To us here at Gimmie HQ, Jarrod Quarrell, creator of Lost Animal, is one of the most underrated songwriters in Australia and one of our all-time favourites. He creates poetic expressions. His work is very interesting in a highly original way and richly emotional. The songs reveal themselves more over many listens and always feel fresh. His powerful, beautiful, transformative, and unforgettable songs possess the vast depth of the human spirit. Last time we were in Naarm/Melbourne, we met Jarrod in Fitzroy Gardens, a historic park lined with elms and autumn leaves, to chat about life, feeling good, and the music he’s working on in his own time.
It meant a lot to have this chat—enjoy!
Thanks so much for meeting us today! We’ve been having such a nice time in Naarm/Melbourne. It’s always such a pleasure to come down here for Jerksfest out in Djilang/Geelong, Billy does such a wonderful job. It’s nice to explore the city too. We went to a shop that sold all these old movie day bills. We got this awesome Breakin’ one!
LOST ANIMAL: Breakin’ was one of my favourite movies as a kid. I was in a breakdance gang in Papua New Guinea called, The Rap City Connection.
That’s awesome. Do you reckon you could still do it.
LA: I’m sure I could do a dolphin dive or something. Might hurt myself, though [laughs].
I’ve always loved breakdancing too, but I was so bad at it!
LA: Well, yeah, I was the worst in the game. They were all legit dudes in Papua New Guinea. They had afros, were good dancers, and did helicopters and headspins. I couldn’t do all that.
How’s life been lately? It seems like you’re in a really good place.
LA: Life’s really good. I’m making a new record, so that’s probably got a lot to do with it. Always happy when I’m making tunes. I’m very well. Thanks for asking.
I remember you saying once that, ‘Music on records I make, are a fuck you to the bad things in my life.’
LA: Yeah, I guess. The new music feels like I’ve transcended all that shit and I’ve finally got to a good place, where I can just be good and make tunes.
I was talking about it to a friend recently. Those were dark times for me—those two records, Ex Tropical (2011) and You Yang (2016), were hard to make. It was my spirit trying to get out, trying to shine through when I wasn’t well, trying to overcome all the shit that gets you down.
The music you created before Lost Animal was darker as well?
LA: The lyrics are a bit dark. I always wanted Lost Animal music to not be dark; I wanted that to be up.
When I listen to a lot of your songs, even though they are dark lyrically, the music is uplifting.
LA: Yeah. You can dance to it. Lyrically, it’s hard to write songs about feeling well, I’ve found, without sounding like an idiot [laughs]. I’m rewriting lyrics a lot on this record. Like, I write them and think, yeah, that’s it. Then I’ll go to record and think, is it because it’s cheesy? Or not because it’s cheesy—just because I want to nail it. I really want to get it right. I’m more engaged. I am happy making the effort, happy just doing it.
What are the things that have helped you be more engaged?
LA: Therapy. Psychedelics. Music.
Jerk Fest last year was probably the impetus for it all. When Billy asked me to play, my instinct was to say ‘yes,’ but I kind of didn’t want to do it. Even up until the day, I didn’t want to go. But then I had a great time and really enjoyed playing. It dawned on me how lucky I was to be able to do it, and how fortunate I was to be asked to play good shows like that, six years after putting out my last record. It hit me. Then, around that time, I started feeling better. I found a good therapist after searching for one and going through a few bad ones. That gradually led to writing the right tunes.
I started a side project with a friend, Stuart from Primitive Calculators. That really helped with the playing. I was always just a songwriter—I wrote, and I was a front guy. So it was really good to just play. All those things combined put me in a better place.
Jerk Fest is a pretty special event. It’s such a great opportunity to see so many bands play, and catch-up with people.
LA: Yeah, that was part of it—nice people saying nice things.
We were so stoked to see you play! You mentioned being asked to play shows six years after you put out your last record, those albums are timeless. You could listen to them today, and they still sound so fresh. I don’t know anything else that sounds like that.
LA: That’s cool. I’ll take that [laughs].
We love that there’s so many different elements from all over the place. I know you’ve got a punk rock background and like you were saying there’s a love of hip-hop, and then there’s rock and electronic elements.
