I Know Leopards, Luke O’Loughlin, talks Love Is A Landmine Albums and Tour
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I Know Leopards, Luke O’Loughlin, talks Love Is A Landmine Albums and Tour

2014 saw the first release of I Know Leopard music with debut EP ‘Illumina’, but now after three years in the making, the foursome from Sydney have released their debut album, ‘Love Is A Landmine’. Frontman Luke O’Loughlin had a chat to us about the album and upcoming national tour.

“I Know Leopard, has been around for quite a while and we had our first EP come out in 2014 but the project almost existed a bit before that as well but it was just kind of experimenting with sounds and figuring out what we wanted to do,” says O’Loughlin. “But it’s changed so much over the years. I feel like this album is really a culmination of those years of experimenting and trying different sounds with different releases and I feel like we’ve arrived at our true identity with Love Is A Landmine.”

Produced by Jack Moffet of The Preatures, the album is made up of unconventional love songs, not just in a romantic sense, but encompassing all of loves forms. Coming from personal experience, ‘Love Is A Landmine’ draws on from issues of mental health that have surrounded the band member and shines a light on love from both ends of the spectrum.

“Love Is a Landmine (single) has the best line to convey the meaning of the album is the line in that song, ‘you better pray it isn’t true that there’s a landmine out there waiting for you’,” explains O’Loughlin. “I think that love is one of those things that it brings a lot of joy, in my life anyway speaking from personal experience, but it is also something that in my life has brought me a lot of alienation and pain at the same time. If you look at it in a dark way, you know in that painful part of love, it is almost like stepping on a landmine.”

The vibrancy of the sounds within the record paints a different picture. It has a distinct late 70’s/ early 80’s sound with the use of authentic period synths from mixer, Luke Millions, immaculate collection, acting as its own bold character, with hints of Electric Light Orchestra and John Lennon coming through.

“I love all of Lennon’s stuff, post-Beatles Lennon stuff, but I was more listening to Electric Light Orchestra. [Jeff Lynne] was more or less a John Lennon acolyte in that way- ELO are maybe where the Beatles would have gone after they stopped,” reflects O’Loughlin. “I think ELO are a huge influence on the whole record actually just in the way the strings are interwoven. I kind of looked into that effect on both Lennon and Jeff Lynne’s vocals that they did…That vocal sound I’ve just been obsessed with since I’ve listened to Lennon and ELO so we did definitely steal that [laughs].”

With O’Loughlin always being a fan of synths and layers of sounds, Love Is A Landmine is no different, however, the process to create the album was.

“Up until this point we’ve never actually learnt how to play our songs live until after we’ve recorded them, whereas this time with Jack [Moffert] coming in and helping us, he was kind of like ‘okay, let’s actually get the songs down as a band first and play them as a live band’.”

And you’ll be able to hear that record live this coming May when I Know Leopard stop by The Workers Club Geelong on Thursday May 23. Tickets are still available, so get in quick!

Written by Tammy Walters
Photo by Lisa Businovski