.
This song was fully written before coming into the studio, unlike the other songs. I had been keen to get this one down for a while. It is musically inspired by T. Rex (Marc Bolan), and producer of his album "Electric Warrior" Tony Visconti.”