LA: That’s where the new record is. It’s kind of along those lines but maybe a little less electronic. Lost Animal, to me, has been beats and piano chords, songs built like that. Now it’s just become a bit more jamming in one key and building songs around grooves and little riffs rather than me writing songs. Then they turn into songs. It could go any number of ways. I was trying to make it go that keyboard chord way, and it really wasn’t working.
We had two songs we were working on that I thought were shit. Then I wrote one that was good, and four months later we had the whole record. You Yang was mostly written in the studio. I had a handful of songs I’d written. So for this record, I was like, I’m never going to do that again. Because it’s expensive, taxing, and stressful, but I really like doing it—almost writing songs to tape.
Before, I’d always done demos to write. With this new record, I got to a point where I’d written a song and recorded it, and then we had nothing else to do, so we wrote two songs in a day, Dan Luscombe and I, who I’m making the record with. It’s been written in the room together. I’m usually the impetus, and he’s the finesse guy, making me redo things or asking, ‘How about you try it this way?’
Are you ever surprised at how he finesses things?
LA: I’m surprised at everything. I try to say ‘yes’ to everything he suggests and just try it. If I don’t like it, I’ll tell him later. But I don’t think it’s come to that. I’m less controlling now. There’s co-writes with him; I’ve never done that before. Maybe once with Shags [Chamberlain].
So you’ve been more controlling?
LA: Yeah, way more. Now, I feel like the less I try to control things, the better things are. And if you’ve got a talented person in the room that wants to do something cool, you should probably shut your mouth and let them do it.
He’s the man. He finessed the fuck out of Amyl and the Sniffers for their latest album.
LA: Was it a big change?
Yeah. He really brought their sound together. Comfort To Me is miles ahead of their other releases. Sonically it sounds really big. It’s so cool seeing them progress as songwriters too.
LA: Dan’s got really good taste. He can play anything. He’s got that classic songwriting sensibility, but is open to stuff. He’s played with everybody.
I remember a post you made on Instagram a while back and at the time you mentioned you were exploring Middle Eastern scales.
LA: Yeah, because I never learnt how to play.
You’re self-taught?
LA: Yeah. When I started this thing with Stuart, because it’s a guitar duo, I thought, ‘I better brush up on my guitar playing.’ I loosely learned different scales from around the world, but mostly I stuck to the blues minor pentatonic. Most of the new record is in the blues minor pentatonic, which is the first thing everybody learns.
I’ve kind of grown up on some basics, and that was enough because I’ve been playing for so long. My playing feels pretty good. Even if you’re not trying to learn, if you play music for 30 years, you’re going to learn.
How many songs do you have?
LA: Right now, we have 10. So we’ve got an album on tape. They’re not all finished, but they’re all pretty much structured up and I’m writing the lyrics.
Do you usually write lyrics afterwards?
LA: Yeah. If I demo something, often there’ll be a phonetic vocal line, so sounds or sometimes, whole lines will jump out. But I often don’t finish writing the lyrics until all the songs are done and it’s time to put the vocal on. Sometimes a whole vocal will just fall out with the song. But generally I’ll wait till the end because it can change. And there’s always a better fucking line.
Is there any lines that you’ve written at the moment that you really love?
LA: Yeah. Some say that life’s a game, it’s just a setting. Some but life’s a bowl of berries, so come get some. I wrote a really trad soul ballad, ‘The Sun Cleared the Rain’ which I’m really proud of.
Was there anything in particular that inspired that one?
LA: I was just writing a song. I was sitting playing keyboard. It was one of those things where I’ll mumble it a line, and it just all fell out of my mouth. I was listening back to it. Sometimes that happens, but it’s really rare. It kind of feels like channelling. You’re not really thinking about it too much. Trying not to think about it. I try to not direct it and not control it. I try to let it come and to recognise what it is and let it become that.
You’re really great at writing narratives.
Narratives? Really? I don’t feel like I write that, really. I feel like I’m a surrealist. It’s just feelings. But sometimes they do turn into stories. ‘Lose The Baby’ is a little bit like that, I guess. But ‘The Sun Cleared the Rain’—that’s kind of just telling. That’s a narrative. There you go. It’s about when you need something and something comes along into your life, but it’s not necessarily great for you. It’s quite relatable for everyone, I think. Very universal.
