Premiere: Hiboux Release Video For 'Standing Waves' (+ Interview)

Still riding high on the rush of releasing their debut full-length album Command The Earth To Swallow Me Up in March, Wellington post-rock crew Hiboux have crafted an epic music video for album highlight 'Standing Waves'. The video comes just as the band is about to embark on a tour of New Zealand and Australia, so to learn more we shot the breeze with bandmembers Lester Litchfield, Tom Doesburg and Bern Stock to discuss owls, their imminent tour and Wellingtonian wizardry. Check out the video below and keep scrolling to read the interview...

UTR: Hiboux is French for Owls, which in Ancient Greek traditions accompanied Athena, the goddess of wisdom. What does the avian mean to you?

Lester: Owls are mysterious, wordless spirits of the night that represent the essence of music. Also the band likes the 'x' at the end I think, as it seems exciting and different.

Tom: Niege from Alcest told us that Hiboux was a cute word in French. I thought that was a nice thing to say.

You’re about to embark on a hectic trans-Tasman tour to celebrate the release of your debut album Command The Earth To Swallow Me Up. Where in New Zealand are you most looking forward to playing?

Lester: I'm most looking forward to playing Dunedin in NZ. As a Scottish descendant, I am drawn to unpleasant places with character.

Tom: We have a special light show planned for the Wellington gig. This is a first for us, although we did play a gig with an owl documentary projected in the background. It got rave reviews and people said the music was ok as well.

One of your Australian dates is at rock 'n' roll hot spot Frankie’s Pizza in Sydney. The thought of receiving cheesy, doughy goodness in exchange for playing post-rock seems like a ticking-all-the-boxes kind of arrangement. How did you suss that show out?

Bern: We were able to hook up the Frankie's gig through an old friend of mine Sasha, whom I used to play music with in a band called Wormholes Exist in Sydney. He's a full time music teacher at Big Music and performs in one originals band (Psycho Smiley) and two covers bands (Stage Invaders, Royale With Cheese) and has a lot of musical connections in Sydney. He's been very helpful with both Sydney gigs so we're quite lucky to have him batting for us.

Lester: In Australia, I have high hopes for the pizza - post-rock swap. If we're good we might get prawns on it.

Today you're unveiling the video for your track 'Standing Waves'. From what I understand this is a concept in physics where a waveform remains fixed at certain points but can vibrate to maximum amplitude in between these points - much like what can occur inside of a synthesizer. Is this what the song title is alluding to or is there a deeper metaphor at play here?

Lester: The title came from our drummer noticing some beautiful wave form clouds on a flight back from one of our Auckland shows. it has a certain energy, which I try to reflect with the delay pedal feeding back on itself.

Bern: Standing Waves is most certainly alluding to the scientific principle you referred to. Standing Waves occur in many places in nature, from sound to light to atomic structure. From the elemental to the complex, these patterns can be seen in more places in the world around us than we often realise. It's the connection between these fundamental patterns of life that we're drawing together by way of this song.

Tom: That’s great imagery to fit how the song has ended up.

There are some pretty awesome light displays going on in 'Standing Waves'. Are one of you also a light wizard or did you get some outside help with that side of the production?

Bern: This lighting rig was built from scratch by a colleague at Weta who has a long history of working with stage lighting. He even wrote the software that interfaces with the rig. It really is an amazing bit of gear. You can even play animations through the vertical LED poles which is how we used it on the "Standing Waves" clip.

Tom: Wellington is full of people who work during the day and follow their passions at night. We are lucky to have friends that happen to be wizards.


Hiboux Album Release Tour

Friday 2nd June, Space Academy, Christchurch
Saturday 3rd June, Re:Fuel, Dunedin
Saturday 10th June, Wine Cellar, Auckland
Saturday 1st July, Valhalla, Wellington
Thursday 20th July, Frankie's Pizza, Sydney
Friday 21st July, The Townie, Sydney
Saturday 22nd July, The Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar, Melbourne

Score tickets to the New Zealand shows HERE at UTR