The Big Picture

Fluro caught up with Little Pictures, Wellington's cutest indie duet, to ask them about their super impressive rise to first album-released status. Here's what they had to say:

1) It's been a whirwind 18 months for you guys from forming to having a full lengther out - do you ever sleep?

Haha it has been pretty busy lately! Finishing the album felt like a big deal at the time, but actually we've been much busier since then with all the nitty gritty practical things and so on. Lots of touring lately and lots of late nights hanging out on the internet lead to not too much sleep, but we dont mind, it's all good fun. Sleep is for the dead!

2) Awesome that Lil Chief has picked you guys up. How'd that come about and why did you decide to go with those guys?
We met Jonathan Bree at Camp A Low Hum earlier this year, and he was super nice to us. He asked us if we were planning on putting out an album, and then said to keep Lil Chief in mind when we were ready to release it. Naturally, both Mark and I were very flattered and very excited by this, so we immediately said "Yes we are, and it's almost finished!". That was only very vaguely true, so as soon we got home we frantically recorded a bunch of songs over just a couple of weeks, and emailed them off to Jonathan and Scott Mannion of Lil Chief, amid much crossing of fingers. Anyway, luckily for us they liked it, and offered to release it. Yay! Scott and Jonathan and the whole Lil Chief family are all really lovely and supportive, and they've released heaps and heaps of awesome stuff, so we just said "Omgz yes please!" straight away. And it's been really great :)

3) Tell us about the title of the album 'Owl + Owl' and where some of the text and internet message artwork came about - any personal jokes you care to enlighten us on?

Umm... we just really like owls? Haha what a lame answer... I guess the idea of two owls hangin' out just seemed fitting. And as for the internet stuff, we both really like all that nerdy technology stuff - it's what we spend lots of time doing, and what we study, so I think it's often the first thing we think of. Plus I really like that Miranda July vibe, like in that film she did, with people using technology and being lonely and then being friends and other such corny notions, so we thought it might be fun to go for gimmicky kind of things like that. We sure do like a nice gimmick.

4) So you produced the album as well as writing all the material - is this just a control freak nature thing? Did you try anyone else producing it?

Haha yeah I guess it is bit of a control freak thing. We just really liked the idea of doing everything ourselves, with added bonus input from more learned friends. I think we just had a very particular idea of how we wanted everything to sound, and once you involve someone else, no matter how awesome that someone else is, it makes it sound different. It would be like having an extra band member. Which isn't neccessarily a bad thing per se, but just not what we were going for this time round. Maybe next time we'll get Brian Eno or someone :p

5) I've noticed that some of the tracks that appeared on your EP/previous releases have been updated a bit - i particularly like changes to 'Tips for Domestic Bliss'. Just decided to shake things up a bit for the album or did you think they'd naturally progressed between then and now?

Ah well, the lovely Ed Cake mastered it all for us, which was a great way to just make everything sound more together and stuff, which we felt was important. And other than that, I guess some things just turned out sounding different on the day, depending on how we were feeling, or different bits of equipment we'd acquired. Change is fun :)

6) How is the whole loving/working relationship going? No intimate details necessary haha but is it ever a struggle to do everything together?

Hmm people ask us that quite a lot. It's funny, I guess it's a really obvious thing to wonder about, but we just dont think about it all that much - it's just what we do. Just occasionally it's a bit like having your bestest friend sleep over during the school holidays, and then having a big fight over the play station controller after spending 38 hours together eating too many lollies, and then having your mum say that you're not allowed to play together again until you've both had a good sleep. Hehe. BUT it always works out for the best. I know I wouldn't have things any other way :)

7) So you recently got back from a mini tour of Australia - how was that? How was your music recieved? Aussie crowds v. NZ crowds - is it true there's 'no place like home' hehe?

Australia was awesome! So much fun playing to lots of new people in new places. It all went really well, and we had good crowds everywhere we went. It was nice to come home and see our friends again though.

8) You've opened for some pretty major internationals in Wellington and Auckland over the past year. Any favourite memories or funny stories about bands you care to share?

Ummm...opening for Ratatat was particularly awesome. Mark already liked them, and I hadn't heard much of them before opening for them, but I really enjoyed their show, it was pretty epic and very cool. It was a great experience for us playing too, because it was a massively sold out show, so heeeaps of people there. It was pretty cool to play to so many people :)

9) Future plans for Little Pictures - tell us your plans for world domination!

Weeelllll, in the very near future we will be having our North Island album release shows - at Happy in Wellington on August 22nd, and sometime in September in Auckland. The Auckland show is going to be a bit of an out of the ordinary affair, it's top secret right now, but I promise it's going to be very very awesome! Other than that, we have a new video clip coming out in a few months, it's going to involve finger puppets and other fun things. AND we're currently organising a North American and European tour for early next year, so we are super duper duper exciter about that. Lots of stuff happening, yay!!

Owl + Owl is out now through Lil Chief Records.