Premiere: Pickle Darling Shares Video 'Rinse Spin Cycle / Nicholas Cage' + Interview

Ōtautahi bedroom-pop and lo-fi connoisseur Pickle Darling shows off his best moves in his new DIY clip for 'Rinse Spin Cycle / Nicholas Cage'. The track is a poetic standout on Pickle Darling’s debut LP Bigness, which came out the first week of 2019, and the self-proclaimed "home movie" only amplifies its already earnest, intimate overtones. With a bit of help from music video creator Martin Sagadin, Pickle Darling’s Lukas Mayo has sliced and diced computer screen footage, film clips and selfie cam shots. Mayo manages to romanticise the bleakest of beige rooms by dancing along to his own song, dodging gorgeous homemade animations appearing via every transition available in iMovie.

UTR assistant editor Annabel Kean got in touch with Mayo for a quick-fire e-interview to find out what he’s working on now and how much he actually likes pickles. Peep the bedroom-produced digital visuals for 'Rinse Spin Cycle / Nicholas Cage' below, and get the rundown after that…

Annabel Kean: Can you tell me a fun fact about 'Rinse Spin Cycle / Nicholas Cage'?

Pickle Darling: It features my friend Josiah at the start on a rant. I think, from memory, we recorded that on a long drive, we were out in the country somewhere (maybe picking up furniture for our flat?) and he just spun that yarn and I recorded it on my phone.

Where did the name Pickle Darling come from? Is it any deeper than just a love for pickles?

I only just started liking pickles in the last year. It was kind of the band name I’ve suggested every time I’ve been in a band and people always thought it was kinda stupid, so I just named my own project that and probably proved them all right.

Am I right in thinking you’re friends with Mousey and Blue Nude? What is it about your scene in Christchurch that has created this space for you to make great pop music?

I love both of them! A bunch of us all came out of jazz school and probably had a similar experience of feeling a bit jaded or restricted or lost. Not by jazz school itself, which was great, but there was a weird energy with the collection of people there where there seemed to be a lot of unsaid rules about music and maybe we all internalised a lot of those restrictions. And we’ve all left jazz school now, and we’re all making music that’s probably pretty different to what we were making at jazz school. I think that’s created a healthy, supportive thing in the ex-students where when one of us is doing something really unexpected or cool, it feels like it’s presenting new possibilities for the rest of us. Our success feels shared, and when someone like Mousey gets nominated for the Silver Scroll on her first single, I feel like collectively we’re all like “fuck yea, one of us did it!”

What direction is your new music going in? How is it evolving?

I’m aiming to finish my new record this year. It feels like the final form of the sort of music I’m making. I’m getting more experimental with the production but it’s also a lot more poppy. I’ve been listening to a lot of Kacey Musgraves and Charli XCX and that’s been informing a lot of the production of it. There’s the accessibility and warmth of Musgraves’ music, but also Charli XCX's music where, like Frank Ocean or Big Thief or Radiohead, they use the arrangements and production to rip apart the song and flip it on its head, and they can kind of do anything they want. So I’m writing a lot of songs and tearing them apart. It’s a bit more spiky than the first album but also a lot warmer.

Who are five artists you’re digging at the moment?

Apart from the ones I mentioned, s.al (formerly Safari Al), Florist, Vashti Bunyan, Fontaines D.C., and SOPHIE. Oh and Ben Woods, did you see him opening for Aldous Harding? It was amaaaazing.

You can catch Pickle Darling playing at Mousey's 'Lemon Law' album release shows at Dunedin's The Cook on Thursday 10th October and Christchurch's Blue Smoke on Friday 11th October - grab your tickets right here.  Pickle Darling's debut album 'Bigness' is out now via Z Tapes.