A quick chat with Larsen

Adelaide's alt-rock outfit Larsen have been going none stop for over 5 years now. Over that time they've dropped a heap of releases and have played shows with the likes of touring Aussie artists like the Dune Rats, WAAX, The Gooch Palms, The Delta Riggs and plenty more. To close the year out Larsen have just released their commanding new single 'Yours Sincerely', so we had a chat with the band to find out more about the track and the band.

We are loving the sound of the new single, tell us what this one is about.

Thanks! The lyrics are about the feeling and worry of being replaced, what we do to stop it from happening, and how it is often self compromising acts such as people-pleasing and pretending to be someone you’re not that we employ in order to remain a part of someone’s life. Real uplifting stuff!

How do you guys approach writing a new song like 'Yours Sincerely'? Do you have a method or strategy you use?

Since we began writing songs together, we’ve tried to keep it as democratic a process as possible, where everyone can bring something to the table musically, and we piece things together as a group. Liam and I (Alex) share the lyric writing duties, and we’ll go back and forth on phrases and words until we have something that we both like. This process does take longer to produce songs than if one of us was the main songwriter, but we firmly believe this helps us produce the best music possible for our band

Were there any key artists or bands that have influenced the sound and direction of this new track?

A hero band of ours since we formed has always been Adelaide band Sincerely Grizzly. They’re one of the few artists that all four of us love and appreciate, and we’ve been lucky enough to have Josh sing on a track called ‘Edge Of Myself’ from our 2017 LP ‘Weightless Again’ and had the full band play main support at the albums launch show When Sam brought this riff to rehearsal, we immediately heard the similarities between it and Sincerely Grizzly’s vibe, and we figured we’d lean into the homage and call our song Yours Sincerely because of that!

How do you sign off an email/ letter/ message? Do you sign off with 'Yours Sincerely'?

Normally it’s with “Cheers!” but perhaps for this single release cycle we’ll have to change it up...

You guys have been together for some time now, what have been some of the highlights/ favourite moments?

That’s a tough one! We toured the album in 2017 all off our own backs in terms of booking shows and bands and whatnot, that was a pretty big task for us and it went as well as it could’ve gone! We’ve played so many amazing shows with bands like Dune Rats, The Bennies, The Hard Aches, Gooch Palms, Delta Riggs, Horror My Friend, and international acts like Moose Blood, Hundredth and Deaf Havana. Honestly, the best part about this bands lifespan is the friends we’ve made along the way, both in the local Adelaide scene and interstate. We’re so grateful to have those connections through a common love of making music, sinking beers and seeing live bands.

The year is coming to an end, what do you have planned for 2021?

Well that’s a tough one, since COVID continues to throw us curveballs, but for the moment we’ve got a single launch currently slated for December 11th at Unibar (pending restrictions etc), and we’re heading into the studio in January to record some new material, stuff that we’re really confident in and very excited to share with everyone!