Howling Bells: Interview

Hailing from Sydney Australia, yet lured to London to be fully entrenched within its confines, are sleek alt-rockers the Howling Bells. 

2006 saw the release of their debut LP through Bella Union, which reached the heady heights of critical acclaim with some citing lead vocalist Juanita Stein as a more refined PJ Harvey.  And a couple of years later after touring the world on high profile support gigs, the follow up was unveiled in March 2009, signaling a departure from their traditional dark-rock roots.

‘Into The Chaos’ is the culmulative result of parting company with Bella Union for Independiente Records and the band taking the liberating step of producing an inter-band collaborative effort. This time every member had a vested interest in it’s writing.

And with the new label comes a development in their sound, for gone is the dark atmospheric element that permeated their debut in favour of something more akin to mainstream indie-rock.  A change that ultimately they may have underestimated, and which hasn’t exactly been welcomed if many recent reviews are to be considered. 

Juanita’s talent vocally remains as good as it ever was. As does in fairness the musicality of the others.  However their attempt at crossover falls slightly flat, particularly in the absence of many serious stand out tracks contained within the sophomore record.

Whilst the first single taken from the album ‘Cities Burning Down’ is beautifully crafted with its heartfelt lyrics and captivating melody, it’s just not quite enough to validate the praise lashed onto them in 2006. And similarly reviews of their recent UK tour have also left people cold.

Howling Bells are a band capable of superb bouts of musical mastermind, which their self-titled debut LP demonstrated.  And with the few strokes of quality captured within ‘Into The Chaos’ no one should be writing them off imminently. 

We spoke with the band recently to find out more from them about the recording of the LP, it’s production and the reason they left Bella Union.

4or The Record: You have just released your 2nd album ‘Radio Wars’ what inspired the writing and the musicality of the record?
Juanita: I guess we wrote it and recorded it in a very socially and politically intense and exciting period, so I think in some ways this record is a lot more socially aware and conscious than the last one.  Plus with this album it was all totally collaborative between us, so we all pitched in and wrote it, bringing each of our own inspirations to the table.

4TR: It’s the follow up album to your critically acclaimed self titled debut, so do you feel you have progressed musically in any way since you recorded first time around?
Juanita: Yeah, well I hope so anyway [laughs]

4TR: In what way?
Joel: I think its more us going in a different direction rather than a progression, but I guess you can call that progression really.
Juanita: I think as long as it’s a step forward anything is progression.  You know we were very aware of not making the first record again, so we kind of went out of our way in essence to create something that sounded different as well as felt very different personally.

4TR: Do you think it’s also reflective of different times within your lives, by that I mean can it be attributed to you moving on personally as well as musically?
Juanita: Oh yeah definitely, everything has changed since the first album.

4TR: The album is entitled ‘Radio Wars’, so what inspired the title?
Joel: It comes from a couple of different things, but initially it came from a pretty simple experience that Juanita and I had where we literally had a problem with the radio, which kept skipping stations.  And that idea led itself into the band, into our demoing process and into the music.  And we basically wove, is that the right word?  We wove or weaved it into the songs and through the album and it ended up holding everything together.

4TR: The first single released from the album was ‘Cities Burning Down’, what is it about?
Juanita: Well that’s actually the oldest song on the record, which Glenn and I wrote together and I remember it was one of those tracks where the music came first and kind of leant to the lyrics.  So it felt really apocalyptic in a sense style of song and I think that in turn kind of inspired the lyrics, which I guess in a sense a lot of the record is about.  It’s about chaos and immersing yourself in it but finding some sort of ray of light to kind of behold some kind of peace within you.

4TR: You worked with Dan Grech-Marguera on production who has previously engineered records for bands like Radiohead and Air.  Why did you decide to work together?
Juanita: our manager who had worked with him before introduced us, but personally we had never heard of him.  I mean I’ve heard of him obviously because of his collaborations on the Radiohead and Air records, which are records we are all very aware of.  So we knew of the sounds he helped create so thought if he could kind of tap into anything remotely similar then that would be a good thing for us.

4TR: Did he get where you were coming from straight away, or did you have to stamp your mark on the production as well.
Juanita: [Laughing] I think we both stamped each other in the end.

