Jarrod Quarrell Feature | Lost Animal
On writing, forest living and how Jerkest was the catalyst for fresh work
Noah chats to Jarrod Quarrell on the past and present activity of Lost Animal with details around creative process, collaborations, and scenic choices as he prepares to drop album three
Hi Jarrod, It’s been a good chunk of time since your last release, 10 years in fact but I have heard on the grapevine that you will giving us a new album this year which is awesome news! Can you give us a snapshot of what you have been up to
since You Yang?
Hanging out. Playing the odd show. Moved to the mountains. Making a new album for the last few years. Chipping away. 10 years is a nice round number.
Your first two albums Ex Tropical and You Yang have a district flavour, which is your own and comes across as something like electronica outsider pop mixed with drone soundscapes along with your cool detached delivery of personal storytelling.
Is your new material still in line with what we know or have you found a new direction?
I was listening to mixes the other day and talking with Shags and we both agree that this album sounds a bit more like a band. Though it wasn’t recorded as a band. But it’s me. It’s lost animal.
Most of your work in Lost Animal to date has been alongside Shags Chamberlain in some form or another, but more recently I believe you have been working with Dan Luscombe. Can you tell us about the inner workings of your new album?
Shags is on the new stuff. Some songs. The album was a collaboration between Dan and I. He plays on all of it, he contributed to the songs, writing and arranging. He engineered it, produced it and he’s in the band now. Thank God for Dan. Shags came in a few days early last year and played on some stuff.
I recall seeing you in the really early days of Ex Tropical with Shags and also Kirin J Callinan on guitar. He was fully decked with a army uniform for the occasion. I have fond memories of that performance and wonder how you feel looking back at the
beginnings of Lost Animal? It was Sensory Projects who put the album out and I remember the excitement and hype around it.
For me the start of Lost Animal was about four years before Ex Tropical came out when I made the first demos. I think it was 07.
I played solo shows with the 4 track demos mixed down to mp3 as a backing track and I’d just stand there singing. Shaking and singing. I was still in St Helens and I realised I had to quit that band.
It was fun playing with Kirin and others when we augmented the line up for festivals or whatever. To be honest though, and nothing against the other players, but in hindsight I think we should have stuck to the two piece. Shags and I. That was the vibe.
You have had some pretty special highlights along the way with some very cool supports, your own headline shows and I’m sure it was a real cool to get the call to do Jerkfest last year considering it’s been a minute since you have released new music. What’s your approach now to playing live as you look to release your new album, do you have a band sorted or will it be solo?
That was actually the second Jerkfest I’d done. I did it in 22 when I was even more out of the game. Solo. Had a great time. That show actually got me going again. I started writing again after that. I love Billy. Last year I played it with Dan, and Zak Olsen on bass. We plan to play as a three piece when possible, a two piece (Dan and I) the rest of the time and we want to get a couple of live percussionists. We’ll see.
From your socials you talk about moving to the forest and have been there for around two years. Was this a creative choice or life circumstance? And has it helped your processes to be removed from city life?
It was a lifestyle choice. I always wanted to live in the forest. I came out here with Shags just before we went to the states in 2013 and I said to him that I was gonna move up here. Took me ten years. It’s helped my life in every way leaving the city. It’s
just there though. It’s not far.
I am interested to know how you usually write songs? Does it start with lyrics or do you play around on the guitar or keyboard and hum melodies first?
No lyrics happen without the music, though I do write poems and what not apart from songs. Sometimes. But with my songs it’s always either music first or music and words, or melodies, at the same time. I don’t put words I’ve previously written into
songs. It’s all custom. Fresh. I don’t think there is a “usual” way I write.
I try not to think about it. Most of the time I feel like “how the fuck did I do that? I wrote that? I get to put that on my album?” Honestly. Some times writing feels like a panic attack, or turning into the Incredible Hulk. Breaking out of your skin. It’s like you’re on the edge and something just leaps out. Sometimes it’s fun and rad too.
I have always been so intrigued by the cover of Ex Tropical and to be honest it’s pretty iconic and unforgettable. Was it your concept or appropriated in some way?
That was my idea. I wanted a hazy, memory drenched, sunburned look. Tropical. Darren Sylvester shot me through a fish tank that we dropped ink into to get those greens and oranges. It was my idea to shoot it like that too actually, I remember doing tests at home. But yeah Darren shot both You Yang and Ex Tropical.
What’s next for you creatively? Any cool shows coming for Lost Animal or other projects?
Get the album out. I’m keen to play much more shows then I have been but, that said, we’ve done some fun shows the last few years and I’m stoked to have such an awesome band and I’m really fortunate in that some other really talented people
have offered to be in the band. We’ve got some things on the horizon for sure but nothing on the books in the near future that I can tell you about.
Finally, who are your favourite local Melbourne bands at the moment and who would you like to see interviewed for Tempo?
EXEK. Bodies are really good. Gregor is probably the one. Everything Zak does. Traffik Island. You should talk to him. Leah Senior and her partner Jesse are crazy good. There’s always good bands in Melbourne.