When you listen to ‘Coincidence Control’, Lake of Bass’s second album, the first thing that strikes you is the fusion of styles covering everything from jazz, funk, Latin and roots, all under an electronic guise. The second is the interesting lyrics. It’s certainly an original album so I was curious to chat to Tim McNamara, responsible for the poetry, voice and music production on the album. Diego Bosco, the other half of Lake of Bass, who Tim describes as an amazing guitarist and masterful producer, is in Italy where he lives part-time.

Because Tim likes to talk, we delved straight into the interview without any chitchat, and he was surprisingly honest and generous about what he revealed.

With lyrics a big focus on the album what came first, the lyrics or the melodies? “The way we tie it together isn’t musically, we do it lyrically. Our points of anchoring are through the words, whatever fits around that. I wrote ‘Devil’s Washing Machine’ two days before Diego got here (to record the album). I was over at Dad’s house and his washing machine had a 666 serial number on it. I was like ‘how do you get clean clothes from that . . . tainted by the devil . . . turns your whites, grey’ (laughs). I tried to make a comment on dogmatic religion as well,” Tim said. Do all the tracks contain messages? “Most music has lyrics as an afterthought, they’re put there to make the melody line work and if you listen to it, it’s garbled rubbish. I think what sets it apart is if you like the melody and then you listen to the words, it gives it new structure and meaning.  The song with Rosie Wiederkehr (‘Something In The Air’), it’s kind of cheesy, but I liked the melody so much that I wanted to have some meaning to reflect her voice. Her voice sounded so lovely to me so I wrote something about the power of music. It took me a long time.” Tim went on to describe some of the other songs on the album, about chaos theory and butterflies making tidal waves.

The album released in May was written and recorded at Tim’s home in just three months, while working fulltime at Mills Records. “It was pretty much hell,” Tim recalls. “Recording, getting session musicians in. We knew we wanted to make something with lots of guests and female vocals, double bass and piano accordions, we knew we wanted those textures, we just didn’t know what it would end up like. I’m glad it’s over. It’s like having children, you go yeah it will be great but then you go, oh no.” Every sample used on the album is a real instrument, something quite unique in the electronic world. “If you’re ripping off a sax loop from a sample record you can hear the same loops and that shits me. Certain albums I hear on radio stations are using all of the same loops and samples. It’s just a bit annoying that someone rips a sample off from somewhere and puts a beat behind it.”

The album’s title ‘Coincidence Control’ stems from the musical coincidences that happened during the album’s making. “Things like my friend who sings opera (Sam Drennan), she was back in town and I said ‘how about you come do a session with us’, which we didn’t know we wanted. In some of the songs we kept the mistakes in the recording, like someone dropping a drumstick and an ice-cream truck driving by when we were doing a vocal take. It keeps the freeform jazziness feel about it,” he explained. In Tim’s mind, an album with lots of guest artists would mean less spoken-word than on the previous album ‘Wildlife Researcher’ and this would help to make it more uplifting. “On the last album I thought there was too much of that style. I’m really proud of the last album, I thought it was hauntingly beautiful but moody, and I wanted to break out of that moodiness.”

Some of the artists on the album include Annie Neil, the big soul voice in ‘Devil’s Washing Machine’, who has sung with the likes of Joe Cocker and Steely Dan; Bob Patient. an internationally regarded blues and soul keyboardist; James Hewgill, who plays a beautiful piano solo and does the mastering; Rosie Wiederkehr, an Italian superstar singer; and Steve Parkin who adds some unique Bowie-esque style vocals. Since its release a few months ago, the album has already been feature album of the week on FBI radio in Sydney, a top five album on 4ZZZ in Brisbane and feature album on RTR FM. It seems to be following in the footsteps of ‘Wildlife Researcher’, which was one of Mel Bampton’s Top 3 Australian releases on Triple J. So what’s next? “We want to tour to Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland around November but we’ll see how we go. I think the good thing about us live is we have no apprehension about trying anything. When we play, people get up and boogie, which you wouldn’t expect after hearing the album.” But as Tim explained, it all comes down to money and they wouldn’t have even been able to make the second album without grant support from ArtsWA. “I hope they think their money’s been well spent. I think they’ll be happy with the results, especially if it’s getting good reviews and because there are so many WA artists on it. I hope so anyway.”

And a Lake of Bass live show? “When you see us live, people think we’re pretty loose. We’re not all tight musicians but we can’t be by definition because we like to improvise. I’m like the twisted bandleader and I probably look like a dickhead. I’ve seen footage of myself and it’s horrible but I don’t intentionally do it, I just get carried away. Diego plays guitar and does weird Italian screaming, rapping stuff. We like to have singers, DJs, computers, keyboards, drums and bass, but it could just be me and Diego although that’s a bit visually dull. When we tour we will have to work out how to get the best out of the least. Unless of course some big record company wants to give us lots of money, then I’ll go with two dancers and a performing bear.”

Coincidence Control’ is released on Tim’s label Nefarious and distributed through MGM. 

www.nefarious.com.au