With his sun-kissed glow and bohemian threads, Lawrence Arabia sparkles with laid back Antipodean charm. But appearances can be deceptive, as Clash soon found out.
For beneath this breezy exterior lurks a cynical individual. And one with a serious penchant for unforgiving social commentary.
‘Chant Darling’ is the singer’s UK debut: an uplifting record of lo-fi indie-pop melodies with a tropical glaze. But the album’s subject matter contradicts its sunshine sound. “I wouldn’t say there’s a concurrent theme running through the album,” he says. “Most of the songs are not in any particular order but they do seem to be about sexual frustration primarily. I don’t know why, as I don’t really think of myself as sexually frustrated. But it’s not all autobiographical: I just see something, follow a theme and then subvert the metaphor.”
His self-proclaimed tales of sexual frustration may suggest that he is a troubled soul. But Lawrence Arabia – AKA James Milne – is quick to clarify that his songs are not borne from a gratuitous misanthropic hate of the world. Quite the opposite in fact, for he actually celebrates the stereotypes he so cleverly immortalises in song. ‘The Beautiful Young Crew’ was inspired by his experience of living in Shoreditch. “It’s a song about how living there was making me feel old and unfashionable,” he recalls. “But I used to marvel at all the scenesters. I didn’t have a job at the time and I guess I was just doing the same thing as them, wandering around the streets aimlessly.”
So, his is a longing to be young and carefree again, just like the ubiquitous East London scenesters he so freely sings of. “I just love youth and how it’s so idealistic – before you know it it’s gone,” he says. “I was imagining all these kids waiting for the weekend and having this greatest hits canon of songs like ‘Last Nite’ and ‘Standing In the Way In The Way Of Control’. And I was imagining them wandering around in limbo just waiting for the weekend, so they can go crazy and dance to those songs.”
At a mere twenty-eight years of age, he’s not quite ready for his pipe and slippers just yet. But James has been around. The world, that is. Hailing from New Zealand originally, he is now a fully fledged Anglophile, currently residing in East London. And he is no stranger to the discipline of songwriting. ‘Chant Darling’ may be Lawrence Arabia’s UK debut, but he has already cemented his status in his native Auckland. He recently received the ultimate honour for his craft when he was awarded the APRA for ‘Apple Pie Bed’; New Zealand’s equivalent of the Ivor Novello.
And James has always had his finger in a lot of musical pies. With stints in The Brunettes, Okkervil River, The Ruby Suns and his own band The Reduction Agents, he certainly has a monopoly on the Auckland scene. And if the success of ‘Chant Darling’ is anything to go by, he may just have a serious handle on things over here too…
Words by April Welsh
Where: New Zealand
What: Psychedelic folk-rock
Unique Fact: James recorded part of the album in Stockholm.
Get 3 songs: ‘The Beautiful Young Crew’, ‘Apple Pie Bed’, ‘The Crew Of The Commodore’
