INDEX
Tamas Created Portraits of his Friends in Myanmar, Published a Book based on his University Research, and Subsequently Unveiled his Sixth Album
-In 2023, your new album “To Drink up the Sea” was released, your first new album in 6 years. Was the pandemic a major factor in the time gap since your last album?
Tamas: The main reason was the pandemic. We had written songs before the pandemic, but Melbourne was on lockdown for an extended period of time, so we were unable to record. So I wrote a book* and started working as a painter and painted a series of portraits.
-What do you mean by a series of portraits?
Tamas: In 2021, there was a coup in Myanmar and the country went back to military rule. I went to Myanmar and supported the activists. As part of that support, I painted portraits of my friends in Myanmar and sold them to fund my humanitarian work.
*Editor’s note: Narrating Democracy in Myanmar, published in 2021. The book is about politics and democracy in Myanmar.
-You have been looking for opportunities to record while writing books, painting, and doing other activities outside of music. What was your goal in hiring Greg J. Walker of Machine Translations to produce the new album?
Tamas: I asked Greg because I wanted someone I could trust to be involved in the production. I have always loved Machine Translations’ work, and Greg is a genius in the way he builds music. I left the sound production of the new album to Greg, because I’ve always been a fan of his work.
But I’ve always been a fan of his work, so I was afraid to contact him. I was afraid he wouldn’t take up an offer from an unknown artist. Fortunately, he agreed to produce. When I first visited his house, Greg asked me to play a song for him, but my hands shook playing the piano (laughs).
-Greg didn’t only produce the album, but also played various instruments and provide support in terms of performance.
Tamas: I had Greg participate in the early stages of the album. The songs were all written in advance, and we wanted to be open to all of Greg’s ideas if he suggested anything during the recording process. He came up with a lot of ideas, especially in terms of instrumental layering.
-The single “It Shakes the Leaving Daylights From You” is one of the results of collaboration with Greg. Various instruments are layered, and the arrangement is intricate.
Tamas: I wrote this song during the pandemic. I had been experimenting with using seventh chords to create music with a 1960s feel, and it was perfect for this song.
I thought it would be good to make it sound like a band, so I talked to Greg about it, and he layered various instruments on top of each other. For example, the bridge. At first it was just a simple piano, but Greg layered on layers of guitars and even added a sitar-like instrument.
