Why Belle Haven Are Done Playing Mr Nice Guy

There is often an uncomfortable downtime for bands in between the completion of an album and its actual release. For Melbourne post-hardcore five-piece Belle Haven, due to circumstances and the actions of other people out of their control, this has been taken to absolute extremes for their soon to be released sophomore album You, Me And Everything In Between, as frontman David De La Hoz explains from his home in M-town.

"In our case, we'd finished the record in December 2015," he reveals, "So it's been a little while." So that's a year and a half? "Yeah," he confirms, "Our mixing engineer decided to put us on the back-burner and delay the process a heck of a lot, so we had a pretty negative experience there, and unfortunately it's bled some poison into the relationship we had with the guy. But that's the way of the music world sometimes."

"One of our friends, who we employed to shoot a music video for us, legitimately tried to take our money and run. That was a massive turning point for us."

In fact, this, and some other similar incidents that have occurred in the band's recent history, has signalled a subtle but definite change in attitude in the band, and in the way they approach their everyday management and activities, and this is reflected in much of the new album's content.

"We've always been known as 'Oh Belle Haven, they're really nice guys'," he says, "And we love that, and we want to continue with that always, but it's started to work against us over the past 18 months. We were so nice that people would lie to us, use us, trick us, steal from us, and we would just keep it to ourselves. It got to the point where one of our friends, who we employed to shoot a music video for us, legitimately tried to take our money and run. That was a massive turning point for us, it made me very angry, coz I'd known that guy for years. These things have just changed the way the band works."

In what way? "We still strive to be nice people, but with this record, it's a statement, that says 'we're nice, but don't cross us.' This whole record was a way for us to change the way we view these situations."

De La Hoz also wants other bands to be able to learn from the negative experiences that Belle Haven has had, that there are some serious charlatans out there in the music industry and in everyday life, and to protect yourself at all times. "Hopefully other bands can read these interviews or listen when I've spoken about it, and really take it on board that their craft, their creative babies are special and not to be tampered with," he says with conviction.

The band and their fans very much hope that those times and incidents are behind them, and now they are set to finally release the album and head out on tour. "Yep, we're ready to go and we are so excited!" He enthuses, "We've never really done a headline tour, this is a new world for us and to have Melbourne sell out already, it's just crazy."