Melbourne’s favourite harmony-based acoustic pop/rock band Husky have just released a gorgeous new single Cut Myself Loose, a taste of the upcoming long-player Stardust Blues, to be released on August 7th. Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips spoke with the band’s main man Husky Gawenda about life in lockdown, the single, the gear and the creation of the new album.
Inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses, Husky Gawenda’s nocturnal ramblings and the band’s love of making music together, the songs on STARDUST BLUES form a narrative that follows a character for 24 hours on his personal odyssey throughout Melbourne as well as his internal and external search for meaning, in which he encounters friends, lovers past and present, memories and dreams, and the day to day struggles and beauty of being a human in 2019.
Husky Gawenda wrote and co-produced the songs with fellow band members Gideon Preiss (keys) and Jules Pascoe (bass), and long- time friend Matt Redlich on production and engineering duties. The album was recorded to 24-track tape with Holly Thomas on drums.
Husky Gawenda reflects on making their new album “Stardust Blues – was written at the Westbury Hotel, an old 1920s mansion that served as a kind of artist commune and a home to us and other artists from 2014 – 2019. The album is about the new life that comes after the death of things, the light that comes at the end of a long night.
“While we were recording, our home – The Westbury Hotel – where we and our friends and fellow artists lived and slept and woke and wrote and recorded and dreamed, was demolished, to make way for a new block of apartments. During this time, we who lived at the Hotel and our friends were going through the usual day to day cycles of destruction and creation that make up our lives.”
“We finished Stardust Blues just as the time came to leave the Hotel but as we left, we converted the place into one big ephemeral work of art – we painted and covered the walls in scribbled out dreams, we had parties with art installations and music and while all this was happening we recorded live versions of some of the songs from the new record. Even as the place was being demolished, we were recording and filming. Until there was nothing left and we took our Tascam 388 tape machine to our friends house in the country and finished the recordings there in her garden”.
Over a twelve year period, Melbourne band Husky have released three critically acclaimed albums, scored worldwide playlisting and radio, plus toured locally with artists such as Neil Young, The Shins and Sharon Van Etten. In 2011, they became the first Australian band signed to Sub Pop Records.
Single: ‘Cut Myself Loose’ is out now through Ditto Music.
Album: Husky’s 4th album ‘Stardust Blues’ will be released on AUGUST 7 through Ditto Music.