1.Growing Up
I grew up learning and playing music with my sister, Lou, who now manages me. As kids we had The Beatles slamming on the stereo, and we started learning to play jazz and improvise at a pretty young age. At ten and 11 we were playing small jazz gigs and that continued through our high school days until we both went and did a degree in music at the Victorian College of the Arts. Grandma is a visual artist and Dad is also pretty handy at illustration, so we always had people encouraging us in our creative pursuits. They taught us that art is fun before we learned about the more disciplined skill-building side of it, and that was integral to my approach developing in the right way.
2.Inspirations
My biggest inspiration is Radiohead, and I will always remember the first time I started getting into them, and consequently my favourite album, Amnesiac. My uncle introduced me to their music and straight away I was hooked. I was busy teaching myself to play the piano parts from ‘Pyramid Song’ and ‘You And Whose Army?’, and those sounds are so implanted in my brain.
3.Your Crew
I am surrounded by amazingly talented and beautiful people. Music has brought me together with people I might never have crossed paths with from all walks of life, and I’m very grateful for that. My housemates are graphic designers, editors, writers and musicians and they have influenced my growth as a human as well as an artist. I have also become friends with the Pieater crew, who helped record parts of my Viet Rose EP, and through their music and disposition I have also grown a lot. I couldn’t possibly name all the other people – the list would go on forever. But Andrei Eremin, the co-producer, mixer and masterer of the EP, deserves a special mention. He’s become a great friend.
4.The Music You Make And Play
I have a very diverse love of music, and it’s reflected in my output. My EP is full of piano ballads, chilled grooves and hip hop beat-influenced bangers. I also make acoustic music at home and various odds and ends of things. I think as Lanks I am aiming for things like Mura Masa, D.D Dumbo and Mø.
5.Music, Right Here, Right Now
The Australian scene is full of talented and amazing people and I’ve felt so much love and support from a lot of them. The industry can be a lonely place sometimes – I think especially for independent artists, as we’re part of smaller teams – but there are so many amazing musicians out there who just want to make great music and hear great music. I also love Vera Blue. She is an incredibly honest songwriter and her singing is better than you can ever imagine. Trust me, I’ve seen her show 18 times now.
Viet Rose is outnow independently. Lanks is touring, with gigs atThe Basement onThursday December 1, andMiranda Hotel onFriday December 2.
