The Perth duo of Dylan Ollivierre and Carmen Pepper, The Money War's newest project is the four-track EP 'I Don't Hear You Anymore'.
A collection of quaint, tender and spritely indie pop-folk songs that gleam with gorgeously sublime melodies and sincere lyrics that give everyday moments a fresh coat of sonic life, the 'I Don't Hear You Anymore' EP glistens with heartfelt sincerity.The four tracks that feature on the EP were songs that Dylan says kept 'poking their heads up', daring to be fully realised. "The songs are special to me because they remind me of moments in the last year where I felt desperate to express myself."
As a full-time producer who is consistently occupied with other people's music, time dedicated to The Money War is limited.
"Every now and then, I have this insatiable desire to create something that embodies my own vision and expresses Carmen and me as The Money War," Dylan explains.
"In the past, we often had numerous songs to choose from, but nowadays, with three young kids, our time has significantly decreased. Therefore, a song only progresses beyond the 'idea' stage if it strongly demands to be realised."
With a young family now to look after, with Dylan and Carmen welcoming twins last year after the birth of their first child three years ago, 'I Don't Hear You Anymore' showcases a music tandem adept at crafting eloquent originals that seep deep into your emotive being.
How does your new EP 'I Don't Hear You Anymore' showcase the current sound of The Money War?
Carmen: I feel like TMW's sound can vary a bit at times, and from song to song.
This EP showcases how our sound can be really simple and acoustic like 'I Don't Hear You Anymore' or more produced indie-pop sound like 'Somebody Loves You'.
Dylan: I think the thing that has always underpinned TMW's sound is the songwriting itself – that's the part we work the hardest on. On this EP we've tried to let all the songs breathe and not produce them up just for the sake of it.
Is there a general lyrical theme running through this collection of songs?
Dylan: There's definitely a retrospection in the lyrics generally. TMW has always been an outlet for us to talk about things going on in our lives at the time.
I guess what has been going on is getting into your 30s, having kids and still feeling like you don't have it all figured out and then looking back on what has happened so far and trying to piece it together. I think that's life in general, but it feels more important to do that when you hit the big milestones.
Dylan; you mentioned that through your day job as a music producer, finding time to work on material for The Money War can be fleeting; was it a case of striking while the iron was hot to fully realise and record this batch of songs?
Dylan: To be honest, the songs that made this EP were the ones that poked their heads up and wouldn't go away until we realised them.
It was like they weren't going to leave my brain until I got them out, so I had to do it for my sanity. It's more the energy to work on music that doesn't feel vital isn't there at the moment.
I think it's a good thing in some ways but probably also means that there aren't many songs that surprise you along the way by developing into more than you thought they could be.
Given you now have a young family (raising three kids), how has that affected the way you both write and develop songs from the initial idea?
Carmen: For me it's quite hard to get any time by myself, which is usually the way I like to write so that makes it quite logistically hard to find a moment where I feel like I can work on something and fully immerse myself in it.
We never get to delve into it for a long time, so it's often pieced together and takes a much longer time to form everything. It also means we're forced to work more efficiently so I suppose that's a positive at times.
No doubt family life has seeped into your songwriting; do you feel any different as musicians now that you're parents especially with the lyrical themes you focus on?
Carmen: I've found myself writing from different perspectives, often thinking about things my kids might go through in the future or challenges they might face.
I think it's broadened my horizons in that sense and I guess becoming a parent forces you to become more selfless in general so maybe that's why.
Dylan: Maybe that I feel more accountable – like there isn't time to be dishonest and my kids will know if I am. Probably not a thing haha!
Is it too early to judge whether the kids are fans of The Money War? What music is generally played to keep them happy?
Carmen: I've resorted to playing some of our own music to the twins (nine months old) when they're really upset in the car or won't sleep and it does usually work; I suppose the sound of our voices is familiar.
But our eldest who is almost three will usually whinge and says 'No, not this one!'. He loves his kids songs and I've started learning to play some on guitar.
We've been writing new lyrics to nursery rhymes with him for a bit of fun. It's the only way to listen to kids songs and not be really frustrated by how annoying they are.
One of the tracks, 'Was It Ever Really Anything?' is a collab with Melbourne musician FEELDS, your first such joint song project. How did that come about, did you enjoy the process and can we expect more such collaborative projects from The Money War in the future?
Dylan: It came about from a planned writing session with James (FEELDS) when I was in Melbourne last year.
I'm regularly doing writing sessions with other people for work outside of TMW. I loved writing with James. The session was just an open thing, we weren't sure if we were writing for TMW or FEELDS or just for fun, but after the session we both wanted the song so we thought the best solution was to do a collaboration. I love collaborating, so I'd say there definitely will be more of that.
The artwork for the single releases (that feature on the EP) has been super cool; is that aspect done in-house or do you bring in outside creative help?
Carmen: We have a guy named Jan Juhaniak who's done all our art for this EP and our last album too.
He's from Slovakia and lives in France; we found him through the internet and fell in love with his work. We usually like the artwork to have some deeper meaning and imagery that reflects the lyrical content, although sometimes a piece of art just stands out.
When we work with Jan, he always likes to hear all the songs and have the lyrics so he can create something that encapsulates the themes and then he throws a bunch of ideas at us and we go from there. I love the process of putting the sound into a visual form and seeing what somebody else takes from it.
Live shows have been sparse of late; will there be any TMW gigs in the second half of the year?
Carmen: At the moment TMW is in studio mode, mostly because it's pretty difficult to manage it with three young kids. We're ok with that since we've spent a lot of time touring in the past few years.
It'll get easier to play live once the kids are a bit older and they can come along too – but having twins really put a spanner in the works! We're outnumbered by kids but I'm hoping that'll work in our favour one day when we need someone to play drums, keys and backing vocals.
What's next creatively for The Money War?
Dylan: I’d like to do something more produced as a reaction to this EP, like go way the other way. Or maybe it'll just be some nice songs again, who knows.
Carmen: Kids album coming in 2024. . . just kidding. But that could inevitably happen with the way things are for me at home at the moment.
