motel void

Since debuting with Bigness (2019) and Cosmonaut (2021), Lukas Mayo (Pickle Darling) has developed a deeply personal, tactile sound, refined and widely praised on Laundromat (2023). Their new album Bots takes a deliberately opposite approach: raw, chaotic, and full of static, it was self-recorded in Christchurch and built through radical deconstruction, with songs chopped, reversed, and reassembled from fragments. Rejecting polish and performance, Mayo leaves the seams exposed, resulting in a record that feels like a glitch in the system – messy, experimental, and unexpectedly beautiful.

(The interview was conducted in the autumn of 2025.)

MOTEL VOID: I’m a big fan of your previous records – Bigness, Cosmonaut, and Laundromat. You’ve just released a new single, Massive Everything – will it be part of a new album? Could you tell us a bit about the writing and recording process? Was it different in any way from how you worked on your previous music?

PICKLE DARLING: For this single in particular I was trying to make something really synthetic and slick and plastic feeling, I was into those sort of early 2000s pop songs, and the William Orbit stuff! And that kind of made me want to sing something with more intention, and not hide behind poetry or vagueness or cleverness. And yup, it’s part of a larger body of work, which all sounds nothing like this song!

MOTEL VOID: You‘re based in Christchurch, New Zealand – a place that, from a European perspective, feels quite remote from the global music scene. How do you perceive that distance? Have you ever considered relocating, even temporarily? I’m asking also because your current releases come out on the California-based label Father/Daughter Records, your earlier work was released through the Slovak label Z Tapes…

PICKLE DARLING: Christchurch is kind of all I’ve ever known, I quite like the distance from everything else. Even in New Zealand it’s kind of distant from the music industry, Christchurch is kind of left out a bit. Which I also like! I don’t know if I have big career ambitions. A lot of my favourite artists, like Guided By Voices, Michael Hurley, More Eaze and Claire Rousay, and The Reds Pinks and Purples, have just long sprawling discographies and have all just been working on their own thing  at their own pace without any regard to any ‘proper’ music industry ways of doing things! For me, the distance from everything else is kind of a benefit. 

MOTEL VOID: How vibrant is the local scene in New Zealand? Are there any artists or venues you’d recommend?

PICKLE DARLING: Oh heaps! And Christchurch in particular has an incredible scene. Model Home (I think there’s another US band called Model Home so make sure you look up Model Home NZ or Model Home Christchurch), Hannah Everingham, Mousey, Ben Woods, Holly Arrowsmith, Crush, Wurld Series, Velveteen, This Dog, Only You, Hoihoi, those are just a start! I remember a few years ago going to SXSW and then realising how underrated the Christchurch music scene was. I could think of 20 Christchurch artists that would easily be in very top tier of what I saw at SXSW.

MOTEL VOID: You’ve performed with The Beths and even released a successful collaboration with them – a cover of The Postal Service’s Brand New Colony. You’ve also played shows with Lucy Dacus. What were those experiences like? And how challenging is it for you to bring this – let’s say – bedroom pop sound, which often feels quite introspective, to a larger audience?

PICKLE DARLING: In terms of a playing live to a larger crowd, it can be a bit of a challenge. What I’ve found was that in the past if I was playing a bit support slot I would try and achieve a ‘bigger’ sound. You know, expand the band, add percussion, make everyone boogie, etc. Now I’m much more inclined to try and make the venue feel smaller, make everyone lean in and listen closer. I don’t like to get too solipsistic so I think I always try and break the ice between songs and be a bit more chatty. When it’s huge though, like when I opened for Matchbox 20 we played in an arena and then an amphitheater, that was hilarious. The amphitheater show was to about 16,000 people, and there was a huge moat between the stage and the audience. And because the audience was on a hill, I could see them all from a kind of high angle like a Hieronymus Bosch painting, it was kind of surreal. I think I just tried to have fun with that and joke around with the crowd to kind of get them more on my side. And then we stayed at a backpackers after in a room with about 20 people, most of whom went to the show. I love the challenge of winning people over, I love seeing people hear me for the first time. I prefer being the support band over headlining, you can kind of feel yourself winning over the audience if it’s going well. Anyways, shout out to The Beths, Lucy Dacus, and Matchbox 20! All very sweet and wonderful people!

MOTEL VOID: One of the things I’ve always appreciated about your work – and what I feel sets you apart from many other lo-fi artists – are your lyrics. They’ve always resonated with me – where did you find inspiration for the new songs?

PICKLE DARLING: I read a lot, but I also find myself inspired by songwriters that kind of move between abstract imagery and very specific observations. I love REM, and also when I was a teenager I used to listen a lot to R.A.P. Ferreira (formerly used the name Milo) and I was inspired by how his songs kind of gave me permission to put in everything that’s in my mind into the song. I was listening to a Charlie Kaufman lecture and he talked about how, when writing a film, anything that’s in his mind makes it onto the page, and how that’s kind of the only way to reach some sort of truth. Because you can’t really predetermine how you’re going to reach truth, or write with a sort of aim, because then there’s no discovery. Our brains are always skipping all over the place, we’re never thinking about one thing at one time. So I try and incorporate that into my songs and each song ends up being about everything. 

MOTEL VOID: I’ve always seen you as an engaged and socially aware artist. Has the current state of the world found its way into your new music in any way?

PICKLE DARLING: It’s hard to say. I don’t really write political music, it’s sometimes in the background of my songs. I’ve been listening a lot to John K Samson which has been really inspiring. He writes with such a lived in, moral clarity which I find so refreshing. I think we often think of authentic songwriting as being confessional, or how being super confessional or honest about your feelings is the highest form of songwriting, but I think it can be kind of stunting. Being honest about how you feel is just the starting point, but being empathetic and using your songs to understand others I think is an even higher thing to aim for. That’s something I find in my favourite songwriters. John K Samson, Iris Dement, Robyn, Lucinda Williams, Elbow, Beth Orton, Jeff Tweedy, Aimee Mann, Advance Base… I don’t even know if it’s intentional but they have a sense of ‘reaching out’ in their music. I’m not there yet but that’s my aim. They’re not just being confessional, or insular or self consciously artsy, they’re trying to understand the world more through their songs.

MOTEL VOID: And finally – do you have any tour plans in support of the new music?

PICKLE DARLING: No tour this time around. Just focusing on recording and writing! I always feel like touring in support of an album is weird. I always want to play new unreleased songs, not old songs. I like making people listen closer and kind of focus on the moment more, as opposed to kind of just reminding them of a song they like.