Biography
New Zealand songwriter and producer Lukas Mayo shapes the whimsical indie pop of Pickle Darling around earnest, exposed vocals. The home-recorded solo endeavor first surfaced via a modest Beatles covers EP titled oh golly gosh, it's the beatles in 2016 before reaching New Zealand’s Top 40 with the more polished second album, Cosmonaut, in 2021. Pickle Darling revisited existential themes on the 2023 release Laundromat while reviving the playful, collage-style production of earlier work.
Mayo, who lives in Christchurch, initially drew from ordinary occurrences such as rhythms tapped on a steering wheel at traffic lights and from authors like Lydia Davis, whose brief stories built entire moments in just a couple of sentences. The Pickle Darling name debuted with July 2016’s oh golly gosh, it's the beatles, five understated Beatles covers captured at home using guitar, melodica, and glockenspiel alongside Mayo’s singing. Less than a year later came the self-released Spring Onion Pancakes EP in April 2017, which introduced original songs and featured more developed arrangements that still highlighted bright tones from melodica and glockenspiel plus voice memos that would recur on later projects; Jay Campugan supplied drums on a single track.
Retaining the same conceptual focus and instrumental palette, Mayo refined the song structures and sonics across the first two albums, starting with January 2019’s Bigness on Z Tapes. The record received New Zealand radio play, seven accompanying music videos, and numerous live dates. Issued on Z Tapes in May 2021 and partly shaped by science fiction and space themes, the follow-up LP Cosmonaut appeared for one week at number 40 on the New Zealand albums chart, with only two backing vocalists and a spoken poem listed as outside contributions.
After stepping away from tour demands and outside expectations following that commercial breakthrough, Mayo looked to figures such as Connie Converse, Bill Fay, and Vashti Bunyan—artists whose work diverged from their era and who later withdrew from public view—as models for the next record. The songwriter also circled back to everyday sources and a routine of daily creation that restored creative energy. The resulting twelve-track album, June 2023’s Laundromat, was written, recorded, and produced entirely by Mayo, featuring only voicemails and duet partner Christiane Shortal on “Early Geometry” as additional elements; it served as Pickle Darling’s introduction on Father/Daughter Records.
Mayo, who lives in Christchurch, initially drew from ordinary occurrences such as rhythms tapped on a steering wheel at traffic lights and from authors like Lydia Davis, whose brief stories built entire moments in just a couple of sentences. The Pickle Darling name debuted with July 2016’s oh golly gosh, it's the beatles, five understated Beatles covers captured at home using guitar, melodica, and glockenspiel alongside Mayo’s singing. Less than a year later came the self-released Spring Onion Pancakes EP in April 2017, which introduced original songs and featured more developed arrangements that still highlighted bright tones from melodica and glockenspiel plus voice memos that would recur on later projects; Jay Campugan supplied drums on a single track.
Retaining the same conceptual focus and instrumental palette, Mayo refined the song structures and sonics across the first two albums, starting with January 2019’s Bigness on Z Tapes. The record received New Zealand radio play, seven accompanying music videos, and numerous live dates. Issued on Z Tapes in May 2021 and partly shaped by science fiction and space themes, the follow-up LP Cosmonaut appeared for one week at number 40 on the New Zealand albums chart, with only two backing vocalists and a spoken poem listed as outside contributions.
After stepping away from tour demands and outside expectations following that commercial breakthrough, Mayo looked to figures such as Connie Converse, Bill Fay, and Vashti Bunyan—artists whose work diverged from their era and who later withdrew from public view—as models for the next record. The songwriter also circled back to everyday sources and a routine of daily creation that restored creative energy. The resulting twelve-track album, June 2023’s Laundromat, was written, recorded, and produced entirely by Mayo, featuring only voicemails and duet partner Christiane Shortal on “Early Geometry” as additional elements; it served as Pickle Darling’s introduction on Father/Daughter Records.
Albums
Singles
