Aquaslum is the debut album from Melbourne band HOY.
After three years of writing, performing and touring, HOY’s founding members, Liam Linley, Felicity Cripps and Cecilia Dowling expanded the trio to a six-piece band for the album recording. HOY now includes members from Gotye, the Black Arm Band and The Basics.
The record was written in a grand old country house in regional France, where the band used their time to develop harmonies, practice rhythms, rearrange and write songs, and bake a lot of apple crumple with fruit from the orchard. The album was later recorded in a converted church in the Victorian Goldfields by producer Pip Norman (TZU, Sparkadia, Gossling) and mixed in London by Dan Rejmer (Bjork, Foals, Paul Kelly). The album features electric rock-outs, psychedelic interludes, classically inspired instrumentals and analogue samples
that lend a sense of timelessness to HOY’s sound. The nine tracks draw on rock, pop, folk and classical influences.
We asked the band to give us a track by track run down of the album ahead of its release on May 2nd (via MGM) .
Oceans of Champagne
This song grew out of an old song called Human Love. Only a few chords remained and the lyrics changed completely. The meaning of the song isn’t totally transparent. It includes visions of the future and the idea of people held back by their own shadows. The lyrics take an omniscient view and the chords, especially in the pre-chorus, represent that overarching attitude.”
Get Some Sleep
“Get Some Sleep is a melodic boy-girl ballad. The lyrics dwell on quiet nights at home when being alone is the only comfort craved, until lone turns into lonely and you find yourself longing for company. The female counter-melody is the unconditional company mused about throughout the song.”
Brigitte Bardot
“The initial idea for Brigitte Bardot happened in Paris, on the way to a music residency in the French countryside. HOY watched the film ‘Gainsbourg’ on their flight to Europe and the scenes with Brigitte Bardot inspired the song. It came together over a couple of years. What started out as a folk number ended up with a bumping bass line and a bridge that quotes the famous Walton viola concerto.”
Aquaslum
“‘Aquaslum’ started as a dream about the world engulfed in a tidal wave and caught below the surface. The lyrics are from the perspective of a clam watching the destruction from beneath. Each member of the trio wrote a section of the song. This track easily became the title track of the album because its a good example of collaboration between the three writers. The ocean, its beauty and destructive powers, is a theme for the whole album.”
Words
“‘Words’ started out as a guitar line out of which grew more guitar lines, overlaid by Viola, overlaid by vocals. It grew slowly and the lyrics came together as HOY toured Europe in 2010 and arrived back in Australia. The song was originally called ‘Revolution’, after the notion of ‘too many words and not enough action’.”
Tell the Moon
“Tell the moon is a love song about a few different loves. The lyric ‘tell the moon’, came from a mishearing of ‘tell them all’, and the mistake remained in the chorus.. The instrumental outro of this song is based on the idea that repetition allows familiarity to develop within a short time-frame.”
Wild Dog
“‘Wild Dog’ was written around 2am after watching ‘Daisies’, an experimental Czech film by Chytilova. The freedom and aesthetics in the making of the film inspired the song. Its about loss and memories and focuses on a place called ‘Wild Dog Creek’, down on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria.”
Black Love
“This song was recorded partly by Nick Huggins in Point Lonsdale and Pip Norman at Countbounce studios. One idea was to entirely re-record the song with more of a big-band-sound arrangement, but in the end the intimate quality of the original recording won out. The music of Roland S Howard and his drug addiction and love affairs were influential for this song.”
It’s All Up to You
“Its All Up to You is a song about unrequited love. It started out quiet with a heartfelt chorus and it was clear there was plenty of room for big instrumental sections and emphasis of chords through movement in the strings and electric guitars. The long section at the end was inspired by Portishead’s ‘Third’, where a synth sound continues for much longer than you would expect. The guitar sounds at the end of this song were caught late at night in a converted church in Talbot, where HOY recorded most of Aquaslum.”
HOY ‘Aquaslum’ Tour Dates
FRI. 9TH MAY: Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine
SAT. 10TH MAY: The Toff, Melbourne
THURS. 15TH MAY: Treehouse, Belongil, Byron Bay
FRI. 16TH MAY: The Beach Hotel, Byron Bay
SAT. 17TH MAY: Queen St Mall & The Underdog, Brisbane
SUN. 18TH MAY: Queen St Mall & The Underdog, Brisbane
FRI. 23rd MAY: Republic Bar, Hobart
SAT. 24th MAY: Fresh On Charlesm Launceston
SUN. 25th MAY: Mona Foma Gallery Bar, Hobart
THURS. 29TH MAY: Rad, Wollongong
FRI. 30TH MAY: Upstairs Beresford, Sydney
SAT. 31ST MAY: Oxford Art Gallery Bar, Sydney
SUN. 15TH JUNE: Wheatsheatf Hotel, Adelaide
Tone Deaf are also giving readers the chance to win a copy of Aquaslum in CD.