OneLast Thing With Lastlings

Josh Dowdle: We're from the Gold Coast yeah, but we moved to Melbourne a few years ago but right now we are on the Gold Coast yes.

Whereabouts on the Gold Coast?

Amy: We grew up all around, but most of it was spent in Tallegbudgera Valley.

Oh that's the spot. I lived in Burleigh and Tugun for most of my life.

Amy: Oh so beautiful.

Anyway, jumping in. Talk us through your new album Perfect World.

Amy : Yeah. So Perfect World is kind of like a diary for myself. A lot of the songs on the album are about being in your early 20s, discovering yourself, experiencing heartbreak, loss and navigating your way through mental health as well. I think there's a lot of learning about yourself in your 20s. So I think, yeah, that's what most of the songs are about.

Josh: The songs have been written over the last few years. We released our first album a few years ago but some of the songs that we were writing during that time are on this new album. So some of the songs are super new, some are only like a few months old, whereas some are a couple years old. So there's like a pretty diverse range of how our music has changed over the years as well. There's a bit of UK garage inspired beats, dance music and some songs that are a little bit more stripped back. Some more piano and Amy singing.

When you say this new album is a mix of older songs and newer songs, would you be able to tell what the newer songs and the older songs are as an audience do you think?

Josh: I think you can. Each of the songs are in order of when they were written on the album too. The start is a more vulnerable style and towards the end, it kind of like has that more hopeful feeling. So if you're listening to it like that, I think you could be able to hear that, yeah.

That's beautiful. What were some of lessons you learnt about mental health that you mentioned?

Amy: Self worth - knowing that you can be good on your own. When you’re moving out of high school, finding your place, it’s a lot.

What have you learnt outside of mental health that can be applied to this ablum?

Amy: I think Josh and I have grown a lot since our last album. For Josh his production has improved so much, and I think my songwriting as well has improved a bit. And I think, yeah, it's always a bit of a learning curve, even with each song. Like, I feel like we're learning more and more about the music we want to make and writing music itself as well.

I just watched the trailer for Perfect World before this. What was the idea behind this? Why did you want to do a trailer for perfect world?

Josh: We did a trailer for the first album, kind of unintentionally, we went over to do more of a documentary style thing but didn't get enough footage to do it. So we kind of condensed it into more of an album trailer, more of a visual mood piece kind of thing. That was received really well the first time and it was really fun to make, to work on something creative like that. We were going to go shoot a lot of stuff in America anyway, like the album cover, press shots and all that kind of stuff. So we just thought we'd tail it onto the back of it and shoot the trailer as well.

So cool, and where was it filmed? It’s giving very Dune vibes.

Josh: Yeah we were supposed to shoot at place called Death Valley. But then there was flash flood, some crazy rain and all the roads got taken out basically so we couldn't go there. So we filmed in a place called Anza Borrego.

Amy: It was so hot.

Josh: I think it was like forty degrees, and we were shooting in all black long sleeve stuff. But we worked with a really, really great team.

Yeah, so cool. In terms of your upcoming album tour, obviously Australia, the US, Splendour, do you have one particular spot or place that you're really pumped to play out?

Amy: Playing at the Forum. That’s a bucket list venue for us. We’ve played there a few times as supports. We supported Two Door Cinema Club there. I think we did another one there in the early days. But it's yeah. It's such a beautiful venue. Melbourne is currently our home so it's nice to do like a hometown show and have like a lot of friends and our families come down for it.

Josh: Yeah, we're really excited for that one. But that's not to say we're not excited about all the other ones as well.

Yeah, but you know, every artist I’ve talked to there is always a bucket list show.

Josh: Exactly. Playing Splendour as well, though, because we played there in like 2017?

Amy: I think it was 2018?

Josh: Yeah we played at the Mix Up Tent. I think it was like the first set and the tent was packed and was really great set. So we're really excited to come back to Splendour and play Mainstage.

Oh, yeah. So good. Especially mainstage. This is the last question and it's actually just a genuine life advice question. I have a twin sister and I love her to death but I think if I also worked with her, I'd probably kill her. So just how do you guys not do that?

Amy: I think boundaries is one thing and also like being able to communicate with each other.

Josh: That doesn’t help when she doesn't answer a phone [laughs].

Amy: Obviously we spend a lot of time together to write otherwise we have a solid amount of time apart too.

It’s honestly impressive that you can work alongside a sibling and do such good work, being musicians together. That’s really special.

Josh: I guess we're like really different as well, like personality wise as well as I think that maybe that works as well sometimes.