Lou Scarrs On The Pros & Cons Of Being In A Band Vs Being Solo

Lou Scarrs has notched some real milestones into his musical belt in his time; from playing at Glastonbury in the U.K. and SXSW in the States to Splendour In The Grass, Big Day Out and Golden Plains out here. Yet despite these special moments, the former Money For Rope guitarist headed the call of following his own sound, take a leap of faith and going solo.To start out this venture, Scarrs enlisted fellow Aussie producer Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy, who also mixed the release) to help shape his solo batch of ideas into fleshed out tunes; songs that would eventually become his solo debut EP, ‘What We Do’. It's four songs were recorded at Dawson’s Abbotsford Aviary studio’s, with the result being four raw and resolute rock 'n' roll tracks a la The Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes and Franz Ferdinand.

At its core, ‘What We Do’ tells a tale of tumultuous relationships and the toll they can take. Which may have all resulted in the artist going solo, with him stating in a press release that: “Going solo felt like jumping out of a plane from 20,000 ft. You take that leap and you feel elated that you had the balls to jump. But then you panic and try and roll over mid-air a couple times to double check there's a parachute on your back”. With all of that in mind, the Aussie muso recently gave us a succinct, no-bullshit breakdown of the difference between writing, playing, recording and touring with a band and then doing all of that by yourself.

Band:

"A band is it’s own party wherever you go. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know another soul in a room, with a band you’re gonna have a good time. On the other hand, though, all clothes and toiletries are fair game in a band. The words “mine” and “yours” cease to have any meaning. I wouldn’t bother bringing the nice soaps that your Auntie Val gave you for Christmas. Save them for home."

Solo: 

"Think that your song needs a backwards oboe solo re-amped in a 1970’s gothic bathroom? Do it! There’s no one else there to tell you that you can’t. Ironically, this is also part of the issue with being solo. You probably should not have spent so much time fucking around with that oboe!"

'What We Do' is out now, stream it below!