Juanita Stein is disarmingly pretty.
But it’s
not her angelic features that draw immediate attention
today; instead it’s her boots, these amazing
knee-high red things, with trimmings of baubles and
stars around the ankles. Purchased in Newtown, procured
in Nashville, they’re damn cool.
A bit like Howling Bells – if ever a group
have avoided the cultural cringe that normally creeps
into any Australian band moving to England, it’s
this foursome. “I think it helps that we were
there for 2 years,” Juanita outlines. “You
have to give someone the time of day and really connect
and identify with an environment. I’m proud
of it and I think it’s a good record and I
think people are connecting with it. I think when
something a little bit left-of-centre comes around
then they’re quite inviting and accepting of
it.”
In fact, Howling Bells first UK
tour was with Editors around Europe and England.
It might have started
out as low-key, but it wasn’t long before Howling
Bells were commanding column inches of their own. “We
didn’t go in for 2 weeks with banners going ‘look
at us, look at us…and now we’re going
to piss off and you’re supposed to give a shit’ – it
doesn’t work,” Juanita explains of the
band’s initial decision to stay in England.
The decision to move to England
was made after the band had recorded demos in Sydney,
then sent them
out to prospective producers. A good response was
received from the respected Ken Nelson in particular,
who is noted for his work with the likes of Coldplay.
As a Liverpool resident, with his own studio, it
made sense for the band to go a couple of months
early prior to recording, getting into the groove
of swinging London life. But it wasn’t so simple,
as Juanita explains. “It just went on and on
and on and he kept postponing it and postponing it,
and before we knew it it was seven or eight months
and we were looking outside a very dreary window
one day going ‘Is this going to happen? Maybe
we should go home’.”
In retrospect, Juanita believes
that the gap in time contributed to the overall
sound of the album
and the growth of the band. “I think it matured
us in a way that would not have happened if we had
stayed here,” she says of the band’s
brief time in Sydney, “and collectively we
grew. I think it’s really important for a band
to grow together as well, if you can stand each other
after eight months of living in one room together,
and then eventually we got the call to go and record
in Liverpool.”
Certainly, their self-titled debut
has met with the sort of critical acclaim that
few Australian
acts are used to – already the band have scored
a jaw-dropping 9 out of 10 in the NME,
while respected broadsheets like The Guardian have
been similarly effusive in their praise. Not for
a band formed from the ashes of Waikiki. “It
was very much a natural progression,” Juanita
says of the change from one band to the other. “It
was as simple as Waikiki broke up, and that was it.
I’d written all these songs that I was combusting
with energy and knew I had to get out there somehow,
and so we [Juanita and brother guitarist Joel] sat
down and began working on these new songs. Then we
met Brendan [Picchio, bass] and then it went from
there.”
Juanita explains that she knew the
material she was penning was never going to be
for Waikiki, and
that a transitional period would have to be made.
This included the move to England. “I was driven
by a force outside my consciousness, and I wasn’t
going to let anything get in the way of that.”
The recording experience was a different
experience. “It
was also the most earthy and raw recording experience
I’ve ever had,” she elucidates. “The
studio wasn’t this ridiculously lavish gold
and marble room with room for an orchestra; it was
old, and small, and earthy, with stones on the wall.
Ken was unbelievably down to earth and very gentle
and very warm, and so for us it was a very earthy
experience.”
All tracking was done live – Howling Bells
were thrown into the deep end, and didn’t believe
in layering tracks so everything was out on the line.
If it didn’t work as one, then it simply didn’t
work. And work it has: the songs are nothing if not
personal, and quite desperate at times. “They’re
very, very desperate, and emotional and heart-wrenching,” she
agrees. “I’m really laying it on the
line. It was the first time I’ve put myself
out there and for the first time just really, really
had so much faith in the music and the people I was
working with that I couldn’t have given a shit
if nobody liked this. I don’t need anyone’s
approval for this to be an incredible experience.”
It also ended up being cathartic,
with Juanita comparing the singing of the songs
to more or less reading
her diary to anyone who cares to listen. “Doing
the vocals was a very different experience for me – I
couldn’t actually sing in a room that had lights
on,” she comments. “They literally had
to turn off every single light in the studio. I needed
to feel like I was the only person in the room. I
didn’t want to feel like anybody was watching
me. It was very personal.”
Howling Bells’ self-titled
album is out now. Launch dates:
6 July – Annandale Hotel, Sydney
7 July – ANU, Canberra
8 July – East Brunswick Club, Melbourne
