Cool Sounds' Dainis Lacey: "I'm Flexing My Musicianship More"

On his latest album as Cool Sounds, Melbourne-based multi-instrumentalist Dainis Lacey hijacks the jangly and sometimes bucolic pop sound of his previous releases and re-routes into 1980s new wave, disco and post-punk territory. Under the Cool Sounds moniker, Lacey has always been an intrepid creator – attempts to pinpoint the project’s signature sound are futile, but Lacey’s work is reliably inspired.

Like That is Cool Sounds’ first LP via Melbourne indie stable Chapter Music (CLAMM, Laura Jean) and the follow-up to 2021’s Bystander. As ever, Lacey is joined by a number of his talented contemporaries, including Dylan Young (Snowy Band), Ambrin Hasnain (Partner Look) and Pierce Morton (Bananagun). Music Feeds speaks to Lacey about the album’s ecstatic artwork, his stylistic manoeuvring and the project’s fluid constitution.

Cool Sounds: Like That

<a href="https://coolsounds1.bandcamp.com/album/like-that">Like That by Cool Sounds</a>

Music Feeds: The album cover features a graphic yo-yo snail connector toy against a painted backdrop of blue sky and green grass. It’s really something. What can you tell me about the choice of colours and creative direction for the album artwork?

Dainis Lacey: I worked with a couple of Melbourne artists and designers who I have worked with a lot in the past: Dan D’Angelo, who did the art for two of our older albums, Cactus Country and More To Enjoy, and Tom Muntisov, who has designed a lot of our T-shirts.

We tried to embrace the change in sound of this album in the colour palette, which was somewhat inspired by late-’70s/early-’80s new wave, disco and punk albums by artists like Chaz Jankel, Ian Dury and Talking Heads. The snail was Tom’s representation of some of the album’s slightly nihilistic themes.

MF: ‘Like That’, the last song on the album, sounds completely distinct from the rest of the album. It’s like The Jesus and Mary Chain with Christopher Owens on vocals and a bit of sax to prevent it from being total shoegaze homage. Beyond the sentiment of the line “Well I keep thinking maybe life’s just like that,” was there anything about this song that made you name the album after it?

Dainis: I love that you picked up on the Christopher Owens vibe, I’m a huge fan. ‘Like That’ was the last song I wrote for the album and the only one written outside of the flurry of the rest of the album. I think that’s why it sounds distinct. It kind of wraps up a sentiment that’s carried through the album, of accepting life’s difficulties.

Sometimes family move away, sometimes loved ones pass away, lots of rough things out of our control are happening all the time, but you just gotta roll on and do what you can.

MF: I always had the impression Cool Sounds was a band. It’s now officially your solo project, but you worked on Like That with Dylan Young, Pierce Morton, Ambrin Hasnain, and possibly others. What role did your collaborators play on the album in terms of songwriting and production?

Dainis: It’s kind of been more or less a solo project since More To Enjoy but I’ve always relied on help from friends, whether they were in the live band or not, to help record albums. The songwriting is something I do on my own but Dylan Young has helped a lot with production and adding his wonderful playing on drums, percussion and the odd guitar part. I think we have a great creative partnership.

MF: I’ve always enjoyed the sense of creative freedom that comes across on Cool Sounds albums. Are you ever particularly concerned about defining a “signature sound” for the project?

Dainis: I’ve never been super worried about that kind of thing. I’m not really online and I never really know what’s going on too much musically. I often start writing albums by trying things out until I write something that feels good and exciting to me and then I hurriedly write the rest of the album in an attempt to not lose that feeling. I think it makes each album feel somewhat cohesive yet distinct from one another. For this album, ‘6 or 7 More’ was the first song I wrote. For our last album, Bystander, ‘Plains’ was the first song written. They both work as somewhat of a guide sonically for the rest of the album.

Cool Sounds – ‘6 or 7 More’

MF: The first two singles, ‘6 or 7 More’ and ‘Hello, Alright, You Got That?’, started to make a lot more sense to me after seeing the music videos. That’s not always the case; sometimes videos can distract from the song. Do you value music videos as a way to further illuminate your songs?

Dainis: I think clips can be really tough but also really exciting when you are working on tiny budgets, like a lot of bands in our DIY scene are. Luckily we had a couple of great directors, James Morris and Aidan McDonald, who did every aspect of each clip for us. I love big pop clips that feel almost as integral to the song as the music itself but personally I just try to make something somewhat unique and fun.

MF: What do you think are some things you’ve achieved on this record – be it in your musicianship, sounds/production, songwriting style, lyrics – that were new territory for you, or felt like a breakthrough?

Dainis: I think every Cool Sounds album has an emphasis on a different aspect of the production or songwriting. To me, More to Enjoy felt spontaneous and vibey, Bystander felt like a breakthrough lyrically and Like That feels like an album where I’m flexing my musicianship a little more.

I wasn’t afraid of playing stuff that’s a little showy. It’s been super fun to play live and I love playing with the current live band of Dylan Young, Jen Sholakis, Nick Kearton and Ambrin Hasnain. They are all such good musicians in their own right; I think we have a great thing going on.