'Instraspectral' is Lenka's first full-length album since the release of 'Recover/Discover' in 2020.
A collection of songs that came out as emergence album – introspective with themes of emerging into the world and taking a bigger slice of life to enjoy – Dave Jenkins Jr produced the album in Eora/ Sydney during 2022 and 2023.Lenka and Dave went on a musical journey through the '80s, late '90s and early 2000s music with indie pop influences, and emerged creating higher-energy songs with danceable beats of varying genres.
"I love being in the studio and leaning into various vintage styles to create something new," Lenka says. "I'm so proud of the way this album turned out. It's very special to me and I feel really connected to these songs."
Here, Lenka shares some insights behind each song that feature on 'Intraspectral'. "The word 'intraspectral' is something I think I made up, but seems to be a scientific term for 'the spectrum within'," Lenka says, "but also, this is a very introspective collection of songs."
The Entire Spectrum
This little introduction song is an affirmation lullaby for my kids, but also for anyone who needs a reminder that they are wonderful. We recorded it live on piano and vocal.Champion
I wrote this song with Josh Pyke, who've I've known for many years and who has a partner and family around the same stage as myself. I wanted to write about being someone's champion without all the bells and whistles, just a really great relationship where you support each other. We had such a good time working on this song and video. Just constant laughing.Cabin In The Woods
This song is a collaboration with my producer Dave Jenkins Jr and his partner Lucy Taylor. They had made this fun track and I was inspired to write about a cabin in the woods (which I was living in at the time), but it being a metaphor for a place deep inside you where you can hide away when needed; your happy place.I no longer live in my cabin, so I like to travel there in my mind if things get too overwhelming.
Silhouette
I made this track with Josh Schuberth, who I've collaborated with a lot in the past. It's a vintage '80s vibe song and we really lent into this with the production and video. It's a complicated feeling about being unseen and fading away, but wrapped up in a shiny, sexy vibe.Real Real Love
I wrote this song after seeing the 2022 Sydney Biennale funnily enough. The curatorial theme was about rivers and that just inspired that lyric 'like a river after a drought' and I went from here.For the production on this one, we were heavily vibing on late '90s trip hop and songs like Neneh Cherry’s 'Woman'. There is a melody running through this that sounds like a horn, but is actually my voice heavily effected.
Okay
This song is a play on the word 'okay' in a few different ways. Like, in Australia we have R U OK? day and there's a bit of overuse of the word I feel. Sometimes okay can mean 'not that great', but also 'okay' is just enough to carry on, and it can also be really great! Very loaded word.As always, I find a silver lining in the chorus and make myself feel good about things I'm wondering about. I feel 'okay'!
One Moment
I wrote this song after seeing my kid's school choir sing for the grandparents on the first open day they had after the pandemic years.I was so inspired seeing these people with tears in their eyes watching the kids and then hugging them after. Those first hugs with your loved ones after COVID were the best! I enlisted the Berry kids choir to sing on the song and we recorded it in their school library.
Badly
I wrote this one with one with one of my bandmates, Ben Corbett, and it's a fun one, almost like a jazz song in lyrical content I feel. For the production we were inspired by The Cardigans and Sixpence None The Richer. Real '90s manic pixie, dream girl vibe.Unsaid
This was the last song written and recorded for the album. I had set myself the challenge of not using any metaphors in the lyrics at all, though of course the whole song is kind of a descriptive metaphor.It's almost like a play, a two hander about a couple who are not connecting but live together. We went for a light drum and bass beat under the emotional music and I love the way it turned out.
Hanging Tough
This song is about a very difficult thing I feel about life. I have trouble with understanding social dynamics and relationships sometimes, and it's been a lifelong problem for me.I need to constantly remind myself to let this stuff go and not let it overwhelm me or hold me back from bigger things. Life is about more than our social standing etc. People try so hard to be liked in the group, it's kinda weird to me.
Ultraviolet
I wrote this song with Julian Hamilton from The Presets and it's kind of a bookend to the theme of the album 'Instraspectral'. It's about not wanting to stay safe and simple, but to expand in life and keep all the colours shining bright.Ultraviolet is actually the colour frequency higher than violet; it sits outside the rainbow. It is not visible to us and can be dangerous, but I kinda like this metaphor for living life.
Lenka 2023 Tour Dates
Fri 24 Nov - Valley Loft (Brisbane)Sat 25 Nov - Great Club (Sydney)
