THE HALVES

12 hours ago

7 min read

Words: Em Tobin

Photography: Gabe Maisano (@gabemaisano)

The Halves by Gabe Maisano (@gabemaisano)

The Halves bring a unique, dynamic voice to the Australian music scene. Central to the Naarm/Melbourne-based band’s musicality is a transitional post-punk rawness intrinsic to the magnetism of their live performance. Fusing convention with unpredictability, the band operates with a truly confident stage presence.

This determination existed in the crowded intimacy of Oxford Street’s iconic Burdekin Hotel off the back of The Halves’ Australian tour. The Halves graced the stage with an assured optimism, owning flexible complexity, binding sonics and vocals. The band’s chemistry initiated an overwhelming enthusiasm within Sydney’s scene, filling the upstairs room of the venue with the cathedral of a zealous crowd.

It’s impossible to box in The Halves, simultaneously onstage and within their exploratory sound. While frontman Tim Hardy infused the scene with a contagious eagerness, utilising each angle of his performance to reflect the vitality of the band’s sonics, guitarists Chris White and Sam Sanders claimed ownership of the stage, solidifying the strength of The Halves’ energy. Bassist Rory Watkins performed with a unique urgency, bridging traction and tension with heavy post-punk sounds. Yet present within the undertones of The Halves’ energy is a cathartic lyricism poised within the dynamic vulnerability of their sound.

Breaking from the foundations of their discography, sophomore EP Opus is set to redefine a transitional transcendence for The Halves. The six-track EP, out September 9th, expands on the band’s strong sonic platform, paving the way for new paths of energetic expression for the emerging Australian alternative band. I caught up with The Halves frontman Tim Hardy to talk Opus, lyricism, and the band’s movements.

The Halves by Gabe Maisano (@gabemaisano)

EM: Can you catch me up on your tour? Have there been any highlights so far?

TIM: Yeah, we just played Brisbane, and that was great. We were stoked with the turnout, and it was nice to see a lot of familiar faces. It was a nice way to start our tour.

EM: Can you walk me through the sonic process of writing and producing both Grace and Trackstar?

TIM: So both of those tracks came really quickly. We kind of started with a bit of a riff, and we wrote the whole song together in our practice space.

In terms of melody for Grace, it all fell together very quickly as well. In terms of the lyrical content, a lot of it is just making stuff up until we find some meaning.

But in terms of Trackstar, we were keen; the video came first. We really wanted to make a video, and that kind of ended up writing the song around the video, so the music fit really well with it. Then, with Grace, we kind of just came up with a song where we arrived at a bit of content. So, yeah, it was fun. Those two tracks were really fun to write, really easy.

EM: What was the process of building the vital sonic energy on Can you feel it, and how does this track work live?

TIM: Bass, drums, and a bit of synth came first when writing that track, so you could tell straight away the energy and how it’s going to feel, especially live. So, after that, you’re just reacting to those first instrumentals. The vocals we really tied to sync up with the drums in the chorus, so it sounded big. The guitar’s main job in that track was to create a lot of atmosphere and really push in the choruses.

The Halves by Gabe Maisano (@gabemaisano)

EM: Can you walk me through the lyrical and sonic inspiration behind Cold In Gloom?

TIM: The song feels very somber and gloomy. Like there’s a lot of uncertainty. Like most of our songs, I wanted to portray the energy and feeling that the instruments give. When we first wrote it, the whole song was like the verses; however, we felt like it needed to go big, so we wrote in the choruses.

EM: For me, Opus is a stand-out off the EP. Do you have any favourite moments from performing, producing, or writing the track?

CHRIS: I think it’s a super fun song to play live, as it normally catches people a bit off guard. It doesn’t really sound like any of our other songs, so I guess the switch-up is really fun. When we were writing the track it was exciting to be able to experiment more with our guitar and bass tones, leaning into the more glitchier, reverb-drenched, and chaotic-sounding stuff. George, who produced the EP, was an amazing help for really dialling this in at the studio. I remember while recording the verses, I was running my pedalboard into his, so there were about twenty to thirty pedals in the chain.

EM: And when playing live, what works for The Halves? How does on-stage chemistry reflect the ethos of the band?

TIM: I think we’ve got really good chemistry, especially onstage. We know what moments to pull back and what moments to go forward. I think a bit of tequila also helps our chemistry, but yeah, I think we’ve got it pretty down pat in terms of our live performance.

