O’Lovely emerged in late 2008, eventually working up some attention with track “A Different Day”. Christchurch based up till a few months ago, they are finally releasing their long promised album Constellations from their new home of Auckland. We caught up with lead singer Laura about the new album due out Monday 22nd August.
What’s the story behind the name ‘Constellations’?
We didn't have the title from the start of the recording. It came about much later. We would come up with something then get sick of it... but the name ‘Constellations’ stuck. We were wanting a theme for the album and we thought of a lot of things, but the space one just stuck. Seemed right when we were listening to the tracks and trying to think of ideas.
What does the album sound like?
The album sounds dreamy, spacey, some songs are flowing and floaty and others are loud with clusters of sounds blending together.
Tell us about the cover art...
The cover art is a picture of me Perry and Tim amongst the stars. Harley Jones did the artwork for the album.
Has the music changed much since you moved to Auckland?
It hasn't ‘changed’ as such but we've definitely grown as a band and feel like we've found our "sound" – it’s just been a natural progression. I guess living together helped us musically bond as well, We've finally settled down and are starting to write new songs which feel more cohesive in a more relaxed environment which is nice.
What was your inspiration as you created the album?
There have been a number of things that have inspired us throughout the album process, for us as individuals and as a group, I guess mainly people, personal experiences and small things that come with everyday life, and big things… friends, family, love and loss - it's all in there.
Who’s helping you release the album?
We have a lot of support from people, but helping with the release are Rhythmethod, who are distributing it for us; and Native Tongue, who are giving us some guidance. Other than that we are doing everything ourselves.
How did you record it?
We recorded in Dunedin. We all worked during the week so we drove down [from Christchurch] for mostly two days at a time over a couple of months to record. We would drive down after work on either a Friday night and arrive at 12am, or drive down as early as we could in the morning and start recording straight away on a Sat afternoon… it was a really rewarding process as we had to go through so much to get the recordings done. Dale [Cotton, engineer] was amazing and did everything he could to make us feel welcome. After we finished the recordings we would email back and forth with Dale to get the mixing right.
And what was the songwriting process?
Every song was written differently... in some cases I would come up with a melody and we would jam it and it would take 10 minutes to learn, while with others, Perry would write the structure and guitar/bass parts and learn them. And two songs on the album we wrote in the studio and recorded in one or two takes.
Are you returning to Christchurch for any release shows?
We sure are - we are playing at the Brewery on the 27th of August. We haven't played in Christchurch since the move to Auckland, we are really looking forward to it!
How does the Auckland music scene compare with Christchurch?
It's different… it has more going on at the moment. Christchurch has an awesome music scene, some really good musicians and bands are always forming there. I think with Christchurch being so small the music scene really sticks together, the bands help each other out and are always playing together. A few of the people who were playing in bands when we were there have moved here too. It's quite the same in Auckland, people are always keen to hear new music, and are pretty supportive. It's awesome.
Any other cities you’d particularly like to play in at some point?
Not really. Other countries? YES!
And finally, what’s next after you put out the album?
Touring? We are already talking about putting together another album… keen to go to Australia and play some shows later in the year.
