Jaala
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

Jaala

jaala2.jpg

“BIGSOUND was so good,” she says. “But there’s so much on, you really need to run around to see everything. It’s a little bit luck of the draw. Someone who really likes you might not actually be there at your showcase, so it’s luck and hard work. It was fun just to be out of the usual traps, up in Brissy with the nice weather. We really had a wonderful time.

“You could think of it like a sell-out thing or something, but you name your favourite band, they’re going to have a team of people working behind them. That’s just the reality. If you can somehow manage to accumulate a bunch of fucking sick cunts who want to help you do the thing you want to do, I don’t think there’s anything to be too worried about. As long as you keep your wits about you and don’t play into it all too much. Just have fun and keep it real. At the end of the day, those people wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the music. You don’t really need to suck up anyone’s arse. They’re there to see you play, and I think maybe bands forget that.”

It’s no surprise Hard Hold has already courted such interest. Jaala herself is refreshingly direct in conversation, simultaneously charming and blunt. Given Hard Hold is a breakup record, it seems fitting that this translates into her work. I challenge you to find any other contemporary release that incorporates so many shifts in mood and colour, not to mention time signatures, while still managing to sound raw and accessible.

“It’s basically a live album,” she says. “We never played the songs more than five or six times to get the take that we were happy with. To be honest, we didn’t have the money to do a huge album in a studio and take lots of time doing overdubs. My hope for the album was that it would be what it sounds like to hear us live. That was the goal – to get what it sounds like live, but maybe with even fewer fuck ups. So we recorded the tracks in two or three days, and after that it was me and Paul [Bender, producer] doing vocals.

“For me, it takes a long time to write a song. Sometimes it’s a night or two weeks, but most of the songs on the album took months to write. Then there’s also the time with the band, not only for them to learn how to play the songs, but to add their own parts, to add their colour.”

While Hard Hold is still the breakup album Jaala first intended to write, now that all is said and done, its purpose has changed somewhat. As fresh ears start interpreting this kaleidoscopic, sometimes despairing journey, it has evolved from simply being a register of Jaala’s own emotion and energy.

“I don’t know. There are times in your life when you do just need to hear some fucking sad songs,” she says. “These songs are definitely a little portal back in time to where I was when I was experiencing all of that. Now it’s not really about my experiences, it’s about how other people experience them.”

BY ADAM NORRIS