Part 1

Name: Lastlings
Members: Amy Dowdle, Josh Dowdle
Nationality: Japanese-Australian
Recent release: The new Lastlings album Perfect World is out via Rose Avenue.
Recommendations: Josh: Nils Frahm’s Old Friends and New Friends is currently my most listened to album on spotify. Mostly because I find life in Melbourne to be quite busy and life to be busy in general and listening to this album quiets my mind and relaxes me. I listen to it before I sleep and usually when I fly on planes.
The movie Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi which is an adaptation of a Haruki Murakami book  I would also recommend.

[Read our Nils Frahm interview]

Amy: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. He is one of my favourite authors and Cloud Atlas is one of my favourite books.
As for music, I've had Everything But The Girls new track, ‘Nothing Left To Lose’ on repeat.

If you enjoyed this Lastlings  interview and would like to stay up to date with the duo and their music, visit them on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, tiktok, and Soundcloud.



When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

Amy: I started playing classical piano when I was about 6 years old. Mum used to always have music playing in the car when I was kid. A lot of classical and Japanese pop music. My love for music was also influenced by my dad. Dad used to sing “Forever Young” by Alphaville to Josh and I before bed when we were little kids and it’s probably one of my favourite songs. Dad and I used to sing a lot of karaoke together in our garage and play guitar and sing outside in the backyard after school and on weekends.

Then in Primary school I started singing and playing piano more on my own. I would do covers and write my own songs and sometimes perform them at school.

I used to listen to a lot of folk, indie rock, and dream pop towards the end of primary school and during high school. My favourite artists were The Cure, The Drums, Daughter, The Acid, Chromatics, Tears For Fears, Alphaville (Dads Favourite), Arctic Monkeys and Beach House. I was going through my “emotional teen” phase during this time so I was very into emotional music (I still am). I also liked how dreamy some of these artists' songs were. Back then, anything that made me feel like I was in a movie would be added to my USB.

[Read our Alphaville interview]

Josh: Similarly to Amy I started piano lessons at a young age but only did a few grades before I quit. I also did one classical guitar lesson when I was in middle school there’s something about structured learning that I really don’t enjoy.

It wasn’t until high school I started playing electric guitar and started playing with friends and actually enjoying playing instruments. Slowly as my taste in music changed I started downloading different softwares like ableton and buying more electronic equipment to play around with. My early influences were bands like Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins and later on I started to listen to artists like Alt-j and Nicolas Jaar. I suppose I was drawn back to music by the fun of it. Playing with my friends, hanging out, learning our favourite songs.

I think I continue to be drawn to music by the mystery of it and the problem solving nature of it. It’s definitely a lot of trial and error and there’s always frustrating moments but I do enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes with spending a lot of time and hard work on something that can be enjoyed by not just myself but others as well.

When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening and how does it influence your approach to creativity?

Josh: I’d say that the music would have a transportive effect on my mind when listening and I would let it take me where it takes me. I feel like my brain would recall what I think would be the perfect scenario for the music I’m listening to and create a visual for that.

For example Olafur Arnalds’ music takes me to what I think is the beautiful landscapes of Iceland (I’ve never actually been there haha) and Joe Hisashi’s music would take me to a windy field in rural Japan. It honestly just depends on what the music is and when I’m listening to it as well. If I’m at a show I’ll recall certain melodies or things that I found interesting in other peoples shows so I can build on that within our own music and shows.

[Read our Olafur Arnalds interview]

Amy: I would say that I am quite the daydreamer. Sometimes when I listen to music I just zone out, stare at an object in front of me or close my eyes and create a narrative in my head. Particularly when I am alone. If I hear a nice instrumental and it sparks a song idea, I’ll start singing / humming over it and record it quickly as a voice memo.

How would you describe your development as an artist in terms of interests and challenges, searching for a personal voice, as well as breakthroughs?

Josh: As we write more I feel much more confident in what we create and that we can make more informed decisions on what we feel is something that will work within the framework of the music we’re making. I still find music challenging and I think that’s partly the reason why I still love it. I love challenges and I love the journey of it. I feel like if music became too easy I’d lose interest.

For Lastlings, predominantly the personal voice aspect is always going to be Amy with her vocals and lyrics but I do enjoy creating the musical beds which I feel are original to us and I hope that as we write more music it’s something where people can hear our songs and immediately go “oh that’s a Lastlings track”.

I feel like breakthroughs happen all the time in music. Whether they’re small wins or large wins. I could finally find a drum sample that works in the song I’m making that day and for me that’s breakthrough enough.

We have been fortunate enough to have some really great breakthrough moments with our music though and I think finishing an album for me personally is my favourite breakthrough moment. That weight of the shoulders feeling of “oh we’re actually finished” is indescribable.

Amy: I am always trying to learn wherever I can. I think when you’re in music you always have to keep learning something new, otherwise you might get left behind in this ever changing industry. Luckily, there is so much to music so you are constantly learning something new everyday. Whether it is honing in on what you already know/do and becoming a master at that or starting something completely new and out of your comfort zone. I have started dabbling in production more and have started to teach myself guitar again.

I get super bored doing the same thing everyday, so I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to do music as my job! My interests change all the time. I’ll be super into a certain genre of music for weeks and then switch to a new genre a few weeks later or I’ll be more into writing one week and then the next week I’ll want to practice piano everyday. Switching things up keeps my brain stimulated.

Although I am all about routine it can be quite difficult to follow one as inspiration/this urge to write a song comes at the most random times during the day.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist.

Josh: I think growing up there was a difficulty in understanding our sense of identity, with both of us being half-Japanese and Australian. You’re either too Asian or not Asian enough in certain scenarios and in general there weren’t many role models that were like us or ‘looked’ like us.

I think we’ve always embraced both of our cultures regardless of this and as we’ve gotten older there've been so many great Asian and Half-Asian artists being championed in the media. As listeners we were exposed to both Western and Japanese music and also to art / culture from both sides so I think this has definitely impacted our creativity in a positive manner.

Amy: I think over the last two years or so I have really gotten to know myself better. I feel like I know who I am, what I value, how I see myself, what I enjoying making and what I enjoy listening to. I know that I really love film so I like to use that wherever I can when writing music. Whether that be going to the cinema to find inspiration or having a film play in the background as I write.

In terms of what I like, I love to try new things. I would say that I have a pretty open mind when it comes to all things in life. I almost like all genres of music, so I think that helps when we have to write our own. I’d like to hope that we will never get to a point where we put ourselves into a box or certain category. To always write what feels right to us and to write music that we would also enjoy listening to.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Josh: I think mostly creating something that is fresh to our ears and also fresh to our listeners' ears. There’s so many possibilities with electronic music and so many different sounds you can draw from. I would love for people to listen to our music and feel something new or hear something in the instrumental and wonder what the sound is or what it’s made of.

Creating that sense of wonder and intrigue is something that I think is really special when listening to music.

Amy: Josh and I are very into our films. I really enjoy going to the cinema. Sometimes I go twice a week to my local cinema. Everytime I get home after an enjoyable movie I feel super inspired to write music. So I would say that film is definitely a key idea behind our approach to writing our music.

Although Perfect World is a lot of personal stories, I do enjoy telling the story of others which I’ll definitely be doing more for our next songs.

How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

Amy: In the future, we hope that people will still feel inspired to write music that is timeless and nostalgic. We’d like to create music of the future that still feels like our own and continue that tradition.

I think when we make music we just do it because we enjoy it, not because we have to write songs for social media purposes.