Last Leaves

After Australian indie pop legends the Lucksmiths split up in 2009 following a 15-year run of singles and albums, the band's main songwriter, Marty Donald, took some time off from music. He painted, watched TV, and bided his time until he slowly returned to writing songs. Working out of his new digs on the outer outskirts of Melbourne, he started writing about open spaces and the great outdoors, as well as the usual lovelorn topics he had always explored. In 2012, he took the songs he had finished -- about half a dozen -- and got in touch with two other ex-Lucksmiths (guitarist Louis Richter and bassist Mark Monnone) to see if they were up for starting a new band. They were, and with the addition of Great Earthquake drummer Noah Symons, Last Leaves were born. The foursome continued working on songs and a sound, which was rougher and more guitar-heavy than that of the Lucksmiths. They teamed with producer Gareth Parton (Go! Team, Foals) to begin working on an album, and after two years, the first fruits of their efforts arrived. The band placed a song, "Something Falls," on Matinée Idols, a 2017 compilation of bands on Matinée Recordings. The band also released a single, "The Hinterland," for the label later that year, then followed it with a full album titled Other Towns Than Ours.
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