Digging In

Hailer's latest release, Another Way, is a taut affair that emphasises the pop aspects of their writing without shedding the psych underpinnings. “Reviews have mentioned that there are darker songs at the front and end and bright ones in the middle, but it was pretty organic” Spence says, when asked about putting the album together. “We never really set out to make something sound a certain way. Songs kind of just evolve over time and then they end up sounding a little bit different. I guess that's just the sort of band we are – we don't fit into a specific sound or genre or whatever. We kind of play and we end with a different mix of songs on an album, but hopefully they all tie-in together to make something good.”

The road between Hailer's debut album and their latest release, Another Way, has been a somewhat bumpy one. Things started off well: the addition of a new guitarist, Pete Beringer, who also happened to be a studio engineer, gave the band the freedom to play with their sound, working on their new tracks in a studio without the time limits and costs that normally implies. “It's so much easier when you don't have the cost, six-hundred dollars a day or however much you spend on a studio, over your head,” Spence admits.

A promising start ended up interrupted by injury though, as Beringer broke his shoulder partway through the recording, but Spence seems happy to take the bad with the good, now that the album is out. “That kind of put the brakes on things,” he acknowledges. “But on the plus side, I think it let us explore the songs a lot more, so it kind of… we ended up a little different in that respect, because we just had time to work on it and really, you can never finish a song, you'll always be tinkering with it if you have no deadlines.”

That process of tinkering continues into the live environment for Hailer, as the songs continue to change and evolve. “I guess we've always been, not a jam band, but there's always been that psych influence, so we play the songs a little differently, we'll play extended pieces here and there. We mix it up, keep it fresh. I hope people get more from the live shows and the live version of songs than just hearing a well-replicated album. That's something I really like, when a band adds more to what they've done on a record live. I think it makes the experience a lot better.”

Hailer are heading out across Australia over the next few months, but looking further forward, the plan is to head over and test the waters in the US. Spence mentions that they've sent the new album over to American College radio and there are around 120 stations that have picked it up already. He points to the bigger and more diverse market and is hopeful that it will prove easier to break through with what he sees as greater competition outside of the major market. There's no rush though, and Spence suggests that the band are happy to take their time exploring the country as they tour.

“We'll just get a van and play around. We've got a few things happening over there at the moment, so we'll see [how it goes], but it's not like a ten-show tour over fourteen days or whatever. We'll probably go over for three months and get into it.”