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The Pictures.
 Soon after, Brett Wolfenden joined as the band's drummer, until it became clear to Lane the line-up wasn't working. After Wolfenden's departure, Johnny T took over the sticks just prior to the recording of the band's 2004 EP 'Singin' It Just To See' and has remained a steadfast part of the team ever since.
Lane admits to being a little hung over after celebrating the mastering of a friend's record he helped out with in Sydney the night before. Despite being slightly worse for wear, he says he's "not the kind of person who really relishes talking about himself all day, but I'd rather be doing that than working in an office or something."
Luckily for him, the release of the The Pictures eagerly awaited long-player 'Pieces Of Eight' means the band gets to hit the road. "We haven't done a long tour for a long time, so it's going to be great," he says. "And we haven't done a big You Am I tour for a while, so I'm looking forward to getting in the van and getting a great big rock'n'roll tour under the belt! When you play a bunch of shows in a row, you get on a roll, and you get to the point where you can pretty much play in your sleep. We've only been playing shows sporadically, and I'm looking forward to getting into that tour mindset."
While he seemed to have slipped off the radar after a bit of a tumultuous time in his personal life last year, he's kept himself pretty darn busy. "I played guitar on the Sleepy Jackson's record, and that was a few days," he muses. "Dividing your time is easy because the other guys in You Am I are doing other stuff too - like Rusty's playing for Radio Birdman - so I've got lots of time for everything... When I say I've got lots of time, I'm really busy all the time, but I just try to fit it all in."
As for the album, Lane seems to be tentative about putting forward a firm opinion on what it sounds like. When asked to describe the album, his reply is evasive. "It's a mixed bag," he hedges. "I just want other people to tell me what they think of the album because I've had it inside my head for so long I've kind of lost all objectivity. I just hope that it will surprise hear people when people hear it: people who expect to hear like a retro-rock Jet-style sound. I just want people to see the band in a new light.
"There's a few songs on there that people probably wouldn't have expected us to do," he continues. "And I want people to listen to the lyrics too, because I spent a long time on them, and really spewed everything about myself and my life in my lyrics and my musical tastes in the songs. So I hope people are pleasantly surprised."
Lane adds if the lyrics were too personal he would scrap a song, but only "if the lyrics were set in concrete. I'm not especially worried about being too personal, because I just think that maybe I needed to write lyrics that are personal to draw people away a little from the music and listen to the lyrics as well. People are always talking about what it sounds like and who it sounds like. But if people could draw reference points lyrically as well, that would be interesting to me, because I don't have a fucking clue if I try to write lyrics like anyone else."
Ann Marie Sosnowski
 | The Pictures play at the Enigma Bar on Wed 20 July. |
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