World Where You Live

Seated at the Mushroom HQ, Husky cousins/bandmates/producers – frontman Husky Gawenda and keyboardist Gideon Preiss – have been busily signing CD slicks, which are now spread out all over the boardroom table to dry. If the pen doesn’t work properly and smudges appear, do the boys feel bad for the fan who will wind up with that one? “Yeah!” they reply in unison. Preiss reveals he has “such insecurities around [his] signature” because it’s been around since he opened up his first “Dollarmite” bank account.

They’ve perfected the casually thrown together look – Preiss in chocolate brown printed shirt and cardigan; Gawenda in a blue vest that could easily be hand knitted – and both have long, unruly (but shiny clean) hair.

Although the band gave themselves deadlines when working towards album number two, Gawenda commends, “The label was much more about, ‘Do what you need to do to make it good’.” Preiss adds, “It’s always worth a bit of extra time to get it right.” Husky worked with number one on their mixer wishlist, Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Band Of Horses), for Ruckers Hill. Preiss confirms this collaboration was made possible courtesy of “the World Wide Web” and Gawenda praises, “He was great to work with, really easy”. “‘Cause we were on tour some of the time, depending where we were it was five or six in the morning when he’d finish a mix,” the frontman continues. “So he’d send me a text message to wake me up – I had it on a particular ring that was really loud and long. And so we’d wake up and spend two or three hours listening, going back and forth, and tweaking things. He’d upload it, we’d listen, we’d correspond, but the mixes always came back great, like, very close anyway. So it wasn’t a difficult process.”

On whether they intentionally listen to music by other artists while composing, Gawenda offers, “There are things that I would purposely not listen to because I think I find that it can end up kind of throwing you off the scent a little bit, and there are other artists that I will listen to if I’m looking for a certain texture or a certain instrument or something. If there’s a band where I really like the way they create sounds, I would seek them out. But there are also writers I would try to avoid listening to; if it was a case of listening to Leonard Cohen a lot whilst trying to write a record, I wouldn’t do that because he’s the great, he’s the guy – so it’s not really conducive to your own writing, I don’t think. Do you agree?”

“I do feel like music and songs inspire me the most in my writing,” Preiss shares. When asked whether he finds composing on piano or guitar offers more freedom, the keyboardist contributes, “Both instruments have infinite possibilities, but you write differently on different instruments, there’s no doubt about that – they trigger different feelings in you and you experience the instruments very differently.”

“I think that’s the key word, is ‘trigger’,” Gawenda stresses. “They trigger different things in you but in the end what you’re triggering is your imagination, you know, and whatever gets that going the best is gonna be the best thing for you. And that’s limitless… Some people write in their heads, they don’t even use the instrument. There’s that Jason Becker guy. He’s a guy who ended up with ALS [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis] it’s the Lou Gehrig's disease. So he was this great guitarist as a kid, and got ALS, and he can barely move anymore – he can only move his eyes. But he composes, he has someone who sits at the computer and he communicates to them through his eyes and tells them what notes to write into the programme. And he composes pieces of music all in his head, he can’t play an instrument. So, you know, anything’s possible. He’s an inspiration in that way, that’s for sure.”

Minutes into the album’s opening title track, Husky’s harmonies evoke the Finn brothers. “I take that as a big compliment,” Gawenda acknowledges. “Growing up, my sister loved Crowded House. Actually, Neil Finn lived around the corner from us.” Preiss queries, “In East St Kilda?” Gawenda nods. “I’m not sure if it’s still his house, but it was this beautiful big old rambling mansion with these gorgeous overgrown gardens. You couldn’t get in, you could sort of peer over the fence and, as a kid, like, me and my sister used to go down there and sort of try and see if we could see ‘im.” Unfortunately this resulted in “not a single sighting”.

“My sister’s a singer and we also grew up together singing,” Gawenda goes on. “We sang a lot of Crowded House songs together: Fall At Your Feet and Weather [With You]… My sister played those records so they were always around – those songs were always floating down the hallways and I just think they wrote some of the great Australian songs.”

We discuss Crowded House’s Farewell To The World concert, which took place outside Sydney Opera House in November, 1996. “I remember watching that on telly,” Gawenda recalls. “I think it was broadcast live.” As well as many tears shed in the crowd, the frontman points out there were also “lots of hugs”. Do Husky ever notice tears on their fans’ faces? “I’m definitely touched by the reactions of people who are at our shows,” Gawenda tells. “When I see that they’re moved in any sort of way – whether that’s a joyful expression or whatever it is – I’m touched and sort of surprised, you know, that what we’re doing is having that effect on them. It’s an awesome thing.”

When Husky hear other artists covering their songs, Gawenda enthuses, “I really get a kick outta that.” Preiss concurs, “Me too,” before Gawenda elaborates: “It’s the strangest experience, ‘cause you really do hear the song differently: you hear the song, as much as possible, as if it’s not yours and that’s a really interesting experience.”

To read the full interview head to theMusic.com.au 

WHAT: Ruckers Hill (Liberation)

WHEN & WHERE: 7 Nov, The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine; 8 Nov, Karova Lounge; 28 Nov, Queenscliff Music Festival; 29 Nov, The Hi-Fi; 30 Dec, Beyond The Valley, Phillip Island Circuit

NSW

WHEN & WHERE: 13 Nov, Oxford Arts Factory; 14 Nov, The Small Ballroom; 15 Nov, Transit Bar, Canberra; 16 Nov, Brass Monkey; 20 Nov, Mullum Music Festival, Mullumbimby

BRIS

WHEN & WHERE: 21 Nov, The Spotted Cow; 22 Nov, The Zoo

WA

WHEN & WHERE: 4 Dec, Dunsborough Tavern; 5 Dec, The Bakery; 6 Dec, Prince Of Wales