It’s a new era for Lazarus Kane – kicked off by a top tier EP on the oh-so-cool So Young. Here’s the artist’s take on what to expect.
Milk At My Door
This was the last track I wrote for the EP. I found the quaint “cottage core” idea of having milk delivered to your door strange, instead of just going to the shop. Taking something from a sort of imagined consciousness of a more pastoral Britain and slapping a subscription service onto it is something I find hilarious. Like renting a cottage and pretending you’re in Peaky Blinders for a weekend before heading back to the city for a week of work. This lead to the chorus idea of it being linked to a generic Netflix crime drama set within this imagined universe.
I love how uneasy the track feels, especially the choruses, which throw everything off balance. I was listening to a lot of Liquid Liquid when I wrote this, and I think that shows.
Whole Foods
This was actually the first track I wrote for the EP. I’d written the verse lyrics whilst walking around Primrose Hill and seeing all these incredibly well-dressed young couples with kids on these leads. I guess if it was the 80s or 90s they’d be called ‘yuppies’. Anyway, I was at a festival and met some parents who were there with their kids, and they told me the only way they got through the weekend was through taking cocaine. I was fascinated by this disconnect between the huge responsibility of having kids and wanting to relive your youth that the chorus lyrics just came from that. There’s a lot of anger in this song, I guess; you can’t just dress like you’re in a Kooples advert and expect to get away with being an irresponsible parent.
Williston, ND
I read this story about this place in North Dakota that was the centre of a new oil boom, and it sounded like something out of a western. I imagined it to be akin to a Cormac McCarthy novel, something dystopian and brutal with a strong emphasis still on the natural world. Lyrically it deals with some of the terrible events that have happened there since this huge influx of oil companies and workers, but in terms of the music, I wanted to convey the natural, glacial eeriness of the landscape a night. I love the synth line at the end because it captures this mood really nicely and juxtaposes the mechanical feel of the rhythm in a beautiful way.
mps
This song was inspired by Brian Eno’s ‘King’s Lead Hat’ off his 1977 album ‘Before And After Science’. Sonically I love this track, especially all the cheap-sounding synths and handclaps popping up all over the place. The chorus is amazing as well, it just hits you square on out of nowhere. The second half was inspired by dub production techniques and tracks by artists like Burning Spear. Lyrically it was dealing with the idea of someone having a keeping-up-with-Joneses style breakdown. I didn’t want to just spout platitudes about social media being “bad” but rather demonstrate that the competitiveness around success, social status and material goods has always existed in modern Western society. Conspicuous consumption will always be with us; it’s just the medium that changes, be it coveting your neighbours’ garden or your friends’ Instagram holiday post. Hot dog or legs, baby?
