Fifteen minutes with: The Holy Sea

yourGigs dipped their toes into the waters of The Holy Sea as they hit the road with their latest album <em>Ghosts of the Horizon</em>.

How have you found the new line up of the band has shaped and influenced the band’s sound?

Well, the current line-up really evolved quite organically. Around 2006, Dan Hoey (keyboards) and I were playing around Melbourne as a duo, with just guitar, piano and vocals. When it came to record some of the songs we were doing, it just seemed to make sense to bring in some of our mates to flesh out the sound. It wasn’t long before the line-up settled into what it is now, and has remained pretty much unchanged since the release of our last album A Beginner’s Guide to the Sea. That said, in the time between that record and our new release, Ghosts of the Horizon, the band has really coalesced into a strong individual unit, where we all feed off each other – so, in that sense, the sound of Ghosts of the Horizon has been completely shaped by the line-up. We’re very lucky to have a strong dynamic where everyone in the band intuitively knows where they fit in the sound – every member plays a part in creating our sound, and you really notice if one member is missing. When everyone is firing, the sound really takes a life of its own, and that can be a helluva lot of fun.

How did it feel to be hand-picked to play ATP by Nick Cave ad what did that experience do for the band?

It goes without saying that it was an immense honour to be invited by the Bad Seeds to play All Tomorrow’s Parties. Since I was in high-school, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have been one of my biggest influences, so it was pretty special to be on a bill with them, and so many other people who have influenced us – The Saints, Robert Forster, Michael Gira, The Necks, The Dirty Three and so on! In one sense, it felt like an incredible vindication of what we do that we were asked to play alongside these guys – and I think we were all a bit taken a back by how supportive they all were. (You can’t imagine how nerve wracking it is to perform with Mick Harvey, Chris Bailey and Michael Gira all watching from side of stage!) But if ATP showed us how far we’d travelled, it also showed us how far we still had to go – all of those acts, who we respect and admire have been doing it for so long and produced such an amazing body of work – so in that sense, ATP was also a humbling experience, reminding us that we were only just starting on this journey. But, we certainly had a great time and it was one of the best festival experiences I’ve ever had!

Did you have a specific aim for Ghosts of the Horizon and how did the resulting finished product resemble or achieve those initial aims?

We went into the recording of this album with a lot of ambitions. We wanted to make something that had all the intensity of our live show, but that allowed us space to experiment with new ideas in the studio. So, we spent a lot of time in the studio trying different things, but we also tried to record as much of it together as a group as we could – so that we maintained the sense of playing off each other. In the end, I think we got a good balance. I think a lot of that came from us all being pretty comfortable working in the studio together. This is the second album we’ve recorded with David McCluney at Atlantis Sound – and I think that made things a lot easier, it became much more of a collaborative process.

Did you approach writing the songs differently on this album considering the narrative/story-telling nature of the songs as compared to your previous, more personal songs?

Yes and no… Between this album and our last album I certainly feel that I have matured as a songwriter, and the songs have a much greater complexity both lyrically and musically. The musical advances are definitely the result of collaborating with the band, and trying to make the most of having seven really talented musicians to work with. But lyrically, I think writing narrative songs makes you a bit more careful, insomuch as you are conscious of being faithful to the story. But with these songs, I also tried to make them as personal as possible – I wanted to suggest that history is something that we are all a part off; something that we are all personally involved in. So, in that sense, I tried to write them as though I was writing personal songs – you’ll notice that all the songs are still in the first person, even though they deal with moments from Australian history.  

Do you feel our artists and specifically musicians have done a sufficient job in telling our nation’s history, and do you think they have a duty to?

That is a difficult question – a lot of great art has been produced dealing with Australian history, from Sidney Nolan to The Drones – so, I think there are plenty of great examples that artists and musicians can draw from. I certainly don’t think artists have a duty to restrict themselves to it – I know I haven’t! But, at the same time, I think it is important that artists be true to themselves and to where they come from. Their art should reflect their place in the world. For me, the idea of approaching Australian historical narratives very much about trying to find my own voice, and questioning what it meant to live here now, and the historical forces that had shaped our contemporary life.

Do you think there is enough awareness in general society about the history and events of Australia and it’s past, and why do you think that is?

No I don’t – I think we are painfully ignorant of our history. Partly I think it is a hangover from the colonial idea that Australia has no history, or that our history is too short to be of interest. But, that is nonsense – as you walk around any Australian city, there are thousands of reminders of our history, and when you start to look at that, you realise it has had a huge influence on the way we see the world. In the US and Europe, I think people are very proud of their history, and that often reveals itself in a pretty blinkered nationalism. In Australia, we seem to just ignore it, which means we lose the opportunity to debate where we came from and where we want our nation to go.

What was it that drew you to the various stories and characters that arise throughout the album?

In picking the characters in this album - such as George Arthur, Chris Hurley or Tom Wills – I was looking for people who felt tested by history. I was looking for men who felt as though their consciences were being tested by forces outside themselves. In the songs I wrote about them, I tried to imagine I was them, justifying their actions, but at the same time, struggling with the consequences. I really wanted to try and personalise the historical narrative – I wanted to suggest that these figures are not so distant. People often try and excuse the actions of historical figures by saying, ‘well, it was a different time’, I guess what I am trying to suggest is that, it wasn’t such a different time, and that these men all struggled with their consciences, even if, in the end they did what we would consider the wrong thing. I think it is very easy to be condescending and presume we are better than historical figures from the past, to absolve ourselves from their actions. With Ghosts of the Horizon we wanted to suggest that maybe we’re not that different, and that we all need to take a bit of responsibility for our shared history