GIVE ME LOVE, GIVE ME JOY GIVE ME A PIECE OF DAVEY LANE ON EARTH
- Bernard Zuel
- Aug 19
- 6 min read
YOU MAY KNOW DAVEY LANE as the always dapper, always enthusiastic, always in-the-mood guitarist of You Am I. Indeed, this writer’s first sighting of a much younger Mr Lane on stage for the first time with said band had me thinking, this is the best dressed 12-year-old prodigy I’ve ever seen.
You may know him as the collaborator-in-chief with any number of projects, tribute shows – for example the twin classic album Pink Floyd show he is about to finish – and jobs requiring a man on your side who is more than a sideman, an opening act who in another life could be closing. One of those being long-haired legend of alt.pop, Todd Rundgren, with whom Lane has recently toured Japan, home of “professional organiser and consultant” Marie Kondo.
Or you may know him from his suite of solo or solo-as-a-band recordings, which he somehow fits in between all the other work. The latest of which, the amusingly and ironically titled Finally, A Party Record, is now out. Ironically titled because Lane goes deeper and darker than ever before.
But do you know him, really? Let’s delve a little deeper beyond the dot point summary by asking Davey Lane to go through the Reverse Marie Kondo, an exercise where rather than throw out things from his life, he is asked what would he like to add to his life, bring into his life, do again in his life, to bring him joy. As the man himself says, “I can do with a bit more that in my life, for sure.”
A PLACE
This last winter kinda dragged me down a bit so I’d probably get out of Melbourne. But my studio I’ve got pretty well set up now, it’s got a really warm colour scheme and it’s just a place where I feel completely unencumbered by the world. I’ve got all my guitars set up on the wall, got my drums miked up, so basically I just go in there sometimes with no preconceived ideas, when I switch on the synthesiser and hit the first preset. That’s where I am at my happiest.
There is a sense with him that music is a 27-hours-a-day world.
It is, and if I’m not working on my own stuff, I’m always trying to find, always wanting to collaborate with people. I really enjoy music-making as a solitary pursuit and a lot of my big musical heroes are people that were able to make music by themselves, but especially in recent years I’ve really enjoyed being able to get an insight into other folk’s creative process. I put out a record of covers last year because I was recording covers for fun basically and that for me is a good experiment in terms of engineering and production as well. It’s all practice.
I visited Nashville last year for the first time and I really loved being there. I’ve got a couple of really good friends there who make music as well, so that somewhere I’d like to spend a bit more time. I have an appreciation for [country], I’ve been out to those bars on the main street in Nashville and seen the most incredible guitar players. I think my attention span is so short and it comes out in my music, and I am trying to fit so many ideas into a space sometimes.
A SONG
Straight off the top of my head I’m thinking of The Kiss by Judee Sill. There are probably a couple of dozen songs that I could put on and make me cry, and that’s one of them. [In her songwriting] there’s folk, and that incredible baroque pop, which is maybe with the parallels with Brian Wilson come from. Definitely The Kiss sounds like it’s not of this world and there’s something about that kind of siren, bell-like quality of her double tracked voice, and where the chords and melodies go. I don’t know how much she laboured over that song or whether it is something that just fell out of her, but it just sounds fucking perfect. I could try and write a song like that for my entire life and never get there.
As a songwriter who breaks down other writers work to understand how it is done, is he intimidated or inspired by Judee Sill or anyone?
I can only be inspired by Judee Sill. I love to get inside songs and work out why they make me feel the way they do, and then at least I have that as part of my skill set that I accrue back and maybe apply to what I do. I’m really lucky to have worked with over the years that have been hugely inspirational. Obviously, Tim [Rogers of You Am I] has been a big part of my life for most of my life, and I worked with Todd Rundgren enough now to not be intimidated. When you look at his back catalogue …
I’ve hung out with him enough for him to be like a cool old uncle who’s got lots of cool stories, but then I take a step back or we start playing his music, and I go, yeah, that’s right, this is a guy who created his own musical language. That was initially intimidating for me. It still is really. On tour with him in Japan early this year, some of those songs, like Just One Victory, or any of, is just staggering and I was slightly freaked out.
A PERSON
Not to over share, but I’m single at the moment and I’d love to love somebody, that’s for sure. That opportunity just hasn’t presented itself. [Life as a musician] has absolutely impacted on personal relationships that I’ve had over the years. It’s only been in recent few years, with self reflection and analysis and therapy, that I’ve been able to realise that is one of the ramifications. I’m always displaced, for a number of reasons, but I’ve made my peace with that. It’s what I signed up for.
Is he the kind of person who falls in love easily?
Yeah. Yeah. I’ve definitely chased things or stayed in relationships for longer than I should have for both parties’ well-being. I really struggle with letting go of things. Luckily in recent years have been able to figure out why my brain is wired the way it is and why I was a certain way as a kid. There has been a little bit of un-training in that realm. But getting songs out of it has been a positive [he chuckles]. Obviously it doesn’t replace speaking to a professional who can help to pull those things apart with you, but to be able to therapise via art of any means is a real blessing, and I don’t take that for granted.
A BOOK/FILM/PIECE OF ART
I have friends who are real film buffs and that’s one of the things that I acknowledge about my brain, like my attention span is always zipping and zapping, and I’ve made it a thing to try and immerse myself a bit more in the world of film. Unless I’ve been with someone I’ve just never had the attention span to sit through films. It sounds fucking crazy because when I do I’ve had some really enlightening experiences. I’m so easily distracted I find it hard to switch off. If there’s a guitar sitting in the corner I can’t sit through a film. I don’t want to sound like a fucking dickhead ‘oh I’m so inspired!’, no I get easily distracted and I love to noodle around.
It’s probably one of the reasons I’ve started smoking pot in my 40s: it does slow my brain down and gives me the ability to focus. I’m doing the weed thing the wrong way around; I should have done it in my 20s!
HIS CHOICE OF SOMETHING TO BRING INTO HIS LIFE
I have made inroads in the last few years with making peace with certain things in my life. Certain things about my upbringing and school. I had a really hard time at school blah blah blah: I was a nerdy, quiet kid and I was in a very sport-oriented school and I was the kid who loved The Beatles and The Who, so that was pretty easy to pick on. The more I go on the less I ruminate on that stuff and the more that I am grateful that I am where I am now has a human.
And while putting out my own music is expensive and going around touring is expensive, for me it is a compulsion and I’m super grateful that I am able to make a living out of music. I have fun with my mates playing music that I love.
Gratitude for being at this point in my life looms large. Yeah, I would love to have a love of my life but in the time that I have I want to explore parts of the world because I am really inspired by the topography, the beauty of nature and I want to harness that sense of adventure that I’ve always had.
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Davey Lane plays:
John Curtin Hotel, Carlton, August 28
The Chippo, Chippendale, August 29
The Outpost Bar, Fortitude Valley, August 30
Davey Lane’s Finally, A Party Record is out now.
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