What an amazing ride it has been for The Hello Morning so far in 2012. The release of their debut album in February this year met with an extremely impressive critical result, garnering 4 star reviews in numerous publications such as, Rolling Stone, The Courier Mail, Beat Magazine, Stack and Yen Magazines – to name just a few. The album has also recently been shortlisted for the Coopers Australian Music Prize.
The band have managed to play the length and breadth of the country, and most recently undertook national tours with Busby Marou in June/July followed up with another national support alongside King Cannons and the UK’s All the Young in September as well as phenomenal reaction to their performance at this year’s Big Sound Conference in Brisbane.
Communion have developed a name for putting on fantastic shows, can we expect anything extra special from The Hello Morning?
I think we have a few guests who might be helping us out for a few songs which is always exciting. There’s a few new songs that we’re going to play as well that we’ve been getting ready to play live for a little while now.
Your self-titled debut record was released in February this year, you must be happy with how it has been received…
Yeah, the response has been pretty amazing. It’s a strange feeling when you finally release something that you’ve worked on for such a long time. So I guess it’s good to hear people are enjoying it.
Tell us what it means to have the album announced as an official entrant for the Australian Music Prize…
It’s probably the only thing we keep track of to be honest, so it’s a real honour. We identify with bands like The Drones & Augie March, and I’ve always liked what the award stands for.
The album features some incredible gospel choir singing, how was that arranged?
It was a strange friend of a friend kind of thing. I made a flippant comment about wishing we could record a real gospel choir on a couple of tracks I’d been slaving over and by a few degrees of separation we were put in touch with this amazing Baptist Gospel choir from Atlanta that had worked with India Arie and a whole bunch of amazing artists. We sent the tracks over there, had a bunch of Skype calls and within a few weeks had everything finished.
You played BigSound earlier this year, any memorable moments from that show or the other shows from your tour?
It was a great show. The whole BigSound experience is pretty intense. There are shows everywhere, short sets, crazy changeovers and people everywhere. It was a great couple of days, the venue was packed and we met heaps of great people afterwards. To top it off we finished the night watching Mia Dyson which was fucking great.
What’s your earliest memory of performing and who inspired you to start?
My Dad’s a musician, my grandfather always played music as did my great grandfather. So music has always been a very important part of my family. I loved watching people perform music, my parents would always take me to see all sorts of different performances, classical, musical theatre, anything. I was always a really nervous performer. It’s taken me a long time to get over those nerves, it takes a lot of work.
You must answer this question honestly or we steal your rider. What and where was the first gig you went to?
John Farnham, Chain Reaction tour. I remember the guy coming out and playing harmonica, the bagpipe intro… JF was dominating.
Do you have any particular ritual before you go on stage, or even a lucky charm you take with you?
We have sing, and a whisky, and make sure everyone is there, nice and relaxed. A kind of calm before the storm, little warm up.
Which living Australian artist would you most like to collaborate with?
Nick Cave. I’d love to see him work in the studio. He seems so in control. I imagine he’d be very articulate and particular about what he wants.
What is The Hello Morning’s plan for the summer?
We’re going to start working on songs for a new album which we want to start working on early next year between playing some shows along the east coast.
Catch The Hello Morning at Communion on Sunday 25th November at The Toff In Town with The Trouble With Templeton, Buffalo Tales and Lima Spitz
