Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.
In this Love Letter To A Record series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.
Sean, Flimsey Lohan – Trio Da Kali And Kronos Quartet Ladilikan, (2017)
‘Ladilikan’ was gifted to me by an ex after we broke up. Much like that relationship, the record made me feel a lot of feels – joy, sorrow, relief – it really has got the whole gamut.
I was in a pretty bad place when we first connected in Berlin. My previous band, Foreign/National, had just wrapped up a European tour, and I was living in the German capital with my girlfriend at the time. Things weren’t going well between us, and I was partying too much; money was running out. So we broke up, and I returned home to Australia and started a relationship with the other more or less immediately (yeah, I know – I’m a sucker for the romantic). The relationship was chaotic, intense and short. But at its conclusion, regardless of how it ultimately ended, it left me a better, more balanced person.
Ladilikan will be forever tied to my memories of it and the lessons learnt.
Kronos Quartet’s western classical sensibilities blend somewhat magically with the traditional sounds of some of Mali’s most esteemed musicians, all coming from famous musical lineages – Singer Hawa Diabate (daughter of the great Kassé Mady Diabate), Mamadou Kouyaté (son of personal favourite Bassekou Kouyaté) on bass ngoni and Balafon player Fodé Lassana Diabaté.
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Flimsey Lohan are a Melbourne-based jazz-rap group who’ve just returned with their suave new single ‘Freeway Hitter’ – produced, mixed and mastered at Good Mood Studios.
“We were headed out to pick up some recording gear near Geelong, and on the way, some crew threw a full can of something off an overpass at our car,” the group explain.
“The can spun through the air in slow motion as we sunk into our seats, bracing for what we thought would be an absolute disaster. But, instead, the can missed the windscreen by an inch and thumped the roof of the car. The song was already kind of written at that point, but maybe it was destiny because now the song is inseparably tied to that memory. Aside from that, the song is kind of about trying to figure out where you’re going and just enjoying the absurd journey we’re all on.”
Listen to ‘Freeway Hitter’ below!
