Interview: Laurie Cave Chats About His New Single, ‘Perfect Lover’

After making his eagerly-awaited debut earlier in the year with ‘Nobody Could Ever Love You’, UK born Melbourne-based artist Laurie Cave is back with a gut-wrenching indie rock track ‘Perfect Lover’. WE recently caught up with Laurie to chat about the new track, inspirations, making the music video and more!

Your debut track ‘Nobody Could Ever Love You’ introduced your musical journey earlier this year. How do you feel ‘Perfect Lover’ builds upon that foundation?

I feel like both of these records have been very healing. Nobody Could Ever Love You was about processing my childhood trauma and the pain that I felt through my 20s. Perfect Lover is a processing and an alchemising of the massive pain and loss of my previous relationship ending. Both songs are an alchemy of pain into love and creation.

Can you tell us about the inspiration behind your latest track, ‘Perfect Lover’?

This song is about dealing with the aftermath of breaking up with my fiance – the hardest thing I have ever done. This song helped me to understand the dichotomy of loving someone so deeply, but having to let them go. I was also so lucky to be able to share this song with her and process it together. She is an incredible woman and I am lucky to be able to still have her in my life.

You’ve drawn inspiration from artists like Bon Iver, Sam Fender and Marcus Mumford. Are there any specific tracks or albums from these artists, or others, that deeply resonate with you?

Oh my goodness yes. There is a strong connection with Hey Ma by Bon Iver – I deliberately went after the hospital life support machine noise that they use in that song. For me this represented the conscious decision to end the life of our relationship – such an incredibly sad and heartbreaking process. Mumford and Sons Wilder Mind album was seminal for me, I really wish I had written it!

Can you tell us about your collaboration with producer James Seymour and how it contributed to realising your creative vision for ‘Perfect Lover’?

James is incredible, he works at such lightning pace – which is ideal for me because I am impatient by nature. We are lucky that we share such a similar taste in music and most decisions in the studio are so easy. There was far less direction from me with this record as I trusted him so completely after the release of Nobody Could Ever Love You. He dreamed up the incredible (and very technical) drum part that Liam Gough (Teskey Brothers) nailed!

Your music video for ‘Perfect Lover’ captures a sense of loneliness and disconnection. How does the video visually complement the song’s emotional journey?

The process of coming to terms with the relationship ending, the un-picking of stitches of a life planned together was a very lonely process. I spent countless hours alone in my flat, trying to pick up the pieces of my soul. Lots of tears and contemplation, it was hard. In the video we wanted to reflect that – alone at home on the sofa and the floor, driving out to cold dark places of the mind and just thrashing it out until you can wrap your mind around what has happened to you.

Could you share any specific moments or locations that held special meaning for you during the music video shoot?

So the video was actually shot in Melbourne! The shot of Sydney Harbour Bridge was from another shoot, but my video director and videographer Andrew Vaughan thought it gave a more epic context to the video and I agree.

I used to have a car like that one! Tell us more about the creative decision to include that car as a hero?

The car came from the inspiration art that we were looking at when building the concept for the video. The photo was of a girl standing on top of a car like that – a retro car very much like an old 5 series BMW like we had. The car was lit with neons internally and the photo had this really haunting quality that we wanted to emulate. I had to really hunt them down as they’re not hard to find… massive thanks to Kevin for coming down at 5am in the freezing Melbourne winter!

The music industry can be challenging. What keeps you motivated to continue creating and sharing your music?

I’ll be honest it has been hard to stay motivated, even with the success of Nobody Could Ever Love You. However I have found it is always having the right people. I am so blessed to have an absolutely incredible line-up of musicians in my band. We are finally ready to play out and will be playing across Melbourne for the rest of the year – dates coming very soon!

What’s on the horizon for Laurie Cave?

Lots! Right now I am booked in the studio with James for the 3rd Single, and then I will be looking to put out an EP or Album in the early part of next year. I am super keen to work with Bramwell Bronte – Sam Fender’s producer and I very much have him in my cross hairs, so if you know him – put in a good word for me!