“Golden Repair” is the English translation of kintsugi, a Japanese art form in which broken pottery is mended with gold lacquer, the idea being that the break becomes a part of the object rather than its destruction, making it even more beautiful in the process. Tom Iansek, the Melbourne singer, songwriter and producer behind #1 Dads, Big Scary and several other musical projects, first learned about the practice from his father. “I had the tracks [for this album] pretty much finished and I was looking for an album title,” he tells Apple Music. “One day, my dad randomly spoke about this program he saw about kintsugi and he explained a bit about it. It didn't click straight away, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised it really fit the album. A lot of the songs have themes around this idea of breaking and repairing, and the idea that we're better and we're stronger if we embrace it. So I’ve got to thank my own number one dad for that.” Like the first two #1 Dads albums—the last of which was released in 2014—Iansek’s production and melodies are stripped-back, intimate and gentle. “When I first got into musical production, it was all about how ornately and interestingly could I dress things up,” he says. “But the more I make music, the more I'm interested in the song at the heart of it all. I really wanted to explore how much I could do, and how powerfully they could communicate, with the least amount of information. They're songs to listen to if you want to listen to, but they're not going to yell at you to listen to them. They’re more like, ‘I am here if you want to check me out. But if not, that's okay.’” Below, Iansek discusses each song on Golden Repair. 4bit “It's like a foreword to the album in that it helps set up the arc, and feels quite different to the rest of it. It's definitely the darkest song on the album, but it gives space to help the light grow. The lyrics are bleak in a way, and it's a 4-bit in the sense that it’s lo-fi and less refined and rough. The title tells a story about 4-bit love. It could be the story of someone—maybe myself, maybe someone else, maybe people I know—where the love that exists is coarse or from a more primal place.” Another Day “I describe it as my ray of sunshine on a dark day. It was a mantra I had come up with to keep going when times are tough. It felt like the next logical step in the album because the lyrics are a little dark, like the first song, but it's packaged up in this bright, friendly sound. But yeah, it's bright and bubbly and feels quite different at the same time. In a very broad sense, it’s also an invitation to be able to approach emotionally tough times in our lives, but not in a heavy way where they’re off the table.” Freedom Fighter “I just sat down at the piano one morning when I was away writing. I put my hands to the keys and was singing the piano melody. I was just mumbling the sounds of words, but when I listened back to the recording I heard, ‘Even if I have it now, doesn't mean I'll have it always.’ I really liked that, so I built back from that lyrically. It’s a pondering on how life happens in strange ways sometimes, and those curiosities of life. The kintsugi thing is a bit of a zen concept, and maybe there’s a zen concept here too in that life doesn't always happen the way you think, and the idea that nothing's permanent. So, how can you appreciate what you have now?” Run “‘Run’ is the most personal song on the album to me. It's about the coincidental timings of my wife's mother passing away and finding out that we were expecting a baby. It's telling that story, because they both happened around the same time, and while I was writing this album. I guess it’s about that cyclical nature of life.” Fold “This is one of the more stream-of-consciousness songs. I just wrote it. I guess the words were trying to articulate vague feelings that I had. With these types of songs, I don't always know exactly what they're about, but I feel like they're important in that way. I’ve written songs like this before, and later down the track I’ve realised that it was very clearly about this or about that. I think it speaks to coming to terms with the fears that we have in our lives. How do we identify them? And how can we then work with them and move through them, and break into more of the things that we want more of in our lives?” Orion “The words came really easily. I was just capturing what was coming out. I sat to write, and in an hour, I had everything. Like ‘Fold’, I can't say that I know exactly what this song is about, but I think, in a way, it’s more powerful for it because it can mean something different to anyone who's interested enough to wonder what it's about. And I really like those songs where you can see maybe yourself in it a bit, compared to, say, ‘Run’, which has so much personal detail.” Patience “I went away writing for about ten days, to an isolated little spot in East Gippsland. I just would sit at the piano in the morning, ready to start writing, but it wouldn't always be there. So I would maybe get into emails and other things. And then half the day would go. Then one morning I had a similar feeling, and my left hand just started playing these two notes, A and D, I think. I started improvising with the right hand. Just notes and shapes, it was all quite peaceful. But because the left hand never changed, the song doesn't go anywhere. So I describe it like a holding pattern. I started playing this every morning for 20 or 30 minutes, and it all started to come more easily after that. So I did this abbreviated version and called it ‘Patience’, because it's what the song's about, really. It’s saying, ‘Relax, let's just do this for a little bit and breathe a bit, and when it's ready, we’ll start.’” Twice a Fool “This is a song about someone who is close to me, who gave up everything they had for love and moved to the other side of the country. I was just really moved and inspired by that particular breaking point, when the decision was made to leave what they had for this person. So I dedicated this song to it and that couple. It feels like a driving song. And there was a bit of a desert highway driving situation in this couple's story, so that ties into it as well.” Elizabeth “Well, ‘Elizabeth’ was written for my wife and her family in dedication to their mum, who'd passed away when these song ideas were coming together. I drove from Melbourne to Adelaide and recorded it on their family piano at their home. It’s a gift for their family, and it’s such a gentle song I thought [the end of the album] was just the place for it.”