Interview + Single Feature | LXRP
A dirty old picket fence, shed jams, 90s CGI and how a joke led to a record deal
Ahead of supporting Second Idol (Sydney) at Cactus Room with Sacred Hearts and False Animal on Saturday 7th March, Noah catches up with LXRP to talk about their new single Maintenance and upcoming album due in May this year via Trans-Brunswick Express.
Hello Mish, Amy and Heather, you have recently dropped your brand-new single Maintenance, which follows your debut single, Artifacting, which is more on the reflective side than the propulsion of the previous one. How does it feel to have it out in the world and what’s the response been like?
Heather: The response has been really fantastic. Maintenance wasn’t our first choice for a second single but in our first year of playing it live it seemed to become a crowd favourite, with people always mentioning it as the most memorable one. It’s nice to finally get the ball rolling on our debut album release with the single release, since we’ve been sitting on all these songs for quite a while.
Amy: As we were writing the album we felt like there was a clear divide between the ‘moodier’, slower songs and the faster or dancier songs, so it’s been a lovely surprise to see audiences at our shows respond so well to that slower material.
Mish: Artifacting was the second song we wrote but we knew from early on we wanted to hit a bunch of different styles. Maintenance came a bit later and is a lot more direct than Artifacting.
I got the idea after I saw a dirty old picket fence on my way home from work. I get most of my ideas on my commute or in the shower - half of this song came from the walk between Croxton station and my old place and the other half came in the shower.
This project is my first real go at singing and writing lyrics and I’m glad people are nice about it.
Our single launch last Friday with Shirkher and Simona 808GTR was really beautiful and it was heartwarming to see The Old Bar packed out with old and new friends dancing and singing along.
I appreciate the post-punk / dance-punk sound that you make and feel there is not enough of it going on right now. I am a real fan of Sydney’s Orion and Low Life which I can hear some similarities in what you do and it’s super nice to hear that sound emanating closer to home. Can you give us a snapshot of how LXRP came together?
Mish: Heather and I are both from NSW. I’m from the central west and used to take the train up for shows before I moved to naarm in 2017. Heather started going to gigs there around the time I left and saw a lot of the same bands as I had. We talked for the first time because I was excited to see that a local twitter mutual had reviewed the M.O.B. Australiens 1, 2 & 3 tape on bandcamp - bands and labels in early-mid 2010s Sydney got me way more into local music than I ever had been. I haven’t really played music before, but after we became friends a couple of years ago Heather heard me chant at a Palestine rally and made it all happen because my voice was so loud. We spent a few months rehearsing and writing in the shed at Heather’s old place in Maidstone before we played our first show.
Heather: Orion and Low Life are definitely in our DNA, but I personally also really resonate with New Order and their blending of club music and punk. My guitar tone is primarily a mix of that chorus pedal Sydney sound mixed with the hypnotic reverb textures of Deerhunter’s music, especially the guitar sound on Cryptograms.
I think all of us having really wide-reaching yet compatible musical sensibilities (especially our bassist Amy) is what lends us our unique sound.
Amy: I definitely inherited a love of The Cure and Talking Heads from my parents, and I was all over Squid’s Bright Green Field and Shame’s Songs Of Praise in high school, so I was really keen to start a post-punk type band with Heather after we met.
Once the three of us were practicing together in a shed, things came together super quickly, and we had a whole set written after only a handful of rehearsals.
You recorded Maintenance in a single day I believe in true DIY style. Can you tell us a bit about the set up and the way you did it for all the tech nerds out there (including myself).
Heather: It was our whole debut album we recorded in a day, actually! My partner Allison Walker (of Skink Tank) is a genius audio engineer, so we just recorded it at our home with all of her gear. I believe Amy’s bass was both mic’d and DI’d, and my Fender Deluxe Reverb was stereo mic’d to make the guitar super thick and washy. All the instrumentals were done in the same take and then Mish would do a vocal take over the top, and that was pretty much it for each track. Using a drum machine helps make everything much easier. Allison spent a long time mixing the record fastidiously so her work along with Casey Rice’s mastering tied everything together beautifully.
Amy: Allison’s done such an incredible job with the record, and it was so refreshing to get the bulk of recording done in one session.
Mish: I also live in that house now which makes band practice really convenient.
The single is the second taste from your self-titled debut album that’s set for release in May 2026 via Trans-Brunswick Express. Can you tell us about the connection you have to the label and what it’s like to have them back what you are doing?
Mish: I’ve known Simona Castricum from Trans-Brunswick Express for a bit and she put on a show last year where we were one of the supports.
At the end of our set, I made a joke about having recorded an album but not knowing how to release it, asking for any takers. She ended up being keen, and she knows her shit!
It’s a bit of an honour to work with her. I love her music and label, but it’s really nice having mates like her who are heaps funny, clever, and then on top of that willing to give new music a leg up.
The Music Video is really something. I love the energy and movement and graphics. Who are the brains behind this awesome clip and how long did it take to put it together?
Heather: I did all the filming and editing for this video, and for Artifacting’s as well.
I have a deep love of early 90s CGI and so wanted to do something in that style to make a music video akin to the videos for Talking Heads’ Road to Nowhere and Ace of Base’s The Sign.
I made all the background 3D renders in an old version of a 3D rendering software called Bryce 3D (I think it was 7.1 specifically), and the drumkit visualisation was done with a software called Midi2Jam. Then I just chucked everything into Davinci Resolve (wonderful freeware video editor software) and edited everything together. The whole process was maybe a week or so of on and off work, creating the 3D backgrounds, rendering them and then editing everything together.
Finally, who are your favourite local Melbourne bands at the moment and who would you like to see interviewed for Tempo?
Mish: Last weekend we all went to Tongue Dissolvers’ album launch which was sick, I think I’ve seen them more in the last three years than any other band. Apart from that we have a few acts that we’ve played with multiple times that we love like MKNAOMI, Wriding, Captain Beep-Boop, and Maxine Gillon. Amy’s other bands Restraint, Bigger Boot, and Clara Darcy and The Medicine Women also rule.
Some other local faves of mine would have to be Skink Tank, bodies of divine infinite and eternal spirit, Teeth Dreams, Baby Ouzo, and Sienna Thornton. Also, kisses’ new album is phenomenal, Queen of the Suburbs was my song of the summer.
Second Idol ‘Mongrel’ Album Tour // Cactus Room
w/ LXRP, Sacred Hearts & False Animal - Get Tickets
