More than half a decade since he wrote it, Sydney indie-folk singer-songwriter Lorenzo Guevarra recently released his debut song 'As Well As I Do'.
A bewitching song built with warm acoustic strings, twinkling chimes, and Lorenzo's gentle and velvety vocals, 'As Well As I Do' was inspired by the songwriting of Passenger and production of Damien Rice."The song was written on acoustic guitar and has seen little change over the years," Lorenzo says. "At the time of writing, I was obsessed with Passenger and loved his way of fingerpicking the melodic lines of his songs before the words came in.
"At the time of recording I was listening heavily to Damien Rice's 'My Favourite Faded Fantasy' record and drew some inspiration from its production, particularly the orchestral arrangement of the tracks.
"The string section ideas came organically as we kept replaying what we had. The song's melody left much space to experiment, so we didn't have to force anything."
Written by Lorenzo in 2017, shortly after he graduated from university, 'As Well As I Do' was "inspired by two of [his] friends who started a relationship when [they] were in school. It was a largely turbulent one, constantly reshaping itself over the course of [their] education."
Coming back to this song at a later point, with different experiences and perspectives, Lorenzo shaped the track into its current form after "processing a recent breakup of [his own], the memory of this song helped maintain a state of grace throughout the ordeal".
Ahead of a hometown show supporting Mark Wilkinson at The Great Club (Sydney) on 4 May, here Lorenzo shares a number of his favourite heartbreak songs.
1: Angie McMahon - 'Missing Me'
This track is so powerful I feel almost threatened, haha! The sharp bite of Angie's hollow-body electric guitar is so perfect for the message she was trying to send with this song. Sometimes you just need to listen to a prosaic, juvenile (in a good way) song to release some of that poisonous post-breakup angst.
2: Flyte - 'Easy Tiger'
This was very hard to choose because the whole 'This Is Really Going To Hurt' record was the soundtrack to my last break-up. It's structured chronologically, perhaps akin to the stages of grief.'Easy Tiger' in particular is quite ominous because it perfectly nails the anxiety and sense of oncoming suffering that the enterprise entails. In recent years, I've discovered that you can't quite ignore or distract yourself from your emotions. You have to really sit with them, unfortunately and understand that it has to get worse before it gets better.
3: Damien Rice - 'I Remember'
This is one of my favourite songs of all time. It encapsulates both the colourful blissfulness at the start of a relationship and its violent crash-landing at its bitter end.Lisa Hannigan's angelic tone at the beginning serves as the beauty to Damien's beast as he takes control at 2:17 where he sinks whatever is left of the ideas of love that were depicted at the song's introduction.
