Brisbane indie pop duo LOVELOVELOVE are very much in their infancy – the paired project of Denis and Jared only took off last year – but their songs are already packing an impressive emotional punch.
The musicians – both lived and grew up in South Africa before finding their way to Brissy – looked to the past to create their melancholic new single, ‘CLOVER’, which was released last Friday.
Over wistful beats, they consider the distress of reluctantly moving on in life, when profound emotions just won’t stop lingering; for Denis and Jared, while they may both now be happily entrenched in Queensland, the baggage and call of home never goes away.
“Both of us are first generation South African immigrants and have loved ones overseas and that comes with a whole plethora of baggage and complex emotions,” they say about the single.
“We used to walk along the meadow / You were pretty / It felt so soothing,” the yearning chorus goes. “And it’s a few years later now / But that feeling has still stuck with me.” It’s sentimental stuff, certainly, but it luckily doesn’t sound cloying.
‘CLOVER’ is the strong follow-up to 2022’s ‘ULTRAVIOLET’, and both songs are set to feature in the duo’s upcoming EP, expected for release in April.
LOVELOVELOVE will then officially launch the EP at Brisbane’s Black Bear Lodge on May 17th (tickets are available here). It will be the group’s first headline show, so expect them to put on an impressive show.
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To mark the release of ‘CLOVER’, we caught up with Denis and Jared as part of our Get To Know series to find out more about their life and music.
LOVELOVELOVE’s ‘CLOVER’ is out now.
How did your artist name come about?
It took us forever to decide on a name, and I guess for us it was more about finding something that felt it resonated with what the project was, without feeling super fabricated. We decided to settled on LOVELOVELOVE because it felt like it represented what was important in our world, and what we felt we wanted to achieve with our music which is to spread love, give love and encourage people to love outside their normal boundaries.
On a more spiritual level it’s also a bit of a corny metaphor for how when both of us are in the same room making music, there’s a third ‘energy’ or connection which acts as the combination of the love’s coming together.
How would you describe your music to your grandma?
Probably keep it simple to avoid her embarrassingly comparing us to Ed Sheeran and say a mix between indie and pop, although we’re 99.9% sure she has no idea what indie means.
Tell us about a few of your tracks; their titles and what they’re about?
The title track is about growing with somebody in a relationship where time becomes the common thread; where you both go through the super highs and the lowest lows together, and by the end you still feel you want that as the core thing in your existence.
‘CLOVER’ is probably the most vulnerable track, and crafting it took our partnership as writers and friends to another level.
The song was born out of a time where we had both lost important people in our lives, and we couldn’t or didn’t know how to grapple with not getting to say goodbye. The name ‘CLOVER’ came about when we were both reminiscing about our childhoods and joked about how we used to look for four leaf clovers in the hope of making a wish – which if we could wish today would be to have that time over again with people we lost.
What do you love about your hometown?
Currently we both live in the coastal North Brisbane region, and we love how slow things feel even though it’s only twenty minutes outside the city. We’re both big water lovers so living around the bay feels ideal.
Career highlight so far?
Our last release, ‘ULTRAVIOLET’, was featured on MTV Hits and Rage which was a big deal for us, because we used to watch Rage on Saturday mornings as kids.
Fave non-music hobby?
Probably surfing. We both used to surf together a lot before we made music together. It’s something we do together without having to constantly relate back to music and it also has that meditative element to it too which we dig.
What’s on your dream rider?
An oversized smorgasbord of random South African snacks and drinks: biltong, boerewors, ouma rusks, castle lager, flings, chappies, all that sort of stuff that we can’t get in Australia (at least without it being stale).
Dream music collaboration?
A song with either COIN, Harry Styles or Vancouver Sleep Clinic would be crazy.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
We both see ourselves still making music together. Hopefully we can make it overseas and do some travelling – go see the world type stuff. Both of us want kids so there’s something to consider for the future – who knows, maybe we’ll even have a LOVELOVELOVE Brady Bunch thing going on.
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Den – It’s got to be ‘The Less I Know the Better’ by Tame Impala.
Jared – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Jack Kornfield’s quote, “After ecstasy, comes laundry,” was profound for understanding that falling in love isn’t just about the euphoria, it’s about making sacrifices for the other person. Deep stuff.
What’s one obsession you have that no one would guess after listening to your music?
We’re both huge Star Wars fans – and we have this weird bond with all our nerdy mates over a childhood obsession with Natalie Portman as Padme.