What else are you writing?
LA: There’s a song called ‘On A Bird Now,’ which is about transcendence—about turning into a bird. I wrote it when I got back from Indonesia. I was trying to write proper haikus: five, seven, five syllables, which is fun. And that led to that song. We just pressed record. It was a weird way to record a song. That’s fine. It’s just about being in the now, transcendent. Maybe a bit psychedelic. Maybe a bit witchy.
I noticed in a story on Instagram you posted a photo of a book on the occult.
LA: I am reading those books, yeah. I’m just a curious guy. I like to read. It’s too early for me to talk about that stuff. I’m learning. But it’s definitely not what people think it is. It’s an occult universe, for sure. There’s more out there that people don’t get.
Totally. So many unseen things!
LA: Yeah. I guess that’s what the record is about.
You mentioned Indonesia, I know travelling there recently inspired you. You said you cured your insomnia while there.
LA: I don’t know what it was. Maybe the weather; it was the wet season, balmy, raining. Maybe it was because we were busy doing a lot, and I wasn’t concerned about shit. I was with my godson and my best friend, so I was chill. I was fucking glad though, man, because when we left, I was literally sleeping two hours a night. It’s fucking horrible. At home you’ve got your routine, your comforts when you wake up in the middle of the night, you don’t have that shit when you’re away. So that was a challenge. Gradually, like a week into the trip, I started sleeping better. By the end of it, I was sleeping 8 hours a night.
How did that feel?
LA: It felt amazing. I cried with happiness, a few times, on that trip because I was just so relieved to be out of the country and to be sleeping. I used to live in New Guinea, and the smells are the same, the weather felt the same, it brought a lot of things back. It was very emotional. Also lots of fun.
Was there anything in Indonesia that you saw that was really cool?
LA: I saw the fucking devotion. Because there’s Hinduism, there’s Buddhism, there’s Christianity, there’s Islam. Hinduism especially seems really just present. They put out offerings every day. Light a candle. They’re more present. It’s so chaotic. But the chaos kind of works. I thrive in chaotic places.
I felt I got mega-stressed when I got off the plane back here. It was a culture shock. It was just like, oh, fuck, this again. Back to all that shit. I was cool, though. Went back in the studio, wrote two songs, wrote two songs a week after that.
You asked me what I liked about Indonesia? Probably the sense of connection. It just seems so fucking ancient, too.
Is there any other places you feel really connected to?
LA: I feel kind of connected to Castlemaine, because I was born there, and conceived there. But no, not really.
You mentioned that a lot of your album and just in general, your life lately, has been about being present. When did you first start noticing that?
LA: Therapy. She helps sort me out.
A good therapist makes all the difference. I’ve been through some terrible ones.
LA: Yeah, well, the first ones I went to were. She spoke to me for half an hour and then prescribed me something which made me feel awful.
This lady I’m seeing now is a psychologist, so it’s just talk therapy. A little bit reiki as well. So feels me out. Sometimes if we get stuck, she does tarot. In a nutshell she was like, ‘You’re awesome. Just be awesome.’ And I was like, ,What? I’m so fucked up. What are you talking about?’ It took me months to get on that.
I guess the therapist could see beyond all the stuff you’re hung up on to see that real you, which IS awesome!
LA: As soon as I walked in the door, she could see what I was, and what I’d forgotten, or it was a flickering flame, and she put that in me back there.
That’s so great! Do you have any thoughts on what your album you’re working on might be called?
LA: Yeah. A Dragon Ascending Toward Heaven.
Where inspired that?
LA: A friend did my my birth chart when I was 21, and he was like, ‘That’s what you are. You’re a dragon ascending toward heaven.’ I was like, ‘Okay!’ [laughs].
I was going to call it I’m a Bird Now. But we were recording the song and Dan’s like, ‘There’s an album called, I’m a Bird Now.’ Luckily, I’d already thought of the other title, and decided to call it that.
I think that one’s seems really fitting. That’s exciting! I’ve got goosebumps as soon as I heard it.
LA: [Laughs]. It suits it.
Have you thought about cover art yet? I know you paint, have you thought of painting it yourself?
