Interview: Tom Lark Chats About New Album 'Moonlight Hotel'

We've already been enchanted by lead singles 'Dumb Luck', 'Rock & Roll Baby' and 'Fuselage', and now today's the day for Ōtautahi songwriter / producer Shannon Fowler to unveil Moonlight Hotel, his second album as Tom Lark. Finalist in 2024 for the prestigious Taite Music Prize and Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa | Best Folk Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards, Tom Lark spoke with Chris Cudby about how his new record ponders personal upheavals, family history during the gold rush era, and the spirit of rock 'n' roll...

Tom Lark - Moonlight Hotel Album Release Tour

Thursday 10th April – Neck of the Woods, Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland, with Neive Strang*
Friday 11th April – Meow, Pōneke / Wellington, with Warm Regards
Saturday 12th April – Space Academy, Ōtautahi / Christchurch, with T.G. Shand*

*Tickets on sale HERE via UTR
More info available via tomlark.co.nz

Chris Cudby: There's a theme of displacement threading through Moonlight Hotel — ruminating on your own exodus from Ōtautahi following the 2011 earthquake, which itself echoes your "family's historical displacement following the 1929 earthquake that destroyed Murchison" (the third deadliest earthquake in Aotearoa's recorded history). What prompted you to reflect on your own itinerant journey, and strange family history parallels?

Tom Lark: I often think of this idea of historical archetypes, there are these weird moments that seem to mirror the past. My family spent a lot of their lives as prospectors, hanging out in the gold panning scene. I wonder if going about my artistic practice is like looking for gold, mining and sifting through a river of mud and weird experiences hoping to find something beautiful that resonates, relying on luck and making the best of circumstances.

Where is the Moonlight Hotel? Sounds like a place I stayed once in Whanganui.

The real question here is WHEN was Moonlight Hotel… There was a very cool explorer call George Fairweather Moonlight. He was really good at finding gold and used his money to set up a hotel in Murchison pre earthquake (he was also the town's unofficial sheriff). My (3rd) great grandmother was a barmaid there. I often think about what it must have been like to serve patrons, I’ve seen more than my fair share of westerns and if my research is accurate, I'm sure it would have sucked.

What would you say is your personal favourite song on Moonlight Hotel?

My favourite song on the album is ‘Dive On In’. It’s a song about consumerism in the face of climate anxiety and feeling powerless with what can be done to de-escalate things, ‘Dive On In’ is sort of a sarcastic bumper sticker. The bridge is mourning a stance dismissing science as being ghost stories or folklore, and preemptively dreading the thought of further displacement for those least responsible.

'Dumb Luck' and 'Ballad Of The Barry Boys' combine country / western storytelling strum with interjections of squelching synth, which I feel lend the songs a cinematic quality — also reminding me of ultra-vivid European cowboy comics, like Blueberry by Giraud aka Möebius.

I suppose it sounds a little bit like cowboys knocking about with ray guns. I'm a big fan of smashing sounds together and seeing if you get big bang. Setting the scene for something really dark then having someone ride through on an e-scooter.

It was twelve years between the release of 2011's The Tom Lark EP and Tom Lark's debut album Brave Star, but only a two year gap between that and your new second record Moonlight Hotel. Why the relatively speedy turnaround for album number two?

I think working independently or at least with a small team means you don’t have to wait for a cosmic alignment of diaries every time you’d like to release something. Perhaps in the past where I might have needed to feel validation or someone to affirm a single choice, I’ve found a sort of peace with my own footing and learnt that I’m far more interested in just focusing on what I’m making next.

Who worked with you on Moonlight Hotel? Or is the record a completely solo work, á la Prince Rogers Nelson?

Yes it was just me... but I talked at length with my good friend and drummer to the stars James Dansey (The Sneaks) about making the album really soft sounding and that helped me shape the tone of the record.

Your single 'Rock & Roll Baby' resonated with my own feelings around showbiz — does Tom Lark consider himself to be a rockin' dude?

‘Rock & Roll Baby’ is more written from a character perspective, it’s not strictly autobiographical, I feel like I’m singing from a viewpoint of someone older and more weathered than myself. I think Tom Lark could be an unconventional Rock’n dude? Only with regular glasses and sporting a cardigan over a leather jacket.

What does your instrumental number 'Fern Ridge' refer to?

‘Fern Ridge’ is a little mood piece I made... sort of imagining someone playing piano in a saloon mid-afternoon, with no one around.

These songs are very carefully constructed and thoughtful, both lyrically and musically. How do all "the parts" come together to make the whole? Do song ideas come to you in specific circumstances?

I have to find or hear the idea for the music or tonal palette first. If I can’t imagine what the album will sound like, I feel no urgency to make anything. Once I stumble into something, I can kick into gear and become really focused about it.

You were finalist for Te Kaipuoro Taketake Toa | Best Folk Artist at the Aotearoa Music Awards in 2024 (which had a longer eligibility period than usual) — do you consider much of a traditionalist?

Oh yeh — I think maybe if there were music police officers they might’ve had something to say about it... In terms of whether the music is traditional, honestly it’s not something I’ve thought heaps about — I’ve always thought of genre as being more of a colourful Venn diagram. To me Brave Star was a psychedelic indie folk album. But Adam McGrath won, and I’m happy to say he was and is the best ‘Folk’ artist of 2024.

Yeah I feel like an open-eared idea of 'Folk' is the the way to go. You've also released dance pop works as Shannon Matthew Vanya — does Tom Lark occupy a specific different headspace to that project (and your various other monikers)?

I think Tom Lark songs can be more introspective and meandering, maybe dance pop is better left more lyrically direct.

What is on the horizon for Tom Lark?

The Moonlight Hotel tour is this month playing Tāmaki on the 10th with Neive Strang, Pōneke on the 11th with Warm Regards, and Ōtautahi on the 12th with T.G. Shand.

I’ll be bringing a super limited run of the blue vinyl and some fresh Moonlight Hotel tote bags: "Check-out 10am".

'Moonlight Hotel' is out today, you can order the vinyl LP and compact disc editions HERE.