Sometimes the best collaborations come around when no-one is asking for them. Then again, is the best art made under duress of expectation anyway?

Davey Lane is a musician, now freshly furnished with a place in ARIA Hall Of Fame for his work with You Am I. He is yet to walk the Halls themselves but is assured his name is there alongside his beloved bandmates. He has played with many artists over the years but his work in the field of “Davey Lane” (in which he is out standing in) is his primary creative outlet.

A hottmess on the public transport system of northern Melbourne, Nitida is best known for being 50% of the pop duo on the rise to stardom, Don’t Thank Me, Spank Me! Or maybe you saw her show-ponying clad head-to-toe in Sherrin red Edgeley on telly with Mark Seymour at the MCG for the AFL Grand Final? Or perhaps you know her from her cult one-woman Elton John singalong residency “Beltin’ Elton” at the Ragtime Tavern? Or maybe you don’t know her at all? A fashion icon, a force of life and a guaranteed good time. Nitida is a naturally charming and vivacious performer and songwriting powerhouse.

An Absent Lover came about years ago when Davey found a arpeggiated synth combination that spoke to all his synapses and realigned his chakras. It was the pandemic times. House-bound and bored, he turned this abhorrent oscillating electronic noise into a backing track for a song. One that lay dormant for a long time. “I sat on it for years and I didn’t think it’d ever get finished. I had ideas but they were always just too busy or too stupid. Everything was too square peg round hole. I always need solitude to work through things, but his one was just a dry tap. Nothing. Then I heard Don’t Thank Me, Spank Me! What a band. What a record. Their brand of ingenuity, sass and musical nous was very refreshing. It was brassy and unapologetic, and an antidote to self-serious doe-eyed misery so I got in touch with Nitida, thinking she may be the perfect collaborator for this song, and may be able to pull me out of my usual depresso-pop comfort zone. And did she what!”

An Absent Lover is a psych-disco psychodrama that’s out and done in just over 4 minutes. Hitherto unchartered terrain for both Davey and Nitida and designed to elicit unbridled, ecstatic enthusiasm.

Davey Lane supports Augie March on their 20th anniversary “Moo, You Bloody Choir” tour through April and May.
As well as Gumball Festival on April 24 and La La Las in Wollongong with Vasco Era on April 25.

Don’t Thank Me, Spank Me support Bad Dreems on their “Ultra Dundee” tour, also through April and May.

Live photo by Heather McDonald.