LA: I won’t paint it. I haven’t been painting much. I tend to do other things like that if I’m not writing to try and have an outlet. I’m not sure what it will be yet. The last albums have been a side profile shot, maybe it could be a side profile shot of an animal or a bird. I did some photos with a friend, and one was double exposed, that looks really good.
Have you tried anything different on this album?
LA: I’m playing a lot more guitar. I’ve be singing a bit more rather than just sort of the talk singing I do.
Is singing something you’ve always done since you were little?
LA: Yeah, I always wanted to be a singer. Always wanted to be a front man.
Who was the first performer to inspire you?
LA: Michael Jackson. No one’s done it like Michael Jackson has done it. Maybe Prince too.
The first people that made me think I want to do that more, was maybe Bob Dylan, and songwriters like that. Dylan is a big fav. If I could write songs like he’s writing when he’s fucking 85 or whatever he is, that’d be cool. I just don’t want to sound like that, though. I don’t want to sound like anything else.
That’s the best thing anyone can do—not be a replica of something that already exists. That’s the highest achievement you can get.
LA: I think so. People ask me, ‘What kind of music do you make?’ I just say—good. I refuse to describe it. I can’t describe it. That’s all a little bit stupid.
Most reviews these days should just be called ‘comparisons’ because that’s all they do. But they’re really bad with the comparisons. I find that a lot of people who write about music don’t have many reference points; they have a real limited knowledge and just compare it to something popular, even though it doesn’t sound anything like it.
LA: Oh, man. You shouldn’t seen some of the comparisons we got in America. One said we were a cross between Pearl Jam and Gorillaz. I mean, yeah, there’s a little bit of dubby stuff and melodicas and stuff. It’s like, ‘Okay, your record collection is big Billboard Top 20 stuff, right.’ I used to get really annoyed at all that. I’ve just let it all go.
I used to go see a psychic, and I’ll always remember a piece of advice she gave me: what other people say about you is none of your business.
LA: Very true. Yeah. My therapist really helped me with that.
You don’t want to take on that energy they’re putting out there. It really has no effect on you unless you let it.
LA: Yeah, totally.
Or people will say something to you and they haven’t even really thought about it much, but then you take it to heart and it’s a big deal for you and upsets you, but it doesn’t do a thing bad from them.
LA: Yeah. And perception is a funny thing too. A lot of times someone has been a bit standoffish and I thought, they haven’t liked me. But it’s come to pass that they’re just a bit shy and actually admire me. Sometimes your perception is off of what people think.
Some people definitely mean it, though [laughter]. I always take people on a case by case basis because sometimes you can hear things about people, but then whatever your interaction is with them could be different.
LA: Yeah, it’s a good way to be.
In front of us is, over there, is a fairy tree apparently and it was created as a place that is sacred and safe and it’s a place for kids to imagine and dream. I was wondering, do you have a place like that?
LA: Yeah.
Where’s your fairy tree?
LA: In my mind, my consciousness is my fairy tree.
Do you meditate?
LA: Yeah, I meditate. I’m reading a book on Astral travel, which is basically a form of meditation.
I’ve meditated on and off for about 20 years. I find it really useful, especially for my mental health.
LA: I did a short course on Transcendental Meditation. They gave me a mantra.
I’ve always wanted to try that.
LA: Just make up your own.
Really?
LA: It’s like, we know what to do. Just make up your own mantra, really. That’s all it is. I changed mine because I didn’t like it. It didn’t feel right. I was like, well, fuck that, I’m just going to change it.
And then it felt right?
LA: Perfect. Yeah.
That’s very punk rock! [laughter]
LA: [Laughs] Well, meditation is pretty punk rock, I guess.
Has it helped with being present?
LA: Yeah. Or maybe not. No, it definitely does. I’ve been thinking about meditation. People think you’ve got to quiet the mind. That’s not it. It’s like getting away from your mind—like, consciousness is here, it’s not in there. It has to be nothing. I feel like that’s what I’ve seen. Consciousness feels like that. And I feel like I’ve got consciousness on multiple levels. My instinct feels like it’s here. My intuition is in my solar plexus. Sometimes I can feel things going on behind me, in my back. I’m just starting to become aware of things that maybe I had little inclinations towards and maybe ignored. I’ve looked at these things in the past but never stuck to them, never really put them into practice in any kind of way. I’m becoming a bit more disciplined about it, being more disciplined about my mental health and doing what it takes to protect it. If I’m tired, I rest. If I’m stressed, I don’t go to those places that stress me out. Hard-earned lessons. Same mistakes made over and over again.
