Sydney-based artist LX Mason returns to Close-up Culture to chat about the highly anticipated release of his sophomore single, Drink Me Goodbye.
Q: We’ve been impatiently waiting for the follow-up to ‘I Don’t’. What has this period in between ‘I Don’t’ and ‘Drink Me Goodbye’ been like for you?
A: So, in between I Don’t and Drink Me Goodbye I was trying to balance the pressure of mass producing just to meet everyone’s standards that I almost compromised my sound, compromised my art, and put out something just for the hell of it. It was a huge learning process that no one really tells you about when you get into it, but I’m glad that I did.
The whole time I wrote heaps, met wonderful people and started working on songs that I’m obsessed with.
Q: There are few things more difficult than moving past a long-term relationship. What drew you to this painful subject?
A: I think it’s something that everyone goes through in some way or another. So, what drew me to it was me just processing a relationship that went bad and how it actually affected me.
I hadn’t thought about it in ages, and then one day every memory kinda flooded me at once and I was like: “I have to write about this!”
Q: Can you tell us about the process of putting together the sound for ‘Drink Me Goodbye’ with St. Humain, Nathan Eshman, and Leon Zervos?
A: When I came to Sainty the song was like 10 BPM faster (HA!), but since it already had a strong melody we could go where we wanted with it. I think we started with the chorus first cause he had this one siren type sound that I was obsessed with.
One day, when he was trying to figure out the beat for the verse, I just sent him a voice memo of me beatboxing what I wanted the beat to sound like and we kept it as a reference for so long that it actually ended being a part of the track.
Working with Nathan Eshman was a dream. He’s a brilliant songwriter, mixing engineer, and guitarist who’s spoken into my writing over the years. Being able to finally work with him on a mix was brilliant cause he’s efficient, talented, and knows exactly what sound to go for. He actually referenced me to work with Leon Zervos at Studios 301.
Funny enough, I’d actually never heard of Leon – didn’t know his work either. It wasn’t until after I got the master back that Sainty was like: “you know he mastered Avril Lavigne and Songs About Jane (Maroon 5), NSYNC, and Rihanna?” – and I freaked.
Q: You worked with Jason Denison, Daniel Brown and Skye Morrison to put together another visually interesting music video. What did you feel this music video needed to do to capture the mood of this song?
A: Shoutout to TEAMLX – I love them.
We all felt that the video needed the tension between innocent memories and the darkness of how deep someone will go to cope with the raw emotion of a fractured relationship. And cheap Aldi wine, cause we film on a budget – haha!
Everyone got the vision and just took it farther than I could have imagined and in a super sappy way – working on it brought us closer together.
Q: Any stories to share from the shoot?
A: One of our pool locations fell through, so at midnight we decided to go to Cremorne since it had a public pool.
At 1AM the boys left to grab more stuff from the car and Skye and I had to watch over the equipment by the pool. All the sudden this elderly woman struts down the steps with her dog for a late night swim.
Anyways, it was pitch black and Skye wanted to see how deep the pool was. All I had was my iPhone flashlight, so I’m like walking alongside the pool shining the light at Skye so she can see where she’s going. And then the elderly woman (from the other side of the pool deck) goes: “Are you shinning that light at me?” and I was like “Definitely not.” And she goes “Well, can you stop shinning that light at me?” and I was so confused. Then she proceeds to go full nude into her swimmers and jumps in the pool.
The whole thing was very awkward.
Q: What are your hopes for the song?
A: I hope the song really trajects my career and my sound in the direction I want it to go. And I can’t wait to do it live someday!