Interview w/ Husky Gawenda

Following on from Mel T’s interview with Geoffrey O’ Connor. I spoke to Husky Gawenda of Husky, another Australian band set to play the Laneway Festival circuit this summer. Husky have had a lot of love on the site for their singles and live shows. In October they released their debut record ‘Forever So’ and have been touring the country playing to sold out crowds and very happy fans.

I started by asking about the release of ‘Forever So’.

We finished the record last year so we were sitting on it for a little while. We’d spent a lot of time and energy and love on the record so waiting to release it was a bit hard in a way cause we really wanted to get it out there and have people hear it. So to finally put it out and start to get feedback in all sorts of different ways – on Facebook and twitter and all the ways you get feedback these days – it’s been quite amazing. The fact that there are people out there connecting with it and enjoying it is an amazing feeling.

and having that direct connection with fans?

Yeah, its a beautiful thing because in the past the only feedback you get other then meeting people at shows, which is a great way to get feedback but other then that the only feedback you get is from critics. That’s all good but it’s a different sort of feedback I think. So to be able to just read people responses to the album on our Facebook wall is great. It’s a great way to gauge how people are feeling about it.

How has playing shows and the time since writing the record changed the way you feel about the record ‘Forever So’?

It’s interesting, I don’t listen to the record. I don’t think that much about the actual record. Obviously we’ve been playing and touring a lot so the record has become a live creature. It’s a thing we do live, we’ve had to work on translating the recordings to a live setting and we’ve had a great opportunity to do that this year because we’ve had so many support tours and now we’ve had our own tour. I’m still feeling really good about the songs, I still feel that most of the time I can connect with them while I’m playing them. Sometimes they mean something different to me while I play them to perhaps what they meant when I wrote them but there is nothing wrong with that, that’s the nature of songs and any sort of art. I’m really enjoying playing the songs and seeing how people respond and connect with them – it’s great fun.

The arrangements on the record are quite unique, have you had trouble translating that to a live set – you have a lot of scope to play around with? … Continue Reading

Founds, Tank, Elizabeth Rose & Rockets @ The OAF

No Dice Paradise rolled into The OAF again last night. The monthly night has been pushing some absolutely fantastic music recently. It’s monthly, worth checking out. Last night brought Founds, Tank, Elizabeth Rose & Rockets together on a brilliant mixed-bill. All the artists are super independent & super fantastic, so you should check them out.

More after the break.

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Storm in a Teacup @ The Factory

Storm in a Teacup rolled a blanket of glorious folk over the Factory Theatre, flowing between sweet, simple acoustic pieces and tempestuous full-band numbers.

The lineup featured Tinpan Orange, Jordie Lane, Jen Cloher, Harry Angus, Liz Martin and Husky, individually incredible and collectively amazing.

Let’s hope SiaT comes around again – it finishes tonight in Mullimbimby.

More photos after the break.

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Dead Letter Chorus – ‘Yellow House’

It’s winter and it’s bloody cold, a bastard with a biting chill thats left me and everyone I know curled up inside, fighting off the cold. Dead Letter Chorus are back with Yellow House, bringing warmth and youthful romanticism back to this bitter winter.

The video is super honest in it’s delivery – singers Gabby Huber and Cameron Potts are almost painfully cute as they ride across pastel golden fields with the sun on their backs. This is a song of sweet love & warm living rooms, and a clip to match.

It says good things of their new album, Yearlings, due out mid June.

Video after the break.

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The Maple Trail

The Maple Trail – ‘New York’

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I’m pretty excited to blog about The Maple Trail, the solo guise for Aidan Roberts, the Blue Mountains songsmith who’s more known for his work up the front of psych-indie troupe Belles Will Ring. Roberts has just released his debut record entitled Dirty Echo Spark, a beautifully well-worn piece of music that evokes images of 1960s Americana and pastoral folk in the vein of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young while simultaneously tipping its hat to recent players Grizzly Bear and Broken Social Scene.

‘New York’ is engaging without being overly complicated. It’s a simple, cyclical tune built around the mantra “here comes the winter pretty baby, let’s go to New York.” Which is kinda where I’d like to be, too. Dirty Echo Spark is replete with myriad instruments which create a luscious garden of textured, melodic music that you could easily wander through all day. A real gem of an album.

http://whothehell.net/m5