'Tis The Season

Sleigh Bells are currently at work on their third album. The Brooklyn-based duo have, according to singer Alexis Krauss, “been extremely productive” whilst beavering away at the follow-up to 2012's Reign Of Terror.

“This record is nowhere near as cohesive as Reign Of Terror,” says the 27-year-old New Yorker, “which was the product of a very dark period in our lives, specifically in [guitarist/producer] Derek [Miller]'s life. His father passed away, and his mother was diagnosed with cancer; so there was a lot of personal turmoil, a lot of pain in his life. Reign Of Terror was definitely a very cathartic record, in the sense that we made it as a way of healing a lot of those wounds.

“When we were finishing Reign Of Terror, the last track we did was Comeback Kid. And Comeback Kid is the most representative of the direction that we've headed now, with this new record. Obviously, the record is much more dynamic than one song. We don't feel like we're constrained by this one particular dynamic, this one particular expectation; we feel like we're crafting a record that's chaotic at some points, but, at others, soulful, or tranquil, or bombastic. We got a lot of the heaviness off our chest, and we're going forward in a direction that's a bit more effervescent; a lot more focused on melodies, a lot less focused on heavy guitar sounds. Things in our lives are much better this time around, so we've almost naturally made a much brighter, happier record.”

With the as-yet-untitled set close to finished, Sleigh Bells will take a break from it to return to Australia, playing Big Day Outs across the country. Krauss is excited about the opportunity of playing in front of audiences who may not be au fait with the duo's oeuvre, but heeds this warning to the unsuspecting: “Live, we're a pretty polarising band. If you can't handle volume, if you don't like extremes, then you shouldn't come to one of our shows.”

Sleigh Bells' pursuit of extremes is part of the duo's live metier. “We want to create an environment that is chaotic-but-fun, and full of energy,” Krauss enthuses. “I get really depressed when we play a show and the kids are just standing there with their arms crossed. Obviously it's not the end of the world, but I take it very personally. I see it as a reflection of my inability to do what I should be doing.

“We've tried to create an experience that's very much sensory overload. We have an incredible lighting designer, and we have a lot of lights. We know that you can't just make it this crazy loud barrage of volume for 60 minutes, that gets tedious; and having two records, now, we have a wide dynamic range of sounds we can present. But it's important to us that it feels almost like overwhelming, and that, at peak moments, it's really, really loud.”

Sleigh Bells made their name via volume. Their early recordings – especially their 2010 debut LP, Treats – were mastered so loud to the point that they were all too far in-the-red; drowning their bubblegum melodies and booming bottom-end in overdriven distortion.

“When we were recording those songs for Treats, we literally just turned up the master volume so everything was clipping, and that's where you got all that distortion from,” Krauss recalls. “Our production used volume in this stylistic way, and, obviously, in the live context we've always been drawn to volume. We have a lot of low-end in our tracks. Derek and I love going to shows where you can feel the bass rattling in your chest. We're a loud band.”

Sleigh Bells will be playing the following dates:

Friday 18 January - Big Day Out, Sydney NSW
Saturday 19 January - The Metro Theatre, Sydney NSW
Sunday 20 January - Big Day Out, Gold Coast QLD
Wednesday 23 January - Billboard The Venue, Melbourne VIC
Friday 25 January - Big Day Out, Adelaide SA
Saturday 26 January - Big Day Out, Melbourne VIC
Monday 28 January - Big Day Out, Claremont WA