Australian Interviews

[blade]

With the band Downunder for the V Festivals, the Aussie press has been catching up with them to talk about Radio Wars, living in London and other things. It's interesting to see the different angle these interviews take compared to British ones - the interviewers can't seem to resist a mention of Waikiki and how much they've changed since then, at the same time sounding wistful about losing these talented musicians to the grip of we Poms.

Source:
www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/music/howling-at-the-stars/2009/04/02/1238261707308.html

Text:
Howling at the stars
April 3, 2009

IT WAS, according to Joel Stein, the darkest moment in his band's short history. In mid-2007, the Howling Bells guitarist was sitting slumped in a tour bus in Jacksonville, Florida, contemplating his band's possible demise. "I thought we were never going to make another record," he says. "Our guitarist (Brendan Picchio) had just been pepper-sprayed in some bar, we had no manager, no record deal, and it just seemed hopeless."

Fast-forward 18 months, and on a balmy afternoon, Joel and sister Juanita, the band's vocalist, are in a Southbank cafe. Juanita says various factors caused her Sydney-based band Waikiki, whose perky hits include Here Comes September, to turn into the guitar-heavy entity now known as Howling Bells. "Waikiki is almost part of my childhood," says Juanita. "I was 16 when I wrote some of the songs. It was time to move on."

When the Bells heard that Coldplay producer Ken Nelson was interested in working on their album, they packed up and headed to England. "We dropped everything we were doing at home," Joel says. "We went from being semi-comfortable in Sydney to living almost in poverty." It turned out Nelson was still working on Coldplay's latest opus. And the Sydneysiders were flat broke.
The group all got menial jobs, lived on beer and baked beans and immersed themselves in London's vast live music scene. "We spent five nights a week going out and seeing new bands," Juanita says.

When they eventually hooked up with Nelson, after seven months of waiting, their London experience had a palpable influence on the album. They eventually spent several months working with Nelson in Liverpool, in the dead of winter. "You feel that primal energy," Juanita says of the British influences they absorbed. "We saw a lot of bands and that made me hungrier and more competitive. Those seven months, we had no support from anyone."

For their second album, Radio Wars, there was not as much angst. Radio Wars was recorded predominantly in Los Angeles, with the last three songs recorded in London. "We knew we were making something special on the first one," Juanita says. "But we didn't know if anybody would hear it, or if it would even get released outside of Australia. But with Radio Wars, we had a bit of weight behind us, and we were able to let go a lot."

The band had, by then, signed with the British indie Independiente, and found new management. They are now preparing to spend this year on the road. "Going over to the UK was a decision we were told was stupid on all counts," Juanita says. "So we did the stupid thing. And it worked out for us."

"I'm already onto the next album," Joel adds. "Sometimes, everything just lines up right."



Source:
www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/music/thieves-like-us/2009/03/13/1236919550657.html

Text:
Thieves like us
Hard times helped a Sydney band find success.

AS ARTIST reinventions go, they don't get much better than that accomplished by Howling Bells. Between 2000 and 2003, three of the four Sydneysiders played sunny yet irritating indie-pop (with a different bassist) as Waikiki. Since moving to London in 2004 and starting afresh as Howling Bells, the four-piece have been making the kind of dark, brooding and sexy alternative rock you've rarely heard done well since the goths, who with their dubious fashion choices but often ace taste in music got old, retreated to their (bat) caves and were replaced by a generation of emo kids listening to bad punk.

For siblings Juanita and Joel Stein, Glenn Moule and Brendan Picchio, briefly back in their home town to "big-up" the second Howling Bells album, Radio Wars, their early experiences in Britain "shaped the band", as singer-rhythm guitarist Juanita says. "Yeah, everything from the environment to the hardship we endured to the kind of victories we experienced as a band, everything shaped how we feel and write music to this day," she says.

What hardship? Her lead guitarist brother steps in. "We stole to eat when we first moved to Britain," Joel says. "And now, cutting out a big chunk, we don't have to do that any more, obviously." Bassist Picchio insists that this tale "is an important thing - because bands never talk about this". Joel explains further: "From having to steal to eat and sleep in a room together, I mean, it sounds like nothing but when you actually do it, your own personal space is being severely invaded. Brendan's been to hospital, he did his back in on tour; I went to hospital for my heart, something funny happened. All these things that happen over time, they affect you personally. And when it comes time to writing a new album . . . you wanna pull your ribcage apart and show everyone what you've got inside you."

The cover art of Radio Wars alone, which has portraits of the band members variously tinted light blue, pink, yellow and violet, points to a vibrant step forward from debut album Howling Bells, with its old-fashioned, sepia packaging and rawer songs. The visual impact is intentional: this is a band that used to list films rather than bands as influences on their MySpace page. But it's that combined with Juanita's seductive vocals, the whole band's rich, versatile songwriting and their much-raved-about gigs that makes Howling Bells stand out from the crowd.