A lot of stuff in Buddhism and different spiritual texts, say that you’re just going to keep learning a lesson over and over and over until you get it.
LA: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me.
And then if you get it—you level up.
LA: Yeah, I think so.
It’s so good to see you healthy and it’s such a good place and making music. Like, you mentioned to us before that you were thinking, you have this opportunity, you’re still here to make music, you can do this!
LA: Yeah. I realise that’s a great thing about music. It’s not like we’re the people that are going to come up with the thing that’s going to save the planet, but it might be the people that write the song that inspires the person that saves the planet, and that’s enough. Just play your part and do it the best you can.
I love that when we make a song it can inspire and go places that we may never go, and affect people in ways we’ll never know.
LA: Yeah. I get people write to me all the time, from Europe and America. Or they’ve heard, Tropical Fuck Storm do my song [‘Lose the Baby’] and they reach out to me. So, yeah, it’s beautiful.
How did you feel when they did your song? How did it come about?
LA:They told me they were playing it. Dan was still in The Drones; they’d done a side project thing and played the song a few times, so I knew that. Then Gareth wrote to me and said, ‘Look, we’ve been playing the song, and we want to put it on a 7”.’ I played it with him a couple of times. It was cool.
I was in a band called St. Helens. Towards the end of St. Helens, I’d started Lost Animal and had written ‘Say No To Thugs,’ ‘Lose The Baby,’ and a bunch of the songs on Ex Tropical. I thought, oh, maybe I should give them to St. Helens. So I tried them in St. Helens. The St. Helens version of ‘Lose The Baby’ isn’t too far off from the TFS version. It’s a long version. To me, the TFS version just sounded like the St. Helens version, but they wouldn’t have heard that. Gareth is a great songwriter, and he wanted to do my song—that’s cool.
Both you and Gareth are my all-time favourite Australian songwriters.
LA: Oh, really?
Yeah, for real!
LA: I’m playing on a song of Gareth’s next week. He’s reissuing his solo album, he’s re-recording a song.
Awesome! I know you grew up in the bush, like country Victoria, and Papua New Guinea, and you lived in Geelong.
LA: Yeah. Castlemaine too. Some other places, and then I moved to Melbourne when I was 21.
Why Naarm/Melbourne?
LA: When I was a teenager, Geelong was awesome. Heaps of fucking great bands three to four nights a week.
What bands did you see?
LA: Bored!, Magic Dirt. There was Warped and She Freak, they were Geelong bands. There’d be bands that tour, like, Meanies, and Hard-ons. And then international bands. Especially back in the 90s, like Shellac and Fugazi. They’re probably the best live band I’ve ever seen, as far as energy goes.
We love those bands. I saw Fugazi when I was younger and they were incredible. When you play, is there a kind of, like, energy that you try to bring? When we saw you play at Jerk Fest, you brought a really cool vibe to the room.
LA: I just try to be open. I try to give as much of myself as I can and not hold back.
When you first started doing Lost Animal, that was the first time you were playing with a backing track, and I understand that was challenging in the beginning?
LA: Yeah. I used to shake.
Really? Wow.
LA: Yeah. But that’s what I wanted to do, so I just made myself do it.
It’s good to put yourself in situations that scare you sometimes, I feel like we really grow in moments like that. What are the things that are making you happy right now?
LA: I’m happy knowing I don’t feel like it’s a struggle anymore. I feel like I could sit down and write a song anytime I want to. I just hope I keep feeling like that. It feels like after this record, the next one will be ready in a year and a half. I’d be very surprised if there weren’t four records in the next five years. That’s how I feel. We’ll see.
I hope your creativity keeps flowing. We’re so here for as many Lost Animal records as you’ve got!
LA: Let’s hope! I feel good, which is nice.
Follow @lostanimal_. Listen to/Buy Ex Tropical HERE. Listen to/Buy You Yang HERE.
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