HTRK are one of those bands where attempts to describe their sound often range from the unhelpful to the pretentious. We’re going to eschew any attempt to do that: if you haven’t heard HTRK before, scroll to the bottom of this interview and listen to their second LP, Work (work, work), while you read.
Originally from Melbourne, the band have been based out of London since 2007 following a brief stay in Berlin. Now a two-piece after the passing of founding member Sean Stewart, the band are putting together their third record and getting ready to play This Is Nowhere. Jack Midalia caught up with Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang to discuss their new record and altitude sickness.
How are you guys?
Jonnine: We’re good. We’re just in the middle of a few concentrated rehearsals with our new music, trying to fit that into the set.
There’s not really much out there about what you’ve have been up to lately. What’s been happening?
Jonnine: We’ve been through a lot, you know. We needed to kind of shut everything down and stop everything after the heavy touring of Work (work, work) and really just concentrate on the writing process and the next chapter of what we were going to do, without playing any shows to distract us. And also, we felt like it was a start again, but keeping within the same feelings and ideals that were the reason we started the band in the first place.
Nigel: We just finished recording, too. We were in New Mexico recording a new release?
Why New Mexico?
Nigel: We got an invite to a studio there. Nathan Corbin, he plays in this band called Excepter. He also shot a video of ours for a song called “Bendin” for Work (work, work). He was in Santa Fe and just invited us, so we took him up on the offer and had a really amazing time.
Was it a different experience to recording previous albums? I think Work (work, work) was not as studio-based, is that right?
Nigel: Yeah, Work (work, work) we kind of did ourselves. This time round was a really unique experience. Nathan was kind of involved in playing some synths and doing some programming. It was all super-chilled…
Jonnine: In saying that, I lost my mind. I think Nigel has blocked out the fact that for five days of this experience I was completely insane in a new psychosis, trying to hide it from the boys. I didn’t know what had happened to me, I thought all my past experiences had kind of cemented in this burst of “oh, ok, now I’m crazy”. What it turned out to be was that I was suffering from acute altitude sickness and could have died. Our producer, Nathan, picked us up from the airport, handed me a beer and a cigarette and then took us on a really intense hike. We were at the highest point at New Mexico. What we should have done was laid low in Albuquerque and acclimatised, or acclimated, as they like to say, and then I should have had a lot of electrolytes.
For the first five days it was a really emotional experience. We bonded with Nathan through this trauma of me losing my mind… and then after that we put down some pretty sweet tracks.
Does that come out in the recording?
Jonnine: I think so, yeah. When I listen back to the vocal takes, it’s like “I could never do that again”. It’s purely in the moment which I’m really happy about… I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else.
What’s the new record like?
Jonnine: It’s more melodic. It’s far more up. It’s actually an album you could dance to. We’re calling it a love album.
A love album?
Jonnine: Yeah. It’s very different from the other two. All three albums serve a specific purpose. Marry Me Tonight is the lust album before you go out. Work (work, work) is the come down album when you get in bed with a couple of mates. This was the love album that I think you would either be in a club or at least in a car coming home from a club kind of thing.
Do you go into writing and recording records with some sort of a theme in mind?
Jonnine: Yeah, we do. In saying that, this album we didn’t put any pressure on ourselves. We didn’t know what we were going to be without Sean. It’s been a really intense time. And so, rather than put pressure on ourselves, we thought “let’s just make some music together and see what happens”. We didn’t have the pressure of making an LP, we thought “let’s just make some songs.” Without that pressure, we’ve made an album.
So it’s a full album?
Jonnine: Yes, it will be. We’ve got two under-wraps, special guests that will feature on the album which is really different for us. It’s a really different kind of album for us.
You’re back in Melbourne now?
Jonnine: Yeah, Nigel’s in Sydney and I’m in Melbourne. We’ve got four or five festival shows coming up until ATP next year in February.
What’s it like being back in Australia and playing shows after living away for a while?
Jonnine: Well, we haven’t played a show this year. This is going to be our first show with almost like a new attitude. I must say, playing shows last year we had some really magical experiences, but we were grieving. We were in a pretty strange place.
Making some new music and being in a new chapter — I’m really looking forward to starting again.
I haven’t seen you guys live before… what should we expect at This Is Nowhere in terms of a live show?
Jonnine: Well, I think what you should expect is to let go. It’s almost like when you go to the cinema, you pay the money, and you should really not talk to the person sitting next to you and ask “what’s going on with the plot?” You should just lose yourself and trust that the Director is taking you somewhere.
You should just trust us that we’re trying to take you somewhere.