"We're all just as inspired by electro music as we are psychedelic '60s pop and '80s trash," the singer says. "It kinda doesn't matter what package it comes in y'know. A great song is a great song. I think for me, the reason I adore films so much is 'cause it's the perfect meeting of all visual mediums and art forms so there's like performance and music and fashion and art. When film gets it right, which isn't that often, it's magnificent. As a band you want to try and simulate the same affection . . ."

Howling Bells have certainly been taken to heart in their adopted homeland, critically at least, with NME's writers voting for their debut above albums by TV On The Radio and Thom Yorke in their best-of-2006 list and with a review in the magazine last month saying: "while it is some way from the cut-me-and-I-genuinely-bleed-black of fellow antipodeans the Birthday Party, Radio Wars is still a much more convincing beast than any of the radio-friendly unit shifters currently plying their woes".

As far as Howling Bells are concerned, they're happy to be appreciated for creating music for the sake of art rather than being rock stars. "There's a really sick psychology with the world today, basically people that want to be famous and rich but not having done any work," Picchio says. "All the people that are left over [are those artists] that have done all that intense work and really, really love music and just wanna . . . give it to the world and try and change the world and influence the world the way people did in the '60s. All the people that woke up one morning and said, 'I wanna be a pop star,' and they just went and got a deal because they looked half alright . . . now it's gonna change and we're gonna rule the Earth. We're gonna inherit the Earth, you sons of bitches! Hear me!"


Source:
www.ravemagazine.com.au/content/view/14298/30/

Text:
JUANITA STEIN, the formidable (and extremely crush-worthy) frontperson with expat indie heroes HOWLING BELLS talks SIMON TOPPER through their new album, track by track.

Five years ago, a blossoming indie-pop band called Waikiki took a massive punt. With success building here in Australia, they decided to start again – packed a few bags, relocated to the other side of the planet and changed their name. The gamble paid off. Howling Bells’ first record was as acclaimed as they come, making end of year lists throughout the proudly fickle English street press, and even translating into reasonable commercial success.

Still based in London, Howling Bells have in recent weeks compounded their success, releasing their second record Radio Wars to further doffs of the hat and impressive over-the-counter sales. Singer Juanita Stein is warily proud of the reaction to the record, but instead of chatting about chart stats and how many more moist towlettes they can command on their rider these days, she’s keen to buckle down and talk about the album itself.

Together, we run through the stories behind five of the album’s key tracks, starting with opener Treasure Hunt, the song whose lyrics (“We are the watchtowers / We are the light that emanates / We are the key that fits / We are the world that radiates”) stand like a mission statement throughout the liner notes. “That’s one of the tracks that we’re unanimously the most proud of. It’s a great leap sonically and emotionally for the band. It’s an incredibly optimistic track, so I feel it’s a great way to start the record, because I’d say that’s what the record is about... We feel that in every sense, not just artistically, but as people, our desires have grown and we want to share that with the universe.”

It Ain’t You – “That stands out because my Dad collaborated on that track. He’s a great songwriter, and he wrote I’m Not Afraid off our first record. It was just accidental, that he walked into a room while we were struggling to find It Ain’t You’s chorus, and he picked up a guitar and helped us finished it, so we were all really happy.”

Into The Chaos – “That was the first single in Australia and Britain, so really important. It was the introduction to our new sound, and it’s already brought in kind of a different audience for us. You might lose some interest from fans who were already there, but you can’t make the same record over and over again. It kind of defeats the whole purpose of life and growth.”

Digital Hearts – “The chorus is about radio wars and changing stations. That’s a great track and lyrically it represents a lot of what we’re talking about on the record – the technological struggle in the new age, and I guess much of the isolation in using iPods and walking around by yourself as opposed to our parents who listened to big transistor radios in a social setting.”

How Long – “This is a very very special song that Joel brought to the table. He wrote it entirely and asked if I would sing it. I was instantly moved by it very deeply, and wanted desperately to sing the song and make it as perfect and beautiful as I possibly could. It was an incredibly personal experience, about a relationship he had at the time, and it’s about that instant when you get that feeling that perhaps something isn’t right. When you’re pondering when to move on. So it’s very very sad, but it’s also quite beautiful.”

[mattcambie]

Great interview!

[blade]

Another Aussie interview from wirelessbollinger.com:

www.wirelessbollinger.com/content/view/2061/84/

Text:
Howling Bells know how to live rough. In 2004, the band famously relocated from Sydney to London, where they slept on floors and stole meals. But, after three years as UK residents, they’ve just released their second LP, Radio Wars. Indeed, the city of London, one of Europe’s centres of cosmopolitanism and artistry, has long nurtured the talent of Australian musicians who’ve emigrated there. For The Birthday Party and Nick Cave, The Go Betweens and The Saints, relocating to the UK set their star on the rise and helped ensure the longevity of their music. And let’s face it, most of the world’s greatest rock bands are from Britain. Who wouldn’t want to tread the boards where the Clash, Blur and Radiohead honed their sound and style in their formative years?

