‘Save, record, repeat’: inside a musical cottage industry with Halves

The devil is in the detail, they say. For Dublin band Halves, those details lie not only in the elaborate, complex structures of their music but in every aspect of their setup, from the songwriting through to their immersive live performances.

Brian Cash and Tim Czerniak – who, along with Tim's brother Elis, formed Halves in 2006 – have few doubts as to how they're perceived. "It's a running joke that we're a band of three people but it takes nine people to play our songs on stage," Cash admits. "We tend to do things quite over the top but that's what we like."

They're not the only ones who like it; their debut It Goes, It Goes (Forever & Ever) was nominated for the 2010 Choice Music Prize and the upward trajectory of their career should receive another boost with the release of second album, Boa Howl.

Their music dodges easy classification and the careful fusion of post-rock, modern classical, ambient and experimental rock is all part of the Halves’ aesthetic. Sonics are paramount. 1950s doo-wop group The Flamingos and choppy left-field hip hop trio Clouddead are among those cited as influences on the album’s production style, so when it came to recording the new material the band decamped to the Svenska Grammofon Studion in Gothenburg for an intense two weeks. According to Czerniak, the technical appeal of the famous studio – it houses a renowned Neve analog mixing console that was previously owned by Queen – was not the only reason for the journey east.

“When you’re working at home you’re almost too comfortable – there’s a tendency to not bury yourself in it. When you’re away, you’re in a new place, you’ve got new people, new gear to deal with, and you’re there for one purpose: to record an album. You really get engrossed in it – it makes for a better, more creative process.”

Cash agrees. "We looked around for studios that still record on tape, which Ireland is not great for. Sweden had all the right things. We weren't in this glamorous part of Gothenburg – it's in an industrial estate so the landscape didn't inspire us but the trip inspired us. It was like we made this big deal to our family and friends about going to Sweden, so let's come back with an amazing album and both times [they recorded their debut at Hotel2Tango in Montréal] I think we passed, so it's something we'll do again. Hello Borneo!"

Working 12- to 14-hour days, aided by Canadian harpist Elaine Kelly-Canning, local string players and a "genius" of a studio engineer, they returned home requiring just two vocal lines on the song Tanager Peak, which were provided by Halves fan Gemma Hayes. The result is an exquisite-sounding album that recalls early Sigur Ros crossed with Radiohead's more recent output.

Writing and recording are only two elements of the band’s work; from manufacturing and distribution (the album will be released through their own Hate Is The Enemy label) to marketing and booking gigs, how does the band divide up the additional responsibilities?

“Brian looks after bookings and PR; I’m logistics and money,” Czerniak says. And Elis? “Well, he has to do all the string arrangements.”

“I’d prefer if we didn’t have to do the business stuff,” Cash elaborates. “If I could just play music and do gigs that would be amazing but it’s a necessity. In many ways we’re like a small cottage industry.”

There are alternative options available for independent artists nowadays, especially when it comes to raising much-needed capital though crowd-funding initiatives such as Fund It, but this isn’t a route Halves have chosen to date. “We have no moral thing against it,” Cash ssays. “For us, since we booked our first sessions as 14-year-olds, we just saved up our money. It’s all we know. Save, record, repeat.”

That core ideology on the value of hard work and the emphasis on control over how, what and where their music is produced and consumed has influenced another of the band's decisions: to remove Boa Howl from music-streaming service Spotify. "Their whole campaign is based on the idea that you don't have to buy music," Czerniak says. " 'You'll never have to buy music again' is a bad message."

It’s a topic Cash also feels strongly about. “It’s not me as a musician; it’s me as a music buyer. I like buying records. To suggest to people that you’ll never have to buy music again is like, ‘Hey, wasn’t it so shit when you had to pay for music?’ Don’t go promoting the idea that buying music is a laborious chore. So until that message changes our albums won’t be on Spotify.”

Bearing that in mind, what expectations do they have for Boa Howl? Cash's response is typically self-effacing and matter-of-fact. "It's only going to reach the people who have their ears open. As long as people acknowledge that we attempted to do something different, whether they like it or not, that's fine. We have no monetary or chart or award expectations.

“The reward is genuinely seeing people getting excited about it. If that’s someone posting an excited tweet or seeing people recommend the album to others, then that’s enough for us.”

Boa Howl will be reviewed in The Ticket tomorrow. ahomeforhalves.com