Reinforcing Trust: Armlock Interviewed
The Australia duo on swapping jazz for electronics on their new project...
*Simon Lam* and *Hamish Mitchell *weren’t cut out for jazz. They hated it, frankly. The duo met while studying it at Melbourne’s Monash University, but upon rehearsing together, discovered they’d both much rather be listening to *Boards Of Canada* and *Animal Collective* than navigating the brutal, Whiplash-esque landscape of the art form.
So, making use of their rehearsal time in a different way, the pair began bringing in synths and drum pads and learning how to work Ableton. “We started just making electronic music ‘cause that was the natural progression,” Lam says. “We couldn’t actually make anything other than electronic music, ‘cause that was the only things we had that we could travel across Melbourne with.”
“Yeah, it’s really a lot of silly choices and coincidences and being cheapskates that led to actually making electronic music,” Mitchell confirms.
Along with future Solitaire Recordings founder Dan Rutman, they soon formed the electronica trio I’lls, followed by the dancier Couture. Lam would also make a splash with the electro-pop duo *Kllo*, which he formed with his cousin Chloe Kaul. But by 2020, a decade after meeting, Lam and Mitchell were ready for a new start all over again. That would become Armlock, with which they’re now releasing their debut album 'Trust'.
The duo stripped down to basics, trading in the synths for acoustic guitars and live drums. The songs are subdued and simple in form, often stretching out a single vocal melody for their entirety, and yet layers of emotion unfold upon each listen. Lam sings of relationships ending, of resentment and regret, all imbued with a cool poeticism.
Across Zoom and a nine-hour time difference, Clash spoke to the duo about their approach to the project.
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*What made you want to start a new project together with Armlock?*
*Simon: *I went to live at Hamish’s house for a bit in Yarraville.
*Hamish: *Yeah, and I think we were both just a bit over making dance music and electronic music. I wanted to get back into doing some production work and stuff again, and I can’t speak for you, Simon, but I think you were wanting to get back to just writing some songs again.
*Simon:* I think it was more like, after doing electronic music for so long and studying sound and getting into that world really deep for so many years, it’s nice to pick up something like a guitar that I don’t know how to play, and just use your ears and use your instincts again. It just felt like we were starting again, which is always the most exciting thing.
*Did you intend to strip it all down and go back to basics?*
*Hamish:* It definitely wasn’t initially conscious. I think by the end of it we were like ah, that’s pretty stripped back, but only through a process of just completely simmering everything down to its most reductive.
*Simon: *Yeah, all the songs at some point had a lot more to them than we released. There’s a lot of elements we recorded that don’t make the final thing. I think we’ve gotten good over the years at just saying bye to certain things. Being like, ‘I love that sound, but it’s gotta go’. So yeah, I think we’ve just learnt to keep things simple in the end. We’ve kind of done a full circle of skills and abilities, and it’s really interesting.
*Hamish: *And gear as well. I have some nice expensive stuff that does not get used at all.
*Simon:* We just like the shitty things, I don’t know why. We have to go to the end of the road to realise we kinda just wanna go back.
*How does the collaboration between you both work?*
*Simon:* This year, I’ve tried to branch out with doing production for other people and stuff. And having worked with a lot of people this year, I’ve realised that the way we work is a complete mess. Like, today, we were just in the studio, and I recorded Hamish, Hamish recorded me, I was on the laptop, and then he’d be like ‘I wanna try something’ and he’ll jump on the laptop and I’ll go to the bathroom or something.
*Hamish:* It is chaos.
*Simon: *We’re not precious about roles or anything. We’re just [like], let’s just get this in the computer and out the speakers, and whatever way it’s best to do that, let’s just do that.
*Hamish:* There’s really little to no method. We’ve been working together for a decade, and we’ve tried it every which way. It’s just the only way that works, unfortunately. [Laughs]
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<a data-cke-saved-href="https://armlock.bandcamp.com/album/trust" href="https://armlock.bandcamp.com/album/trust">Trust by Armlock</a>
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*The songs have a repetitive, almost hypnotic feel that reminds me of electronic music. Was that a holdover from being electronic artists?*
*Simon:* I think when we made dance music, we kinda realised that yeah, you can really draw things out, and subtle changes can have a really big impact if you let them have the space to do that. I think we’ve become a lot better at arranging. Like, the first music we used to make, it just had an insane amount of elements.
