Howling Bells: Tugging On Your Heartstrings (Interview)

Following the release of their fourth album, Heartstrings, Australia’s Howling Bells will be playing at Auckland’s Tuning Fork on September 13th. The band is re-energized after taking a brief hiatus during which time they changed bass players and vocalist Juanita Stein became a first-time mother.The band will be flying over from their adopted home of London to tour their homeland, before heading across the ditch. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Juanita Stein about the making of Heartstrings and how the band has changed over the years.

Click here to listen to the interview with Howling Bells’ Juanita Stein:

Or read a transcription of the interview here: 

MD: I wanted to ask you about the time that you in between the last two albums and I was wondering if there was a reason that you kind of took a hiatus, did you feel that the band was kind of losing momentum? Did you have to regroup? What was that all about?

JS: No we just kind of…it was a very natural space that we took and I had a, I had a child so that inevitably takes a couple years out or a year out.

MD: Sure.

JS: You know, you just live. Everybody goes their separate ways for a bit and shacks up with whoever they’re with. You know, everybody has other projects that they work on. I guess it’s just, you know, inevitable I suppose.

MD: Right. And the project that you’ve been working on was something called Albert Albert with Nick Hodgson from Kaiser Chiefs.

JS: Yeah, yeah. I started that about 10 months or something cause’ you know I wasn’t really playing much music at the time and it was just a sheer enjoyment I guess cause’ I really missed playing live and playing and recording so. Yeah so, that happened and then we, and then the Howling Bells got back to writing and recording for a new record.

MD: And I assume that because of your connection with Nick that, that’s how you ended up on the Birthday label.

JS: Yeah, yeah. That kind of happened before, so it’s kind of nice being in a label that you’re friends with the people involved and you kind of see eye to eye on everything.

MD: Right. Now from what I understand, the genesis of the new album got started when you had a burst of creativity and started writing songs like crazy at some point. I was hoping you could maybe elaborate on that and tell me what happened exactly.

JS: Yeah, that’s pretty much exactly what happened.

MD: Oh well.

JS: Yeah, it wasn’t much different to the…it was pretty stationary and I don’t know, I’m a very haphazard song writer I guess. You know, I don’t really do anything for a long time and then I feel incredibly inspired for whatever reason and that happened during one period of time and most of the songs were written, I guess, you know, in a couple of months and I brought them to the band and felt quite connected to the music and thought about trying to find a producer to work with.

MD: And of course during that time you also have changed bass players, Brendon’sd gone and you have Gary. Now has that effected the band’s sound much or is it business as usual?

JS: I think so, yeah. I mean he’s a really cool guy, very, very level headed.I think he’s brought a sense of, I guess, equilibrium to the band that hasn’t been there really before so he’s played an important role in the brief time he’s been there.

MD: Alrighty and the album was recorded in London, which, I guess, is your adopted home after moving there from Sydney. Do you have like a musical connection to the city? Is that why you recorded there? I think it’s the first album that you’ve actually recorded in London.

JS: Yeah I guess it just so happened that Catherine and Alan (producers Catherine J Marks & Alan Moulder) reached out to work with Assault & Battery Studio which is based in north London and we have a flat not so far from there so, perfect geography really.

MD: Did it effect the music at all or how things were ending up sounding?

JS: I guess it’s, yeah I think so in the sense of London getting…you know it really sets your state of mind that and you feel different or at least I do. I feel different here than I do in say Sydney or California or somewhere. It has a certain air about it and I would like the think that infiltrated the record.

MD: Right. A term that’s often used to describe you guys cinematic and then the artwork to Heartstrings has kind of this, kind of a replica of what would be a movie poster or whatever. So obviously there is some connection to films. So do you think of your songs as kind of little mini films? What is exactly your connection to film?

JS: Yes sure, I mean only inspired by films and soundtracks. Soundtracks have been a really big part of my musical upbringing. You know, I’ve found myself drawn to different soundtracks. I like that it’s not just music but it’s attached to a very innovative visual element, I really enjoy that about  soundtracks. So yeah I guess that’s always carried with me and when I write, I imagine that there’s some kind of cinematic aspect to it, so yeah.

MD: And which soundtracks did you listen to quite a bit when you were in your formative years that affected the music.

JS: I really enjoyed the French composer called Gabriel Yared he wrote some beautiful stuff, I really liked the film Betty Blue growing up, that was a soundtrack that I listened to a lot and of course all the, you know, Quinton Tarantino songs, that was a big part as well, so yeah.

MD: Right and have you got any aspirations do to film scores yourself?

JS: I’d love to. Yeah I would really, really love to. I guess it’s just a matter of meeting the right people I guess.

MD: Right. Any particular director you’d like to write a film score for?

JS: Yeah. I seem to always kind of return to the French connection, there’s a director called Luc Besson that I really, really love.

