The course of true love never did run smooth, and neither did making the debut album from Sydney indie-pop outfit I Know Leopard aptly titled 'Love Is A Landmine'.
An album more than three years in the making, I Know Leopard vocalist Luke O'Loughlin describes it as an album full of love songs, but not in the classic sense. “As a person who suffers from anxiety in the past and bouts of depression as a teenager and in my early 20s, I have always found that my romantic experiences or encounters have fed into that and left me alienated at times,” Luke explains.
“Over the course of making this record there were a lot of songs that were written about my experiences in my quest to find love in different ways, and some of those experiences were dark experiences that fed into my mental health issues.
“So it got me thinking about love as this thing that has a dichotomy of pleasure and pain – you can't have love without pain, you can't have light without the darkness.”
Opening with lead single 'Landmine', the album communicates the duality of love Luke speaks of and parallels it with his own real-life journey to finally find love with bandmate, bassist Rosie Fitzgerald. “At the end of this journey there was ultimately a new love that was found in the group between myself and Rosie,” Luke says.
“It kind of fell into place at the end [of writing the album] and love became a really healing thing for me through finally being with Rosie and being happy.
“It's about the journey through it. Rosie and I have been through some pretty tough times throughout the course of recording and the result of it is us being together, and us being together was no easy thing... there were lots of battles to make it happen.
“But we got through those, got over those hurdles and are very much in love and happy. I was talking about love being a destructive thing and a healing thing, and this is a journey from the former to the latter.”
With 'Love Is A Landmine' out early April, I Know Leopard are on tour with the album from May to June.
'Love Is A Landmine' is no mere debut album for I Know Leopard, it's a completely different set of spots. From their established roots as an indie pop four-piece, I Know Leopard have very deliberately developed their sound towards a style of '70s pop rock in the same vein as Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and 10cc.
“With this record we wanted to be quite pure in the way we approached it,” Luke says.
“In the way that a lot of the bands that influence the record like ELO, 10cc and that soft rock of the '70s that was quite pure – sitting down with a piano or guitar and writing a song from start to finish, playing it as a band and getting that energy as a live band.”
“We weren't striving for perfection all the time, like we'd done in the past; this time we really embraced the little imperfections and quirks, and left them in instead of trying to smooth them over with computer tricks.”
'Love Is A Landmine' is released 5 April.
I Know Leopard Australia Tour 2019
Sat 4 May - Surflife Music Festival (Gerringong)Fri 17 May - Jive (Adelaide)
Sat 18 May - Mojo's (Fremantle)
Sun 19 May - Clancy's Fish Pub (Dunsborough)
Thu 23 May - Workers Club (Geelong)
Fri 24 May - Northcote Social Club (Melbourne)
Sat 25 May - The Foundry (Brisbane)
Sun 26 May - Soundlounge (Gold Coast)
Thu 30 May - Cambridge Hotel (Newcastle)
Fri 31 May - Oxford Art Factory (Sydney)
Sat 1 Jun - UOW UniBar (Wollongong)
Sun 2 Jun - Transit Bar (Canberra)
