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In her 2009 short story collection, writer Lydia Davis creates worlds in tiny spaces, some totaling only two sentences. Steering away from the rigidity of what a piece of art is meant to look like, Christchurch, New Zealand-based artist Lukas Mayo (they/them) took inspiration from Davis, and others, to find the magic in the mundane. Art is everywhere in the shape we make out of a napkin while waiting for our coffee to arrive, in the text we send to a friend in need, in the beat we make on the steering wheel while stuck at a red light. As Pickle Darling, Mayo points past perfectionism, and leans into the art of the everyday, where these ever-evolving forms of creativity find their home in new album Laundromat. Their previous albums Bigness (2019) and Cosmonaut (2021) elevated their lo-fi indie pop with a rounded-out, cleaner sound, garnering acclaim in their ability to zoom in on the universality of existential thought with an earnest yet playful approach. The reaction to the releases, and an extensive touring schedule, brought with them a kind of expectation-one that Mayo says began to wear on them. InchI felt that I couldn't just follow my instincts anymore,Inch they say. InchI wanted to return to how I made music right at the very start.Inch Those instincts flourish throughout Laundromat, where the immediacy of Mayo's creative aptitude permeates. Here, Pickle Darling slots into the silhouettes of the ordinary and stretches them onto an entirely new canvas. Laundromat was created in what Mayo describes as their first stable living situation, away from difficult flat mates, tense surroundings, and abysmal landlords. As an artist who writes, records, and produces all of their music at home, the security of their current place allowed their ideas to blossom. Writing soon became a daily practice, and rather than laboring over each song like they had previously-some song