4TR: And so the finished product was ‘Radio Wars’.  Is it what you imagined it would be like when you started the process?
Joel: Yeah definitely I would say.
Glenn: Yeah well some parts of it yes and some parts of it no, because you never know where your albums going to head or what it’s going to sound like ultimately.  I mean you have a rough idea but I think towards the end of the process you have kind of listened to your songs and everything you have created and sometimes some songs go in a completely different direction to what you had envisaged.  So it’s a yes and no answer I guess. 

4TR: Since your debut in 2006 you have spent much of the last couple of years touring the world and supporting bands like The Killers.  How different an experience has that been from playing your own much smaller shows to your fans?
Juanita: Hell its been a completely different experience.  It’s a different feeling, a different smell, and a different taste.  I mean for a young supporting band it’s completely exotic, you’re not used to seeing that many faces and feeling that much heat off so many bodies, and it affects the live show in every sense.  I guess all it really does is up the anti, I mean you can get used to that lifestyle very quickly, which is both fortunate and unfortunate.  I mean after all that you go back to very small venues playing to small audiences, and you love it because they are there for you, but it’s totally different.  So there is a good and a bad with every scenario.

4TR: Do you have any favourites out of the bands you have supported and toured with?
Joel: [laughing] No comment
Juanita: I really adore festivals, because in essence you are kind of supporting loads of bands…
Joel: [laughing] And you get to avoid answering the question
Juanita:  Yeah right, but what I mean is you are supporting many different bands on the same stage.  With other supports you’re doing the same thing for like twenty dates in a row and it can get a bit much at times.
Joel: you tend to feel like another cog in the machine of a huge band

4TR: Do you think it’s prepared you for second time round with ‘Radio Wars’ when you will be upping the ante and playing bigger venues for example?
Juanita: Oh yeah, we are definitely ready for it now. We are in the middle of our UK tour right now and I guess if anything just supporting the bigger bands kind of gets your juices flowing in terms of production and how and where you want to start to kind of increase the visual aethstetic of your shows, ‘cos that’s really the only way to enhance the experience for your audiences.

4TR: You parted company with your previous label Bella Union before embarking on working with Independiente on the second LP.  Was there a specific reason behind changing labels, or again was it simply a natural progression?
Juanita: A natural progression.  It was only a one-album deal with Bella Union so we inevitably moved on

4TR: And why did you choose to go with Independiente?
Juanita: [laughing] He had a really nice boat.
Joel: And nice cars.
Juanita: He basically took us out on his boat and fed us oysters and caviar ha-ha
Glenn: No he loves music and is very, very passionate about music and that was the most attractive thing.  We have had some experiences with other labels where music was the secondary focus and money was the primary focus and with Independiente, music is most definitely the primary focus.  I mean of course they want to make money as everyone else does, otherwise you vanish, but it was very attractive and we are very happy we are working with people who love music just as much as us.      

4TR: What do you feel are the major difference in the UK music industry to the industry back home in Australia?
Juanita: God the differences are huge.
Joel: Australia, because of where its situated being so far away from everything, is very involved with what’s happening within the country only, whereas here in England it tends to welcome in bands from everywhere a lot easier.  Plus it’s just so expensive for anybody to get over there and for that reason a lot of music doesn’t reach Australia at all.
Juanita: It’s kind of inconvenient in a way as well.  I mean London is kind of in the center of everything, so if you’re in a band from France of Spain or even anywhere in the States, it kind of feels like the center point for music, and not just for bands but with any kind of burgeoning art form or anything kind of a bit on the outskirts.  I think England tends to embrace really kind of eclectic and experimental art.
Brendan: Yeah and another small point is Australia has only got 20 million people, and that doesn’t support much at all.

4TR: To date how have the UK audiences and media supported and embraced Howling Bells?
Juanita: Yeah brilliantly, there had absolutely been no preconceived notions about how we would be treated here and to our absolute delight we were totally embraced here from day one and that of course it has inspired us to stay here.  We love the UK!


Words: Francesca Strange

nishajl
Posts: 1

nightingale
Reply #1 on : Mon April 06, 2009, 15:59:36

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Really awesome track with a kind of Top Gun feel to it at points... loving it.

Nice interview.

http://tinyurl.com/d994th

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