An Interview With Solar Halos
The debut album of Solar Halos which is going to be released on January 20 through British Devouter Records is one astonishing piece of music and its highly addictive tunes that are stuck in my player for over 2 months now were a good reason for me to have a small email chat with Nora, the guitarist and main vocalist of the band, in order to find out more about them.
Hey Solar Halos & a Happy new year! How's the first days of 2014 for You?
Thank you, Happy New Year to you as well! We have fared well this year, narrowly escaping the Polar Vortex and tornados all in one week!
The band was formed a couple of years ago, so I think a mini bio of You guys would help us all to know a bit more about You.
The three of us all have known each other for years just from living and playing in a small music-oriented town. Our bands had played shows and toured together so we were already both friends and fans. John and I first played together in Jenks Miller’s project, Horseback in 2010. We really enjoyed playing with each other so a year later John and I started another project. We jammed for a few months putting some ideas together but decided that we wanted to add bass before things got too set in stone. We immediately thought of Eddie and were spot on, it felt really natural and clicked right from the first practice at the end of 2011.
Solar Halo is an optical phenomenon and an astonishing one as fas as I can tell. Why You chose that for Your name? Are You into scientific things or something like that?
I love researching anything that catches my interest and I think I followed a path of articles from “Walpurgis Nacht” to “Broken Spectre” to “solar halos” and was really taken with the idea of ice crystals around the sun producing holy imagery. I am fascinated by the coexistence of opposites, ice with sun, and earth science with myth/religion.
You all are part of other bands also, so I would like to ask You if there's enough time for all of these projects and also to ask You if there's a choise to be made between them? You know, to choose this for something more serious and the other one only for fun or something like that.
Solar Halos is the only project I have going right now so no choices or priorities have to be made by me. Eddie is in a few other projects that are all pretty different, heavy blues, post rock and indie, so it’s more a matter of scheduling than anything. I imagine John has more things to juggle, but everything always seems to balance and fall into place.
What's the musical background of You guys, I mean, what's Your main influences?
Well, I think every heavy band has Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Blue Cheer to thank whether or not they have spent any time listening to those bands. We all probably had our most influential moments growing up learning to play and listening to music in the ‘90’s. For me that was mostly bands on Dischord Records and Kill Rock Stars like Fugazi and Universal Order of Armageddon. I know Swervedriver was influential to Eddie and Drive Like Jehu to John. I don’t think we sound like any of those bands but they definitely inform how we approach music. Right now we all listen to stuff across the board from similar styles like Graveyard and Chelsea Wolfe to totally different like Teddy Pendergrass and the Carter Family.
How would You describe Your music to someone who's never heard not a single tune of Yours?
Loud, 3-piece heavy psych with female and male vocals, sometimes light- sometimes dark, something old- something new.
Would You please tell us a bit more about Your magnificent debut album? Are You satisfied with how it sounds?
We recorded six songs, four that were on our Demos and two new ones. In the months between the demos and the album the songs evolved, especially vocally. We recorded the album at Revival Studios, a rural setting in NC with Nick Petersen whom we all have previously loved working with recording or playing together in bands. It was mastered by James Plotkin, also a great musician. We are really happy with how it all came together.
What's the lyrics about? Is there any specific concept in them?
We always write the music first then I go back and listen for the vocal melodies and lyrical imagery that the song provokes. I think the movement and structures of our songs on this album coincide with how my mind thinks spatially and geographically. All of the lyrics were inspired by images of places and scientific phenomena related to Earth.
How do You feel now that Your album will be out? Happy, anxious, relieved?
I would say happy and relieved since it seems like we recorded the songs forever ago.
The album's going to be out through Devouter Records. How did this relation started?
Our friend Scott Endres of the band MAKE sent a link of our demos to Phil Rhodes at Devouter who had released their awesome album, Trephine. We were excited and flattered that Phil wanted to work with us and started figuring out the details of a cross Atlantic release.
Are satisfied with the guys at Devouter and shall we except more to come from Your collaboration?
Phil is absolutely amazing, he works so hard for the music he is really passionate about. It’s really weird to have never met in person, or that he has never seen us play live, hopefully that will change in the future!
Any plans for touring in the coming Spring/summer seasons? Any possibility of You coming to play live in Europe?
We don’t have plans at the moment, but would love to tour Europe if we could figure it out financially.
It's still the first days of the year, so I couldn't resist to ask You about Your favorite tunes of 2013 and also, if there's any band or album You're looking forward to listening to in 2014?
Eddie and I have both listen to a lot of Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats “Mind Control” this year. William Onyeabor “Who is William Onyeabor?” has been on super-rotation at my house. Chris Forsyth “Solar Motel” is also great experimental guitar music to listen to while writing interview responses. I am really looking forward to the new Pontiak record that also releases this month.
Now that You've made Your first step in the music world, what's Your next goal and Your ambitions in general for the band?
We hope to continue to grow creatively and technically as a band and figure out a way to keep releasing more albums and to tour internationally as well.
Solar Halos: Facebook / Official Website
Devouter Records: Official Website
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