Seabellies have been an ever present force on the Australian music landscape since they burst onto the scene in 2006. In their short career they have played alongside such greats as The Pixies, Phoenix, Groove Armada and Soulwax and toured Australia relentlessly.
A 2008 trip to the US saw the band play the CMJ music festival, before returning home to release four singles and their debut LP By Limbo Lake (2010). By Limbo Lake went on to earn critical acclaim and Triple J support for all five singles.
After the release of By Limbo Lake, the band simultaneously set off to different parts of the world in source of inspiration for new songs and to shake off the cobwebs of touring. In the European summer of 2011, they all found themselves in Berlin and began working on new material for their much awaited sophomore album Fever Belle.
Fever Belle was produced by Simon Berkleman (Philadelphia Grand Jury) and revered Australian producer Tim Whitten. Berkleman was an assistant engineer on Seabellies’ debut EP Wave Your Fingers To Make The Winters (2007) and a chance meeting with Grenell at a Berlin market in 2011 led to the two forming a plan to record together in both Sydney and Berlin in 2012.
The album was written and recorded in Melbourne, Sydney and Berlin and is a real departure from where By Limbo Lake left off. The band have ventured into more rhythmic territory – with vocalist and frontman Trent Grenell stretching his vocal range to new heights. Much of Fever Belle is autobiographical – drawing upon specific places and memories, and exploring the theme of loss in various forms. The album is a sprawling and diverse work strongly influenced by the surroundings they inhabited during the writing and recording period.
Berkleman and Whitten approached the songs from very different angles leading to an exciting synergy in the studio, with some gorgeous classic sounds combined with innovative recording methods. The band were keen to explore new techniques of capturing their dense wall of sound – with Berkleman taking this to new levels of complexity by experimenting with plastic bagging microphones inside bricks to get a particular tone – which did indeed make the final album cut!
The resulting album is a melodic tour de force, winding its way between various and diverse styles and rhythms.
Fever Belle is out October 18th through Shock Records. Stream it below.
