Adelaide garage rock stalwarts Battlehounds have just released their new single Visions. Tomatrax caught up with Alex from the band to ask their music!
Where did the name Battlehounds come from?
To be completely honest, we just thought it sounded cool. We’re not sure if it actually does sound cool but it seems to work for us!
According to your bio, the band was born in a share house. What was it like for the band to live together in a share house?
Our old bass player used to live in this house that was this kind of hub for all of our friends. The kind of house where you’d find your self staying four nights, drinking, waking up, doing it all again. We used to rehearse there at the start and it all started during one of these periods where we were all just hanging out there. Once Tom moved to Sydney we found Marsh and he put us on the straight and narrow. Now we rehearse in this amazing studio near the beach.
You’ve just released your second single, what’s it like to have it out?
It feels good. It’s only our second single but we’re really happy with it. It sounds the way we wanted it to and we think it’s much more solid then anything we’ve put out before, so it’s sweet.
What made you pick Visions as the follow up single?
We’d always had a really good response to it live. We knew it was a solid single and recorded right we knew it could sound really great. We actually recorded a bunch of songs in the same sessions but Visions was the stand out, the others didn’t really go past the tracking stage so they’re all sitting there, they’ll probably never see the light of day.
What was it like to work with Gavin Lurssen?
We worked with Gavin on our last single and he did all the mastering from LA. Being on the other side of the world it was all by emails. He’s really supportive of independent bands and given who he’s worked with (QOTSA etc) we were so happy that he wanted to help us. His whole team is great and nothing is ever too much of an ask.
What was the inspiration behind the video for Visions?
Our old bass player Tom (the one who lived in the vortex share house) does our clips. We let him have full reign over the clip so it was his whole concept. He’s into horror movies which I think is quite evident from our last two clips. He’s incredibly talented and brilliant to work with.
Where was the single’s cover taken from?
Miles from Bad//Dreems does all our art work. He took the photo in L.A when he was over there last year. He’s a graphic designer so he puts all our art work together. He used to live with Tom and we’ve known him for years. He’s another one of those super talented guys that are also so great to work with. He has a little company called Zig Zag who do some really cool stuff.
You will be playing shows in support of the single, what can fans expect from the show?
Probably some new tunes, we’ve got some new stuff in the works which we’re wanting to play live. It’ll be fun, beer soaked and pretty rowdy hopefully. We’re really looking forward to it.
Are there any plans for an EP or LP release?
There’s an EP being written at the moment, we’ve been writing it for a while now, just stock piling songs. We’re not too sure when to stop writing for it, our sound is always growing but it’s definitely in the plan. We’re hoping to do one more single or B-Side as well this year.
Do you ever listen to your own music?
Sometimes, but never in a self indulgent kind of way. It’s more listening to demos, phone recordings and ideas. Once the songs are recorded and we’ve settled on the mix and master, I don’t tend to listen to it too much. We’re so close to it that we listen to it in a totally different kind of way than our audience so we’ll end up picking everything apart.
What music do you listen to?
We all share pretty common tastes but there are some differences. Rock definitely forms the pillar of our collective musical tastes. We all love Queens of the Stone Age, Black Sabbath, Uncle Acid and The Dead Beats, All Them Witches, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Nick Cave, Kyuss and many more but we have some differences between us.
I’m (Alex) a big hip hop fan. I grew up listening to a lot of Wu-Tang, Biggie, A Tribe Called Quest, so the love is still there, I’ve actually been listening to the new album by BadBadNotGood featuring Ghostface Killah, it’s amazing.
Dale is right into his stoner rock and classic stuff. He loves Sabbath, QOTSA, Zeppelin and he’s a huge Arctic Monkeys guy.
Marsh is a mixed bag but loves a bit of everything especially anything with a big riff. He loves bands like Mastodon, Graveyard and Dead Meadow.
What do you plan on doing following your shows?
Write a dickload more songs. We’re trying to get this EP together so we’ve been stockpiling songs as much as we can. We have so many ideas but not as many whole songs. I think we all agree as a band that our best songs are the ones that come naturally to us and just sort of happen, Visions was definitely one of those songs.
In support of Visions, Battlehounds will be playing the following run of shows.
Saturday 28th March 2015
Adelaide, The Exeter Beer Garden (Afternoon Show) – SA
Friday, 10th April 2015
Sydney, World Bar – NSW
Saturday 25th April 2015
Melbourne, April 25th @ The Espy Front Bar
Check out Battlehounds’ Facebook page to find out more!
