motel void

Armlock is the Australian duo of Simon Lam and Hamish Mitchell. The band’s second proper release, and first for Run For Cover Records, Seashell Angel Lucky Charm (out July 12th) taps onto the songwriters’ roots in experimental electronic music and filters them through an indie rock lens, drawing the listener in close with crystal clear guitars, tight rhythms, warm harmonies, and sparse arrangements that leave room for character and eccentricities.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve been friends for almost 15 years. Where did you meet and when did you start writing music together?

ARMLOCK: We met while studying Jazz at Monash University in 2010, Simon was doing drums and I (Hamish) was a pianist. We formed a band called I’lls around that same time and started writing/producing, shortly after this we both studied sound engineering.

MOTEL VOID: You have a bunch of other projects as well. I was thrilled to find out that Simon is a part of Kllo, ‘Downfall’ was one of my favorite songs from 2017/2018. Apart from I’lls you also had a project called Couture. How active are these projects now? And is Armlock your main priority at the moment?

ARMLOCK: Yeah, along with those projects Simon and I both produce, write and mix for other people. So we are constantly working on stuff. As far as those specific projects, I’lls was very much a time and a place thing, the other member did just return back from a long stint in New York so never say never. Couture was more of a live club thing than a recording project. Simon and Chloe (Kilo) released a track earlier this year and are working on new music so that is still very much active. At the moment though, Armlock is the main priority.

MOTEL VOID: Your new album is called ‘Seashell Angel Lucky Charm’, it’s your first album for Run For Cover Records. Could you describe the writing and recording process of this record?

ARMLOCK: Most of our songs start with a voice memo or one us having a guitar riff to start from. It’s not a complete blank canvas but blank enough for us to form its identity together. From there we start recording immediately, there’s no real distinction between writing, demoing and final production, it’s all done at the same time.

We generally have no idea where the song is going when we start recording. It’s a workflow that is much more common in electronic music and how we started making music together, capturing sounds, layering parts, then arranging after the fact. Songs can also change a lot once they’re recorded, changing tempos or key or both. The vocals are usually tracked with a handheld mic with the speakers on, this really helps feel like the vocal take is part of a performance.

MOTEL VOID: You record and engineer your music yourself. What kind of DAW do you use? How did you learn recording/producing music?

ARMLOCK: We both did sound engineering at RMIT in Melbourne but really we’ve been making records together, apart and for other projects for like 15 years. Recording, mixing and producing is what we both do for work so a lot has been learnt from repetition of the process. In regards to what DAW we use, different projects require different tools although we both predominantly use Ableton to create because that’s what we learnt first and are most proficient in. We both have mixed in Reaper but in recent years we’ve been doing more band records so we’ve both found ourselves using Pro tools a bit .

MOTEL VOID: You’re playing Pitchfork Music Festival in London this November. Will you play more European shows to support your new album?

ARMLOCK: Yeah, it’s really exciting to be playing in London and Europe this year. There will definitely be more shows announced they’re just being worked out now.