BIGSOUND showcase act and winners of the WAM Awards 2018 for Best Country Song, Perth’s The Little Lord Street Band recently released their new music video for single ‘Waking Up Next To You’, now performing as a duo, both Natasha Shanks and James Rogers go on tour.
Hey guys thanks for chatting to Forte Magazine. First up, can you give us a quick introduction?
We [Natasha Shanks and James Rogers] began playing music together in 2013 when asked to play at a friends wedding in New Zealand. When we got back to Perth, we would play everywhere we could and somehow we swung a gig supporting The Whitlams. The catch for this amazing support slot was coming up with a better band name than just Tash and James. At the time we were living on Lord Street in Perth and the name The Little Lord Street Band just rolled out from there. Since then we’ve had friends join us bass, drums and all kind of instruments, we’ve played everywhere we can in WA and now we’re hoping to the same here in Victoria.
You released your third EP earlier this year which is cool! Can you tell us a bit about that?
We recorded it in July of 2017 in RADA studio in Perth. Our engineer/co-producer was Dan Carroll who’s also worked with The Kill Devil Hills, Davey Craddock, Timothy Nelson and The Floors. This EP certainly showcases a louder side to our songwriting which is good as our first EP, ‘No Turning Back’ is very much an acoustic EP and our Second EP ‘Walk With Me’ is slightly more ‘electric’ but still for the most part quite mellow. I feel these three EP’s together show a few different sides to our writing performing.
You also tore up the stage in Brisbane at BIGSOUND this year, how was it?
Well there’s certainly a lot of great music in this country and that there are people with mind-boggling degrees of talent. After a few rather exhausting days of meet and greets and talking shop it was good to just play a gig and remind yourself to have fun with your music. BIGSOUND’s new nickname is the Australian Music Olympics.
The title track single ‘Waking Up Next To You’ is said to be about all about the passionate fights that occur between two ardent artists/ lovers, who have too much spare time together and very little money. It sounds like this is directly based on personal experience?
Absolutely! It’s the first song Tash and I really wrote together. Although I’m singing it, it is effectively a conversation between Tash and myself. Since then we’ve learnt to have our own quarters in our house and when we’re on tour we have some alone time to keep things cool.
The video clip for this track is also a bit of fun – what’s your best memory from the making of the vid?
The video clip idea came to us very spontaneously at Sandfire Roadhouse between Broome and Port Hedland in the Northwest. Tash just started filming me acting like a goose to our song in one of the most isolated parts of the world and I guess it worked! But the best part of it was the bucket of water at the end, I really needed to convince Tash to do it!
You’re taking your duo set on the road over the next few weeks. What do you love about taking your music to a number of different stages?
Putting our music out there to different people is a real is a real buzz, there’s something to prove but nothing to lose at the same time. Touring can be a challenge but I find that it’s worth doing in the end and as a musician you’re only as good as your last gig.
What can people expect from your live shows?
Given this tour is in the duo format, it’ll be somewhat personable and stripped back but at the same quite energetic with vocal harmonies, acoustic guitars and stomp boxes. Tash and I will rip on each other for our shortcomings which we find usually gets a laugh from the crowd.
We see a lot of bands coming through from Perth. How do you find the music scene there, and how does it add to/effect your musical creativity?
I would certainly say that Perth could always have more places to play music (especially out in the suburbs). The Perth music scene is very supportive of one another and given Perth’s population, everyone sort of knows everyone, though I’m sure that’s the same for music scenes in most other cities. Creativity wise, Perth artists seem to do their own thing for a bit of fun and when we think of bands who’ve made it from Perth (Jebediah, Karnivool and Tame Impala) they were essentially doing that.
Best/worst thing about being in a duo?
It’s a test of our strengths and weaknesses when we play as a duo. It’s hard sometimes in pubs where you have to compete with a very vocal crowd that might consist of a footy game on the TV and a hen’s night. But I think playing as duo builds character as both a performer and a musician, and it’s easier to change the dynamics of a song to suit the audience or atmosphere of a venue. Playing as a duo allows us to interact and be more personable with our audiences which can be a bit of strength of ours, especially if we’re having an off night musically.
What’s next for you?
Once we get home to Perth we’ll be in the studio recording our debut album! We’ll also be getting around Perth and regional W.A. playing shows where we can to help pay for the album and to put our name out there. We hope to be releasing the album midway through next year.
When & Where: Pistol Pete’s Food n Blues, Geelong – November 8