Operation Husk

Certainly one of the more fortunate bands to come out of triple j Unearthed, Husky's debut album, Forever So, launched the folk-inspired four-piece onto the international stage, the first Australian act ever to sign to legendary indie label Sub Pop.  This was back in '11; they've since toured Europe and the USA extensively and shared the stage with the likes of Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Gotye and City & Colour, before returning home to record their second album.  When I speak to Gawenda on the phone, he's at his home in Melbourne whilst I'm hiding out in the storeroom at work.

“It's kind of what you dream of as a musician and a songwriter,” Gawenda tells of the shift in lifestyle. “Life went from being normal, in a sense… working day jobs, having a home and that sort of thing, to mostly not being at home, and home being kind of the unusual place to be.” There has always been a distinct love of Aussie music throughout Europe, but the USA is notorious for being a tough nut to crack. Whilst bands like Mumford & Sons have dominated the place with their Coldplay-in-a-cornfield brand of 'nu-folk' (ugh), one is curious to know how the understated beauty of Husky's tunes have translated to American audiences.

“It is different,” Gawenda admits. “It's also hard to talk about America as one place. It's so diverse and it's quite fragmented as well, from our point of view anyway. Our experience so far has been in some places it's just clicked and gone really well and then in other places it can be the exact opposite. In terms of our music translating, I think music can be understood or felt no matter where, no matter what the culture. Even in places where they don't speak very good English, it's not necessarily a problem. It really is like a bridge between cultures and I feel like our music has gone down well pretty much everywhere we've gone.”

Given the success the band has had since the release of their debut, there must be an added pressure involved penning the follow-up.

“Yeah, I guess there is a different kind of pressure. When I was writing those songs [for Forever So] it was very much in our own small, isolated world. The idea that people would hear the songs was, you know, it was obviously something that we hoped would happen but it was hard to believe that it would happen on any kind of scale. [But] as much as you make music for yourself, you're also making it because you want people to hear it, or we are anyway. But we also put a lot of pressure on ourselves to just make great music, and I think a lot of the time we're thinking more about that than anything else.”