*Hamish:* Now it’s just, if you do something, it’s intentional - very intentional, and measured. Rather than just throwing the kitchen sink at something.
*Simon:* Yeah, I think we just kinda like making a nice sound now and just letting it breathe, and not choking it like we used to with other things. Sometimes I just like living in it and not changing it too much, not pulling yourself out of it, just kind of preserving it for three minutes.
*I also like how the songs are almost deceptive, in how the more you listen the more the emotive layers come out that aren’t necessarily apparent on fits listen. How did you create that feeling?*
*Simon:* I think it’s kinda like we had these songs, and you start putting so many layers onto it. You have a foundation, and you put another layer, and you put a third layer on it. Then later on you feel like maybe it doesn’t need that middle layer and you take that out, and you’re left with the foundation and just these little emotive bits. The things you hear, they would have been written over something else that’s not there anymore, and you’re kinda just left with the absolute essentials.
*Hamish: *Also when you pull out that middle thing and you’re left with the top layer, the thing that was justifying that is gone, and there’s kind of an airy quality to the thing that you leave in. There is an etherealness that I think you can create through doing that. It’s got room to breathe, and kind of exist alongside everything else rather than being tied into it.
*Simon: *We’re also just naturally emotive music people. Like, Hamish is a piano player firstly, and if he sits down on piano he’s one of those people that’ll just play something quite emotional, straight off the bat.
*Hamish: *Yeah. It’s from all the Boards Of Canada records I used to listen to. I was talking about this the other day, how it’s completely just done my head in harmonically. But yeah, me and Simon could talk about the harmony and the layering and stuff like that for hours. It’s definitely my favourite part of making music.
*What were you drawing on lyrically?*
*Simon: *For most of my 20s, most of my focus has been on Kllo. We started that in our early 20s, and you start writing music and touring and you’re always away from home, and you kinda just get frozen as a person. Because you’re not catching up with friends, friends will start uni, and they’ll finish uni, and they’ll get jobs, and I’ll kinda miss all that ‘cause I’m not there for it.
When COVID hit, and all the tours got cancelled, and you find yourself at home for the first time for like 18 months in a row and not doing all the things your life used to involve, you kinda start talking to friends and being like, wow, everyone’s a lot older now, and I think I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Like, maturity wise, and in terms of personal responsibility. The record’s meaning is, to me, just playing catch up with myself and finding that really difficult. It’s just about trying to be an adult, and finding it really hard.
*Most of these songs seem to focus on relationships with other people. How were you examining relationships through that lens?*
*Simon: *A lot of them are talking about a turning point of relationships. I think it’s about realising that we’re at a point now where what we do with each other matters, and we’re not really acting that way. And a lot of that’s on me, ‘cause I haven’t been around to see the consequences of actions and stuff. I think it’s just about trying to patch up things that needed to be patched up for a long time.
*Hamish: *Or even just examining those relationships now time’s passed, and being like, ‘Oh god, maybe I should have handled that one differently’.
*The repetitive effect of the music complements the feelings of being stuck or wanting things to change that crop up in the lyrics. Did the music and lyrics influence each other at all?*
*Simon: *Yeah, I feel like there’s a lot of particular issues that you’re grappling with, [where] you can kinda look at them in different ways. Like, you can look at something and be like, ‘Ah, that’s too much to deal with’, or you can look at something and be really angry about it. I’ll be thinking about that thing at the time, and then the way [Hamish] would play something would make me look at that thing in a certain direction. You kinda just channel that energy you’re giving.
There’s some certain songs like ‘Turf War’ for example that’s like, a topic that I was really angry about at the time. But that song made me feel quite sentimental about it, and kind of relaxed about it. It’s interesting how writing about something in a certain way can shift your whole [feeling] about it.
*How do you feel about the album now it’s complete?*
*Hamish: *I feel great about it. We did everything our own way, we took our time with it.
*Simon: *When I think about when we first [played together], with [Hamish’s] synths, and I was trying to make electronic drums, it was just being like, ‘We have no idea what we’re doing, but it’s just fun as fuck’. This feels exactly the same. It’s been really fun to go back to the start of like, starting with things we don’t really know how to play, but with all the experience we’ve got now. We know how to write songs, we just don’t know how to play guitar. [Both laugh] It’s a really fun challenge to have, and it makes it really interesting. Everything’s new for us.
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'Trust' is out now.
Words: *Mia Hughes*
Photo Credit:* Julia Webster*