MD: Oh right yes. I just saw his new film ‘Lucy’.

JS: There you go, yeah. So he makes, yeah, I mean as you would know, I feel like he finds a really beautiful place between light and dark and you know, that would be amazing.

MD: The first song on the album is called Paris so there’s obviously some kind of French connection there.

JS: There you go.

MD: Now you’re gonna be touring in New Zealand, you’re gonna be here next month, middle of next month and you’re going to Australia first. So is it a big deal for you to go back to Australia and play? Has it been a while since you’ve been there?

JS: Yeah it’s been a couple of years since we’ve played there. So it’s always important to us to return and connect with our audience there and you always hope that you’re still relevant, that’s always, you know, you always want that. But yeah, you know, we try as much as we can. Of course it is a very, very costly and timely deal.

MD: Yeah. Now if I’m not mistaken, I think you toured New Zealand a bit probably somewhere around 2002 with your earlier incarnation of the band. Do you have any memories of that?

JS: I do, yeah. That’s the one and only time thus far that I’ve been to New Zealand.

MD: I’m sorry, can you repeat that?

JS: I can only recall you know, we toured there once, but I do have, I have very, very fond memories of that.

MD: What was your impression of New Zealand when you first kind of touched down and saw a little bit of the country?

JS: Very, very beautiful, very beautiful, very spacious, very, I don’t know, I guess just the quality in everything I think because there is so much space and the pace is a lot slower than everywhere else. So everything seems a lot more considered, if that makes sense.

MD: Well it would be interesting to see if you still feel the same way when you come here.

JS: We’ll see, I’ll let you know.

MD: When you do perform these days, How would you describe the live…dothe songs change much, do they morph when you get on stage with them after a while?

JS: Yeah I think they’re probably a lot more, a lot more live, so a lot louder, a lot rockier probably, you know, it’s hard to contain your energy.

MD: Right.

JS: Which is essentially what you do on a recording, you’re containing, bottling that energy. So when you’re live, you know, we’re all  obviously very very passionate about what we do so it probably comes across a lot more energetic.

MD: Right. Now getting back to the album. One thing I noticed about it, which actually kinda made me really happy was that it’s fairly brief, I mean it’s just a little over half an hour long whereas you get a lot of albums, since I listen to a lot of music…kinda the first thing I do is go ‘oh let’s see what am I in for here’ and they’ll be over an hour long.

JS: Right, right.

MD: Is there a, did you make it that length on purpose?

JS: No not at all, I just, I like things to be succinct, I like things to get to the point and if someone’s telling a story I don’t want them to waft for two hours. Just get it out and you know, give me the point and that’s it and I kind of like music to be the same, you know, especially, you know, if you’re playing, you know, essentially a pop band or a rock band, I like it to be fairly to the point. So it’s important to me if the songs make an impression and then exit.

MD: And then exit. Even though there’s quite a bit of time between this album and the previous one, from what I understand you recorded it fairly quickly, in about 11 days. What was the reason for that?

JS: It was purely logistical. It was the only time I had in the studio. So we either grabbed that period of time or we waited 6 months and had a bit more time. I think we were all feeling quite inspired so we just wanted to get it down.

MD: Do you think you would have ended up with a different sounding record if you had two or three months to be in the studio?

JS: Yeah, yeah. Most definitely. I think urgency plays a big part in recording and you know, I don’t know. I think when there’s too much time it can be a detriment for a musician. I think especially when you’re playing the kind of music we’re playing it’s important to retain a sense of urgency I think.

MD: And how much input did Catherine and Alan have as producers? I’m kinda curious as to how they work together as well because they’re both, you know, well known producers on their own so.

JS: Yeah sure. I think for the most part Catherine produced the record, she produced most of it and it was a very successful synergy between the two of us and it was kind of like her at the helm of the ship and then every day Alan would come in and kind of listen to the finished products and guide it, so to speak and you know, he was very…he is obviously extremely experienced. It was nice to get his, you know, his two cents at the end of every day.

MD: Was there much discussion between the producers and the band about the direction, the musical direction or did you just kind of come in and play? How did you approach the actual…

JS: Yeah, not so much musical direction it was before we recorded the record, the two of them came through to the rehearsal studio we were at to listen to all the songs. So that kind of kick-started the project and we all kind of agreed on which 10 or so songs we would concentrate on.

MD: Right.

JS: So yeah, I mean other than that there was not much hesitation I guess as to what direction we would go on. It was always very concentrated on the direction we ended up going in.

MD: Is that something that you as a band talk about between you? Kind of cause’ there’s been little…

JS: No, I guess after you know, a decade of playing in a band with people you, there’s an unspoken ambience and that’s just how it is. I guess in a band. I’ll come in with the song and the guys will interpret it a certain way and that’s just how it sounds.