Melbourne six-piece band Harmony have returned with a new record, 'Double Negative', which lead singer Tom Lyngcoln says is “more bold and more full-on” than anything they have released to date.
Harmony is the project of Tom Lyngcoln and his wife Alex. Their 2014 album 'Carpetbombing' was received with a high level of critical acclaim, but life has changed significantly for the couple during the four-year gap between 'Carpetbombing' and 'Double Negative', with the birth of their daughter as well as several other projects springing up.
“I've always found writing about something in a positive way is a lot more challenging and a lot harder to do in a way that doesn't come across as synthetic or saccharine,” Tom says, discussing the lyrical direction on the new record. It was like issuing myself a challenge: 'I'd just like to do things in a different way.'”
The first single off the album, 'I Love You', is the first “love song” the band have produced and is their most “overt statement” according to Tom. “It's pretty divisive, it's not easy to write love songs, I can tell you that.”
Loyal fans, however, will notice that songs off 'Double Negative' retain a strong connection to 'Carpetbombing' drawing from a noticeably similar vocabulary.
“I have a default vocabulary that I pick from. I don't write quickly, but the line kind of has to come to me fully complete. I try not to slave over things too much. I do have a set of words that I continuously kind of know will fit,” Tom says.
Tom says what he also consciously tried to do with 'Double Negative' is talk about love using his harsher, existing vocabulary in an attempt to fit more jarring “verbs and descriptors into things that are romantic and full of love”.
Listeners can also expect the production sound quality on 'Double Negative' to be markedly different; the band spent five days recording in the Kyneton Mechanics Hall, a big jump from their “no-fi” debut.
The Kyneton Mechanics Hall was a strategic pick, with Tom saying he “felt like we could do something different in terms of the production with Harmony”, and that the hall is an “acoustic place that suits the band”.
Previously, Tom and Alex would simply record their own demo tapes and let the rest of the band add to them at their own pace. The main struggle, according to Tom, is finding the balance between spending time with his young daughter and the band.
“I think the balance, even the band practice... I find a really hard thing. But we love it, and it's worth it so long as it doesn't impact [my daughter] at all,” he says.
In terms of touring, the band admit that with a three-year-old in tow they won't be travelling too far from home. They are set to play a string of east-coast shows in August, but these will be the only interstate shows for now “unless something particularly worthwhile comes up,” Tom says.
'Double Negative' is available now.
Harmony Australia Tour 2018
Fri 3 Aug - Street Theatre (Canberra)Sat 4 Aug - The Factory Floor (Sydney)
Sat 11 Aug - The Tote (Melbourne)
Sat 18 Aug - Sonic Masala Festival (Brisbane)
