Brisbane pop rockers The Halls are gearing up for the release of their latest single, 'Lemonade', with an epic launch party.
Not to be confused with the identically-titled, controversial album by Queen-Bey herself, The Halls' 'Lemonade' rips into the critical environmental issues faced by modern society and strews them across the band's glossy, gothic-pop sound.
The duo of songwriters – Bec Wolfers and close friend Ross – met in 2007, but in the past few years have been in hibernation, working hard to intertwine their creativity to produce 'Lemonade' and other songs that will be released throughout 2016. "After hearing reports about environmental issues in Australia and oil dumping in the Great Barrier Reef started happening, it just made me really angry. I also have this slightly over-blown hate for Gina Rinehart, I just think she's the epitome of evil," lead vocalist and bass player Bec explains.
"It kind of all mushed together in my brain and I wrote this song as a bit of a scathing, sarcastic examination of consumerism," she says of 'Lemonade'. "It sounds really wanker-ish, but it's about the way that we're moving towards valuing strange things like money and plastic, instead of looking after the assets we already have."Their inspirations and influences come from opposite ends of the genre spectrum, but Bec and Ross have combined their respective classic pop and heavy metal loves to produce unique songs. "I find that the vast majority of my songs are about world issues,” Bec says. “I think I have written one love song for The Halls ever, so a lot of the time the songs are about concepts, stuff that pisses me off or makes me sad or melancholy.
"I'm not a politician and I don't have a way of actually contributing, other than making some art and saying 'this shits me off, it should shit you off too'," Bec laughs.
The songwriting duo worked with sound engineer and musician Konstantin Kersting (The Belligerents) to produce 'Lemonade' in the lush, mountainous surrounds of ex-Powderfinger guitarist and songwriter Ian Haug's studio. Bec explains her and Ross' songwriting process quite simply and naturally evolves. "There is a special mojo between the four of us, especially me and Ross. I think what makes us unique is that we never had any idea of an outcome, or what kind of music we wanted to make, when we started jamming.
"It's very organic in the way that we never tried to push it into a pigeonhole or make it into [a certain] sound, we just wanted to see what naturally came out."
On stage The Halls aren't so laidback, as the duo are joined by their drummer James and guitarist Ged to complete the quartet. Without a doubt, the band's pop-rock sounds will bring audiences to their feet at their upcoming hometown gig. "I'm going a bit nuts with decorations… so there should also be fun visual running through [the show]. I'm going to video [the night] as well, so it will be a fun, multi-sensory experience," Bec says.
"I would say we're a lot more raucous than you'd expect from our recordings; we go pretty nuts. There are a lot of crazy effects and atmospheric noises used so it is usually quite an atmospheric and passionate show."
The Halls launch 'Lemonade' at the New Globe Theatre (Brisbane) 11 June.