Since relocating to London, members of the band have remarked that England feels like their ‘spiritual home.’ It’s a sentiment reiterated by lead guitarist Joel Stein, who is back in Sydney doing a string of promotional interviews for Radio Wars. In the midst of our casual phone conversation, he relates an anecdote which sums up why England is the ideal HQ for the band.

“I remember, during my first ever trip to England, sitting in this old bar in Camden, talking with this guy I’d just met, and the conversation became…pretty heavy. And he said to me (Stein chuckles, putting on a Londoner accent) ‘What it comes down to is this mate: this isn’t a ****ing hobby to us. To a lot of people in Britain, this is a matter of life and death. In Britain, there’s no such thing as doing music for a hobby.’”

Though his drinking buddy may have sounded idealistic, Stein understood, along with his bandmates, that the work-ethic espoused by this inebriated stranger was precisely the attitude with which all great bands approach their music. And Stein and sister Juanita have always taken their craft seriously. Their story began back in Sydney, where the teenage Juanita would stay up – on school nights – until the early morning, learning Beatles songs in her bedroom. Jump forward a few years to 2002, and Juanita and her brother had formed the band Waikiki with Juanita on lead vocals, Glenn Moule on drums and Jimmeh Brandon on guitar. The band released a hit album, I’m Already Home, which spawned drive-time radio hits 'Here Comes September' and 'New Technology'.

By the end of 2003 Waikiki had split, and Juanita’s songwriting took a new direction. With a darker sound in mind, the members of Waikiki reconvened, minus Brandon, and formed Howling Bells with newcomer Brendan Picchio joining on bass. The group immediately departed for London, a move which Stein admits he found frightening. And not without reason; the band was flat-broke.

He attests to spending many nights sleeping on floors, after stealing bread rolls from venues in order to eat. Before long however, the British music press put their full weight behind the band, raving about their live shows, and christening their music ‘indie-noir.’ Ridiculous though that label sounds, it didn’t harm their reputation, and the band soon became pin-ups for ‘indie-noir,’ which helped set them apart from the myriad of other indie acts on the circuit.

Come 2006, and Howling Bells had released their debut self titled LP, produced by Ken Nelson, best known for his work on Coldplay’s first three albums. It’s an oft-repeated story that Howling Bells were forced to sit on their hands for eight months as Nelson worked long hours on Coldplay’s X&Y, the release of which was continually delayed.

The genealogy of Radio Wars however, is nothing like that of Howling Bells. Produced by an assistant of Nigel Godrich, Dan Grech-Marguerat, Radio Wars bears the influence of electronica and stadium-rock in the mould of Coldplay and the Killers. Stein says working with Grech-Marguerat was a very challenging experience for the band. “[Dan] had a lot of input, and a lot of his own ideas,” he recalls. “He challenged Juanita a lot, which she found frustrating. And there was a lot of swearing,” he sniggers. “I really enjoyed it though, to tell you the truth.”

The producer would come into work every day with a notebook of ideas on the songs due to be recorded. “We’d never worked with somebody before who’d come in and say ‘Do this.’ I was so excited though, when he came into the studio with his book of notes. It’s the same with all art…you just want the people you work with to be as excited about it as you are.”

Radio Wars also marks a change in the band’s songwriting process. While the majority of songs on Howling Bells were written by Juanita – who would either complete songs herself, or wait until she had a chord sequence or a lyric with which to work before showing her idea to the band – many of the songs on Radio Wars are the result of rehearsal-room jams between the guys, and the closing track, ‘How Long’, was written solely by Stein. “I was saying to a previous interviewer that [‘How Long’] is about having your heart ripped out of your chest,” Stein explains. The song’s lyrics are about the sense of disbelief he felt at the abrupt end of an old relationship. “It’s about being in limbo. [But] we all write. That was the only song that was written 100% by one person. Everyone had ideas and different songs.” Stein names the Smiths-sounding ‘Digital Hearts’ as a track resulting from a jam. “[Initially] I wrote an ambient electronic track, which we jammed up in a room, and then Juanita came in and finished it off.”

So would it have been different had Howling Bells stayed in Sydney? Stein’s response is self-assured, though he betrays his disposition to wonder. “Yeah I do,” he laughs, “and I try not to think about it. But it’s a case of ‘sliding doors’ you know? I mean, I could be sitting by a river bank, on a farm, talking to the pigs, wondering what my life would have been like if I’d moved to Britain.” Is it a good career move for Australian bands to relocate overseas, then? Stein’s answer raises a well-known precedent. “Yeah well, take the Vines,” he says, “a great band, but they broke America first.”

Of course, it will be a while yet before we can ascertain how much difference, in terms of longevity, relocating to London has made to Howling Bells’ career. There’s no doubt however, that releasing two albums as residents of another country is quite an achievement in itself. For the moment though, perhaps we should just be glad that they’ve got somewhere to sleep, and something to eat other than nicked pub food.