Tyrone and Lesley's Relative Optimism

These are relatives of our new album Optimism, some very distant. Relative Optimism. It's also a Spotify playlist. Read on to find out why these songs are here. https://open.spotify.com/user/lifeint... Tyrone and Lesley don’t ‘do’ influences. We’ve never attempted to imitate anyone other than ourselves. We know about genre and style but you only need to listen to one of our albums to hear we’re not slaves to any fashion. However, there are bound to be some resonances between the kinds of things we make and do, and the kinds of things we hear. Sometimes it takes other people to point out stuff like this, and sometimes we’ve never even heard of who we’re supposed to sound like. Then we go and find out who they are and have a listen. This creative research is kind of musical detective work is beautiful to dive into, and especially attractive when you have more important things to do. As valued supporters of Tyrone and Lesley we thought we’d open the door to some of the music we love. INSTRUMENTALS T&L like music with no words and Optimism is bookended by two instrumentals. Here you’ll find gentle, ukulele-focussed pieces, others with piano – a featured instrument on the recording, and others a bit more hardcore, like Dawn of Midi’s precise, ever-shifting Io. We’ve killed two birds with the inclusion of an instrumental demo of a Randy Newman song – Brisbane singer and producer Leah Cotterell once said our writing was like his. We liked that. We’ve also sneaked in a tiny instrumental by The Kinks. Their music is impossible to categorise, and we like that category. CONTEMPORARY UKULELE PLAYERS & GROUPS We’ve played alongside, or on the same bill as some great ukulele artists – not only brilliant instrumentalists, but great writers or singers, solo or in groups. Too many to fit into even this long list. It was Cairns duo Bosko and Honey who once said the Tyrone and Lesley write “children’s songs for grownups”. VINTAGE MUSIC AND CLASSIC SONGWRITING Kamuke Magazine said All Dressed Up (from our third album Gentlemen Songsters) “can be seen as an analogy for the entire record - inspired by tunes from the 1930's, it's a swinging dance anthem that evokes images of Tyrone and Lesley in tuxedos, drinking martinis, and staying up way past their bedtime” It’s true we love old music. Songs or recordings that have stood the test of time. Some of this stuff is classic in the straight sense of the word. A good song never dates. Other songs here are weird or playful in a way you tend not to find too much of these days and includes a song by Joe Raposo, a great writer who created pieces for Sinatra as well as Bert and Ernie. Brian May’s ‘Good Company’ by Queen is a great antique style story song song – probably the first time David heard a ukulele, as a kid. Lyle Ritz is a bassist and ukulele player – the best of both worlds! OUR OTHER PROJECTS We make and have made all sorts of music outside of Tyrone and Lesley. If you’re after soundtrack made up of ukuleles and electronica, or complex, heartful Jazz, there are treasures to be found in the work of Laique, Trichotomy and Sounds from the Empty City. Very keen music-heads might like to time-travel back to Friends of the Iguana, The Goodbye Notes, the Doch Gypsy Orchestra or Every Man and His Llama. SPOKEN WORD & MUSIC Speaking’s different to singing. Unsung, or half-sung words play out differently teamed with music. Every album we’ve done has a opposition like this on it. Dean Denham from the Melbourne Ukulele Festival recognized the Dada in what we do-do. Someone else once told us we were exploring similar territory to Ivor Cutler. We’d never heard of him. Now we have. Some of this music’s angry. Are you ready? CONTEMPORARY SONGWRITERS There are lots of contemporary songwriters we could mention here. The literate compositions of The Divine Comedy are a very distinct pleasure, and it’s more the sound of John Martyn’s collaboration with bass player Danny Thomson that warrants his inclusion here. There’s a beauty and longing in these acoustic numbers – a sadness that keeps its head up nevertheless. James See who engineered and mixed Optimism said that one of our tunes sounded like Elbow. THE SUN & MOON The sun and the moon are key influences on… everybody, day and night.