Husky Do

Husky have crafted a remarkable debut album. It's assured, but still ambitious and terrifically unique: anything it does sound like is an association the young band should feel rather good about anyway. Their debut Forever So recalls shades of the vocal interplay and Amish orchestration made famous by new label-mates and fellow folk-revivalists Fleet Foxes, but then those similarities meet something darker, and a little sleepier, and perhaps a little less regretful.  The music they make is a kind of folky chamber pop, with nods, in kind, to the Beach Boys.

But it's a crime and a disservice to describe a band using only comparisons; especially so when it comes to Husky. No, the Melburnian quartet are far more a refreshing and enriching presence upon the country's music scene than they are simply a canny recollection of their influences.

There's a vocal that opens the Forever So that's so unassuming and yet so stark; profound in its simple beauty, delicate like you can barely fathom. The band's sound across the record carries this same exquisite deftness of elocution; their melodies, their evocations; they all have this wonderful, ghostly feeling of being 'unadorned'; of being somehow dreamlike, and yet earthen. There's a real softness to them too, and, in the quiet of that softness, one comes to terms with the Husky aesthetic. It's that they're not mild, but restrained; exquisitely reserved. Their instrumentation is rich, but you hear it only through a deep fog. It's that softness which says things to the listener like 'this is effortless.'

Last October, the album came out here. This year, with the thanks of Sub Pop Records, it's going global.

“Relatively it's new, and definitely for the rest of the world it's brand new, so I don't know,” keyboardist Gideon Priess ponders about the 'shine' of a new thing wearing off; of the band being 'over' the excitement of the record's local release. “We've really been focusing on getting it out [to] the rest of the world, which is happening from May through July. It's been a pretty wild run. We've been on the road for pretty much all of that time.”

He speaks with the dazed cadence of a man in a whirlwind; a man who's had little time to sit, and consider his sudden success.

“The whole Sub-Pop signing was a bit of a thrill,” he offers, continuing. “That was very exciting; we spent two days with the crew there in Seattle [just] hanging out in the office, and meeting all the guys who're going to be working our record – records! – over the next few years.”

He sighs, happily, still a little awestruck by it all.

The signing to Sub Pop is a particularly significant achievement. Sub Pop's esteemed roster houses bands like Fleet Foxes and Beach House, and before them, the likes of grunge legends Nirvana, and Soundgarden. Piling prestige upon that further, Husky are in fact the first ever Australian band to be signed to the famous label.

“We feel very honoured, and humbled,” Priess nods, too modest for more.

From strength to strength, Husky recently worked also with music-video director Brendan Cook – of Gotye's Heart's A Mess; of The Temper Trap's Science of Fear – on their single The Woods.

“Oh, that was awesome,” Priess says, perking up. “It was the first time we've worked with a really professional crew. It was shot in one day, shot on a green-screen, which was new for all of us. And Brendan's so wonderful to work with; such a sweet guy who's so talented, and also very clear and direct with what he wanted. [It was us who] sought out him, because he'd done other clips that we loved, and he's so strong on the animation, on the visual aspect of things, so we were really thrilled to be working with him.”

And just how important is the band's visual, promotional aesthetic for Husky? One's mind drifts to their album cover. It's some blue, watercolour Vishnu by way of a peacock; a mix of something alien, but with a texture that's organic: music and the cosmos and nature and all things blurry in-between.

“It's very important for all of us,” Priess agrees solemnly. “We've put a lot of energy into all those sorts of things – like the artwork – the same [with] any of our merchandise, and all of our clips. The aesthetic of a band is so important. It's something you relate to the music; it's part of the whole deal, and the vibe, and the sound of the band. So we take that stuff seriously, definitely.”

That all that effort – designing the band, actualising their intentions – has resulted in such an impressive debut, it's quite a marvellous thing. Husky are now an entity; more of a physical presence than ever before. They're definable. They're around. They're coming quickly to the fore.

“You know, we're pretty excited with how it's been received, and worked out,” Priess adds, happily. “I don't think we ever imagined that it would be received so well. It was made on a low budget, and it was made at a time when we didn't really have any name for ourselves as a band. We were doing shows around Melbourne, and we were trying to do tours around the [but] we were basically unknown. So it's been really heart-warming.

“And does [the record] represent what we're about? Absolutely. We poured a lot of heart and soul, and a lot of time and energy into that record, and we really slaved over everything. Nothing was overlooked, or [not] considered in the making of the record and we spent almost a year making it, and we really gave ourselves up to that process. And I think, the album, it's a really good indication of where we were at at that time, and I think it represents our sound, as well; we're really proud of it.”

There's an indication in his voice that the album is compartmentalised now by the band as being a thing of the past; as being something they're already moving away from.

“Again, we're very proud of it… and a lot of what we do at the moment is [work on] bringing the album to the live setting, so in that sense the songs are still very fresh for us, because we're constantly working on really performing them, and bringing them to the live setting as well as we can, and really capturing the essence of the songs and hopefully getting across the depth of those songs. And so, for us, they're still very much alive, those songs.

“But that being said,” he adds, “we're already working on new material, and we're starting to think about what sort of directions we can go for our new album… But that'll be a little while off, still. We've got more tours to do overseas, and we've got the album to be released overseas, too.”