“I would say it's like screaming and there's no one around. And you know, you want to be heard. It's kind of that feeling, perhaps.”
Scrolling through frogurt’s Bandcamp, you’ll find tracks with names like ‘throwaaway 2min production’ and ‘untitled (silly mix)’, tagged as ‘lofi slop’, all stylised in lower caps and available to download for free. As frogurt, Canberra-based musician Lachlan Smith is creating simple, but expansive DIY/emo, exclusively on Ableton Live Lite – the modern-day equivalent of the 8-track recorder.
“I normally record and mix them all in one night - that’s what I used to do every time. But with guided meditation, I tried to sit on them and perfect them as much as I could.”
guided meditation, his fifth project in two years, is made up of the familiar sounds of other emo acts: washed out, shoegaze-y vocals, shimmering layered guitars and lofi drums. Music listened to alone with headphones, private and introspective. But there are moments of experimentation too – on opening track ‘silencer’, the guitar lines are now reversed, drums turning into chopped up breakbeats and vocals resampled into a new sound entirely.
Also a member of bands Freezer, Salmon 50 and Pictures of Yuki, frogurt is carving out a path in the burgeoning Australian emo scene alongside acts like Freight and doris. Melancholic, pensive music that seems to thrive in towns outside of the major cities, built on friendship and collaboration.
“I don’t really see frogurt sitting kind of in a scene, it’s more like a group of friends.”
But isn’t that how all the best music scenes start?
Words by Louisa Christie