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MUSIC FEATURE

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The title track is gorgeous, and the vocal effect unexpected – you've doubled your voice and it sounds like Elliott Smith. Do you spend much time drawing inspiration from artists past (and passed)? I’ve tried to double my voice

Bootleg Melancholy by Diesel is out Oct 13 via Bloodlines.

(it’s actually tripled) a few times on other tracks, but it doesn’t always suit the song. This stripped-back environment seemed to work straight away. I also subconsciously wanted it to nod to Elliott Smith, as I am referring to a mural I’ve passed many times

in Silver Lake. The tongue in-cheek irony may have fueled the song.

I miss Prince... The fact that he was on this planet gave me solace

You build a neat little guitar solo in Corduroy and Crumbs. Where do you fling your mind for inspiration when creating these moments on the album? The solo section was another

FIRING ON ALL SONIC CYLINDERS Blues, soul, pop and rock: Mark Lizotte's astonishing four-decade career has traversed all these roads, and now the effortlessly chill singer songwriter brings us some of the most imaginative and sparkling hooks he's ever crafted.We put some questions to the revered Oz icon, also known as Diesel, about his fresh album Bootleg Melancholy . Words Zoë Radas

idea that was flying around that day, and I Frankensteined them on the spot. It’s 'pretty chill with sunny afternoon NYC park vibes' up until then, so I wanted to inject some of the bombastic nature of that city as well. The overall impression of Bootleg Melancholy is one of instinctive vigour, with a real feeling of youth.That's despite the experience behind your arrangements and lyrics (hello, Babies !). How do you view your new material's position in the current landscape of music? That’s a tough one. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t influenced by what’s being made right now. I find it really interesting, the musical landscape at present: less people staying in their lanes, which suits me. I’ll always have a lot of my musical 'DNA' in my recordings, with three decades to draw from – I’m in a privileged position, I feel. As long as there are Steve Laceys and Rosalías on this planet, I will continue to be inspired to try different things... song permitting, of course!

You do a few beaut, aerial ad-libbed vocables in Like a Dove (funnily enough, they sound a bit When Doves Cry ); how much focus did you put on challenging your voice and its limits while recording this album? I miss Prince… I’ll just start by saying that. He was kind of a superhero/human to me; the fact that he was on this planet gave me solace. So I wanted this song to be all about that – a homage, I guess you’d call it. I generally let the song guide me when it comes to adlibs, a bit like guitar solos; sometimes it calls, other times there’s no space.

Backpedal has a fantastic, syncopated, '90s feel to it (you reference the year 1994 and 'feeling like a pre-teen' in the lyrics); what memories do you conjure up to channel this mood when writing? I was definitely channeling The Breeders and Pixies, and the drum groove came from that, but it’s really a train of thought about how you can be a fully grown adult and still have teen angst and anxiety. The reference in the chorus – “late at night you stand there, darkening my door, just like a sh-tty rom-com flick from 1994” – is all about that (at 3am).

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