EM: The Halves have a distinct sound, saturated by raw lyricism and a focus on the vocals behind the lyrics. Where do The Halves draw sonically from?

TIM: I think a lot of the 80s and 90s. We’re big Stone Roses fans, big fans of Joy Division. Even The Chameleons. So yeah, a lot of those older bands. The Church, in terms of Aussie bands. Fontaines, when their first album came out, that was huge for us. Idles, bands like Shame, a lot of the Windmill scene in South London. Kind of that post-punk, alternative scene.

EM: Onto Replacement, it’s a track that leaves space for reflection and redirection. How did you find vulnerability when making space for creative expression?

TIM: That’s a great question. I think the energy of that song was great, so when it came to writing the lyrics, it just felt really nostalgic and angelic. But there is a bit of heaviness to it, and I think that choosing the lyrical content of finding a replacement fit really well. It came quite easily, and I like to write lyrics based on movies that I’ve seen. I’d just seen Bridge to Terabithia at the time, and that was a big inspiration for that one.

EM: Replacement is such a raw track that speaks to individual experience but also universal feelings of heartbreak and loss. Lyrically, where did you draw inspiration from?

TIM: I guess the movie was a big one, but also experiences of moving cities a lot growing up. We formed in Brisbane but moved down to Melbourne. You sort of feel like you’re making new relationships, and unfortunately you are always comparing to previous ones. I think that was a bit of a reflection of where we were at during the time.

We moved two and a half years ago down to Melbourne. Chris and I started the band, and we’ve had revolving members for a while. We’re pretty happy with who we’ve got at the moment, Sam and Rory, who have been great.

In terms of writing this last EP, they’ve been huge for the direction we’ve wanted to go. We couldn’t have written what we have without them.

The Halves by Gabe Maisano (@gabemaisano)

EM: As a post-punk band renowned for a rock-esque sound, was it more difficult to strip back and get vulnerable on Replacement?

TIM: No, I think we’ve always done that. We’ve always enjoyed bands like that. We love The Church, bands like The Stone Roses, where they have I Wanna Be Adored, which is a pretty stripped-back song. In our last EP, we had a lot of tracks that were quite similar. We’ve always loved vulnerability in terms of melodies and lyric content.

EM: What direction do The Halves want to take for Opus? Upon reflection, what does the band cite as the primary pathway for new musical pursuits?

TIM: I think Opus was like, that one was a big statement. It has so much energy and drive. I think we’re pretty keen to go that sort of direction and keep it similar to the other tunes. It’s a fun one.

We love to build sets that have a bit of a climax at the end, and I think that song works really well. The energy definitely picks up in the crowd when we play it. There will be a lot more tunes like that one.

EM: Have you got a favourite takeaway track from the EP, or any song you enjoyed writing or producing the most off it?

TIM: I think the drums on Opus- the drums really grind it, the drums and bass. The bass is really, really strong. It’s thick and driven, very solid. Those two together. We were listening to a lot of Prodigy around that time. We covered one of their songs, and we’ve always been fans. In that song, you can hear a lot of the driven bass and drums.

EM: Any final takeaways from the process of producing the EP?

TIM: Overall, super stoked on this EP. Working with George and Jack, who mixed it, was really good; it was good working with a producer who could point us in directions we hadn’t thought of.

Sometimes the simplest thing is often the best, but working with people who think differently was a standout. We all knew essentially what direction we wanted to take, but we were able to create sounds that a lot of us hadn’t thought of.

Especially within the recording techniques that George used, it was awesome to open Replacement with a top, a piano, a grand piano, and turn it up really loud. The vibrations would go into the piano. Really cool stuff.

EM: What’s your favourite thing about being part of the Melbourne music scene?

TIM: I would say, I think there’s a lot of drive from how good the other bands are. There are so many incredible Melbourne bands, and seeing them and going like, wow, it really pushes you to think outside the box.

And also, being okay with creating something different, because there are a lot of things going on that are quite avant-garde; it’s nice knowing we can do whatever we want and that it will work within the scene.

EM: Are there any bands or artists from Melbourne that you’d like to shout out?

TIM: Yes, I would love to shout out Sleepazoid; they’re a big one. George, who plays guitar in that band, produced our EP. We’re huge fans of them. Milly Strange is awesome; she’s incredible. Dumbhead is another great band. Those are the big ones for me.