With their debut album due out, Halves tell LAUREN MURPHYtheir post-post-rock game plan
So, let’s start at the beginning – how and when did Halves form?
Brian: Myself and Tim had been in a band together. The day that broke up, we decided to regroup as something completely different, so we got his younger brother Elis involved – and five years later, we've finally got an album out.
You’ve released two well-received EPs, but what took the album so long?
Brian:There's been a lot of waiting around. It's been finished since February, so we spent the summer just going a bit mad. Close friends wanted to hear it, but we've been very protective about it. But a Halloween release will be nice.
Tim:Money, timing and artwork. We didn't want to rush it, but one big factor was that we weren't sure how it was gonna be released – what label it was gonna be released on, and what formats. We were pretty sure we wanted vinyl from the get-go, but we also wanted to time it right.
There’s an autumnal, haunted atmosphere running through the songs. Some could even be described as creepy
Brian: Yeah, Don't Send Your Kids to the Lakes is especially creepy. We wrote the album with a song sequence in mind, a sort of narrative – and we think about things like production before we think about instruments, and notes and stuff like that. The fact that we usually produce our own stuff is nice, because there's no one telling us "that's the wrong way" or "don't do that".
You went with a producer this time, though – Efrim Menuck of Godspeed You! Black Emperor oversaw recording at Hotel2Tango Studios in Montreal. On two-inch reel-to-reel tape, no less
Brian: The first decision we made was that we didn't want to record the album in Ireland. None of us had ever made an album, and we wanted the experience to be special. And for it to be special, we wanted to go away somewhere very far. There were other factors – like we wouldn't get a holiday that year. We also abused the fact that the exchange rate was really good at the time. It was actually cheaper than recording in Temple Bar. We wanted it to be as analogue as possible, because having it sound good on vinyl is a big deal for us.
It’d be inaccurate to class Halves strictly as a post-rock band – the addition of piano to your songs lends them a faintly classical air at times, and there are some heavy moments in there, too
Tim: There would be a classical influence, just because we're classically trained. I play piano and studied music, and two of the other guys have degrees in music. But we come from a band persuasion, so there's always going to be drums and heavier stuff. It's nice to mix them, because you always get something different.
Brian: There's no one set songwriter in the band, so it almost sounds like a compilation album, in a way. There are different personalities to the songs. The difference between the EPs and the album is that we've moved away from what people would call post-rock, I think.
You seem to be a band that cares greatly about artwork – both your EPs have been intricately packaged
Brian:Yeah, we've pulled back on the overly elaborate packaging with the album. The artwork is still really nice, but we wanted to make it a bit more simple. The first EPs involved hours of cutting ribbons and sewing bits together. This time, we just don't have time to sit around and sew.
Finally, what are the best- and worst- case scenarios for the coming year?
Brian: We've never had crazy aspirations to play Croke Park, or be really hip, or be in the NME. If we were able to play more, and not work in offices . . . any excuse to keep playing would be great. We're releasing the album in the UK and Europe next year, so we'll see what happens there. The worst thing? That no one buys the album. But I guess, in that case, we'll just try another one.
It Goes, It Goes (Forever Ever) is released on HATEISTHEENEMY Records on October 29. Halves play The Workman’s Club, Dublin, on October 30
