Dissolving the contours of rock and electronics, Danny Turner charts the making of Liars’ 10th album with Angus Andrew and Laurence Pike

© Clemens Habicht

As founding member of Australian- American rock band Liars, Angus Andrew has constantly sought progression through experimentation. With four members having previously departed the group, recent albums TFCF (2017) and Titled with the Word Fountain (2018) were recorded and produced entirely by Andrew. However, for Liars’ 10th album, The Apple Drop, the producer/songwriter invited former live players Cameron Deyell and Laurence Pike into the fold.

Given complete freedom to experiment, Andrew focused their attention on live improvisation, directing his new band members down manifold avenues of exploration. Despite the pandemic forcing the trio to abandon progress, Andrew had enough material to complete the album, warping Deyell and Pike’s raw instrumentation with his own selection of probability-based algorithmic tools.

Angus, with the last two Liars albums being solo efforts, was it always the intention to bring other musicians back into the fold for your 10th album?

AA: “After playing with Laurence and Cameron during the Australian leg of our last few tours I’d gotten a taste of what it would be like to stand in a room with these two musicians and began to imagine the possibilities of us working together. I was already a big fan of Laurence’s solo work and knew Cameron was an amazing musician outright, so the idea of being able to connect with their incredible skills made me excited to be in an acoustic space again. Most of the previous records were made in the computer, but I wanted The Apple Drop to have a different sonic architecture.”

Laurence, at what point did you become involved in the band?

LP: “It was late 2018 that we first did some shows together. I’d already been a fan of Liars since some of their earliest releases, so they’ve been an integral part of my musical journey. Obviously, being aware of the band’s legacy and what that entails, it was exciting to be involved – initially to tour and then in the studio, but it all felt very natural.”