Q ’n’ A: Thomas Rawle – Papa vs. Pretty

How many songs did you whittle down from for White Deer Park?

There were eighty songs, whittled down to about twelve, which was an unbelievably gruelling task: physically, mentally, emotionally demanding.

Was it a whole band exercise?

It was, the whole record’s been a complete lesson for us. We have four people in our band now, and there’s much more of a democratic decision-making process, and everyone’s now involved in the writing. That’s kind of why we took such a long time off – it wasn’t really a break, we were all working our arses off, restructuring how we do things to make sure that we are making the most out of all that we have to offer, rather than just one person writing songs.

What made you decide to bring in a fourth member? 

Well, when we first finished touring the first record, it was something we wanted to do, to open our options – I can perform a bit more, and Luke’s also a great musician, and a great creative thinker, so I think we all wanted him to join the band. It was both a want and a need.

Were there any obvious influences when writing this record? 

You see, this whole record’s kinda been made in creative isolation, in that I spent a lot of time in Los Angeles just after we finished touring and wrote a bunch of songs, then I left again, then went back and wrote some more, and I met the guy who ended up producing the record, and one constant string musically throughout it, is that there’s this air of nostalgia. Not in a ’oh, it sounds like this band from then’ way, but more – that’s why we called the album White Deer Park, because it’s this place in a cartoon where the animals are trying to get to, for safety (laughs). It’s an ideal, I suppose.

Does that carry over in the lyrics?

Sort of, but I think that some melodies, you know, you can be playing two notes, and it can unfold into a melody that feels familiar, but it feels like you were meant to find it. There’s this weird, un-nerving feeling when you play, or find, particular melodies. With My Life Is Yours, I remember I’d written the melody before going overseas for the first time, and I was freaking out, and I’d convinced myself that there was something cursed abut that melody. I couldn’t finish that song, and still every time I listen to it, I’m a little freaked out by it, even though it’s a celebratory song.

You recorded your debut quite a while ago. How do you feel about it now? 

I recently did an interview with Triple J, and they played some of my old record before, and I remember hearing it, and thinking ‘Wow.’ I feel so emotionally distanced from it.

Why do you think that is? 

I think I was a different person back then. That particular time for me was riddled with anxiety and things like that, and I kind of overcame it within the space of a year: it got real bad, and then it got real good. I feel like I somehow managed to climb into my own head and kill my former self. That’s kind of what this record is.

What’s the plan for this album? 

I’m planning a lot of things around the release of this album, because I want the whole thing to be a big statement. This album is different, because I feel My Life Is Yours is about how I managed to get rid of myself and be something else. I don’t really know how to describe it, but it happened. I’m being awfully vague (laughs)

Not at all. How do you feel about the album in this weird time where it’s finished but nobody has heard it?

I feel very good about it. Some people are like, “This is a drag to play these songs over and over again” but it’s the opposite, because the songs mean a lot, to all of us. There was so much stuff that went down during that [writing] period – heavy stuff, and we all got through it, and now we made this record, and the whole thing is very profound to us. It is different to the last record, but it doesn’t sound like a different band. It’s sort of an evolution. I think, in many ways, with the amount of songs we wrote, and the amount of rehearsals, and the amount of shedding, we sort of wrote three or four albums, and developed through that. But now this is the result.

Finally, what would you most like people to take away from this record? 

I want it to be a whole world, like a place, and it’s tied to this memory I have as a child of a particular point, and I almost want it to be like a good book that you can come back to. You know how great books have fan-fiction and stuff like that? I want it to be more than a record, I want it to be a world. When the album comes out, it will make sense. I like the idea of creating a world. You know, some artists their music is a whole world. You’re constantly trying to turn away from the ugly parts of yourself, and if you succeed in doing so, there’s something there. You almost transcend the nature of yourself. That’s how I feel when I listen to something I really love, “Wow, that person is just a person, yet they’ve done that.”