“Our shape’s never-ending,” says Adams. He speaks in a rich, somewhat blokey tone; the kind of voice that’d help you smuggle a bottle of scotch onto a golf course. “I don’t want people to get the vibe that it’s somehow deadly to be in the band. We’re always having a great time with each other. It’s good because our music has been changing and evolving. I’m not even the first original singer. Lamarama used to have a female singer before me, going back five or six years. I was singing a few of her songs, but because they were in a female key, rather than change the key, I just kind of belted it out in this upper male rock register. It gave it a different vibe straight away and that’s how we were for a while. Lamarama were sort of a dark, psychedelic rock band, but now I’ve pretty much thrown that whole set in the bin. We had so many new members, and rather than get new people and teach them all the old stuff, I thought it was time for a new everything. New set, new name.”
Together, Lama summon a terrifically alluring sound, which takes elements from Of Monsters & Men and The Beatles and channels them through the songwriting filter of someone like Jack White or Josh Pyke. Sounds weird, right? But however you describe them, their songs are vibrant vignettes spanning a variety of genres. On that note, Eat! is likely to be one of the most energetic heartbreak songs you’ll hear any time soon.
“Someone described it as cabaret the other week,” Adams says. “‘Cabaret and glam,’ she said. That sort of image had never occurred to me, but I’m looking at one of our band photos right now where we’re all in a ball pit in these ridiculous costumes, and you know, maybe she had a point. It’s funny. Not all of our songs sound like Eat!, but we seem to be going in that direction. Basically, I had this huge revelation where I realised I could write songs in major keys. The difference between Lamarama and Lama is pretty much major and minor. Take something like Eat!, which is really a break-up song. I hear people say, ‘Man that’s such a sad song,’ and I think, ‘Really? That’s in D Flat Major.’ The juxtaposition is the magic of that song.”
The Eat! launch is fast approaching and it’ll see the band unleash a carefully curated setlist. They’ll be joined by “supports which are just incredible, some awesome bands”, namely Humans As Animals, Dear Plastic and The Cactus Channel. Looking ahead, the future promises to bring more performances rambling out across the Victorian night, and Lama’s eagerly awaited album.
“The album is looking very eclectic,” says Adams. “There’s rock and then some nice old-fashioned Beatles sounds. We’ve got a song called Emily, which is very Beatles-ish. It’s about a twelve-year-old girl who’s the tallest girl in class and makes a wish that she was the shortest. It comes true, but she gets too small and disappears into the grass. It’s a cautionary tale. Sometimes I write very literal lyrics, but for that one I wanted to write something bizarre. And because the lyrics are bizarre, the music has to be as well. I think we managed that.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
