We love a good metaphor about demise – rearranging the decks on the Titanic, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, etc – but all too often they come to mind after the fact, once we’ve already fucked up.
Perhaps it would do us a service to recall these metaphors more frequently, to use them as cautionary tales rather than cold comforters. Lalchand’s new single, ‘What I Once Knew’, harks the tale of social decay in stunning metaphor – and if we could use this particular one as a cautionary tale, rather than cold comfort, that would probably be super imperative to our survival.
Featuring Eric Emery from Skyharbor, ‘What I Once Knew’ is an atmospheric adventure in the most completist sense – from the crushing, subterranean lows to the soaring, lightheaded highs, the track expands from the Earth’s molten core through to the stratosphere, allowing plenty of breathing space for such a sprawling narrative.
“It’s kind of a song about hopelessness inspired by our current social climate,” Lalchand said. “We all realised how meaningless some things seem to be that we once considered important. We’ve been forced to face the inevitability of our demise in such a different way this year. We see how quickly one small thing can change everything and tear down the fabric of our social safety nets and what that means for us all moving forward.”
The Melbourne based Lalchand is clearly up to something, with a previous single featuring the likes of Garrett Russell. Our guess is something wicked this way comes, so we threw some questions at Lalchand to buy us some time to brace for impact.
With ‘What I Once Knew’ you’re presenting a strong message around social cohesion. What was it like distilling something so complex into a snappy 3:44?
I largely credit that to Eric, who did an amazing job lyrically and with his performance. I basically just gave him a prompt, which was thinking of a life we once held dear. The song was written last year during Melbourne’s hard lockdown and I suppose the feeling all around was hopelessness and coming to terms with the situation we were in and still find ourselves in.
You made fantastic use of the rare commodity that is Eric Emery. Why was he the one for the job?
The song was actually almost released instrumentally! It was all ready to go and I think I just happened to be listening to Skyharbor that week. There was a feeling in me that I should at least ask Eric because I could just picture his vocals over this song. I hit him up and thankfully he was keen to do it! I think he’s an incredible vocalist and I could really hear his soaring voice over certain parts of the song. Thankfully he captured the vibe perfectly and I couldn’t be more stoked with the result!
You also released The View From Here this year. What can you tell us about an EP / album in the near future?
The EP will be out on the 8th of October and features a compilation of songs I’ve written/collaborated with others over the years of writing I’ve done. It features a guest vocalist on almost every song and I think there’s something for everyone on there from more rock orientated material to heavy! It’s been a long time coming and I’m excited for everyone to hear the remaining tracks off it!
