Bellusira

Melbourne alternative rock five- piece Bellusira had a pretty damn memorable last half of 2010: they released their latest single Closer To Me , and launched it with an extremely successful show at The Northcote Social Club in August. The single also then received solid airplay on commercial radio across Melbourne and elsewhere. Plus, of course, the band toured internationally for the first time, completing a highly successful tour of New Zealand in October. They then conceived, filmed and released the slick and spectacular video for the song, which has already received rave reviews from various quarters. Essentially the last six months have been a highly productive time for this ambitious and talented act.

According to feisty lead vocalist Crystal Ignite, however, all this ceaseless activity marks merely the beginning of a lengthy run for the band, and 2011 is actually set to dwarf the already sizable achievements made in 2010. “Absolutely,” she agrees emphatically, “hopefully the best is yet to come. It’s exciting; I think 2011 will be really, really exciting and I’m hoping that the fruits of all the hard labour will start to come through. That’s what I think 2011 will be for us.”

The band launch the video for Closer To Me at The East Brunswick Club this Friday night, with Self Is A Seed, Fading Hour and Anna Salen providing able-bodied support. Anyone reading this who hasn’t as yet seen the video should get themselves onto Youtube without delay, it’s one of the best music videos produced by a local independent band, and quite simply badarse with its eye-popping visuals, and depictions of destruction and mayhem. Crystal explains happily that the band had an absolute blast making it (if you’ll pardon the pun), but also contains a deeper message for those who seek a stronger meaning in the art of heavy music.

“It was so much fun,” she enthuses. “I thought it would be more like recording. I love recording, but it can be a tedious process. You know, you’re sitting there for ages, waiting for other people’s parts, and doing the same monotonous things, and it can get, well, a little bit monotonous. But the film clip was just awesome fun from start to finish.

“I think it was a 12 or 14 hour day, but it was just amazing fun, and I was really surprised that the boys in the band, they don’t have a background in acting or anything and I thought it might be a bit more challenging for them… but they fit right in as if they’ve been doing it for ages. So we all had a ball, and I just can’t wait to do it again.

“The concept is something that we came up with as a band,” she continues, “we sat down with a pen and paper and jotted down what we thought, our ideas. I wanted us to have a clip that was metaphorical for the story that I’d created with the lyrics. But we also wanted to have something that would be interesting for people to watch, and something original, something that Bellusira came up with… we’re all into, in our own way, spirituality, and it represents the love between two people.

“Because it’s about the world ending, and knowing that the world’s going to end, and realising what actually matters, and it’s not anything material. It’s about the relationships that you form here, that’s what’s important.

“For me, I would be devastated about losing my soul mate. But that’s the setting, it’s the end of the world and we’re in kind of a Tank Girl -esque world where there’s all this destruction, and you can feel the buildings burning. But it’s all about love.”

Crystal and the band have extremely high hopes for the song and the video, that it will elevate their profile significantly on the local, national and international rock scene. And why not, it’s a very accessible, catchy song with a deeper meaning behind it that many people can relate to, and the video would stand proudly beside most rock clips that are released these days. “Obviously our aim is as high as you can possibly go,” Crystal explains. “We believe the video is good enough, it measures up, it’s as good as anything else that’s out there. We hope that this will be the break for us to get to the next level.

“I think it’s already going on a path that would indicate that that might happen. And I just hope that the industry’s real about it, and values it for what it is. I think it deserves to be on Video Hits and all that jazz. We’ll be doing everything we can, and our publicist will be pumping it… it would be wonderful if Bellusira could break through there, and pave the way for all those other awesome bands that are out there.”

Beyond the video launch Bellusira have an almost overwhelming schedule for the rest of 2011, including further national touring and the completion of their debut album. “Yeah, we’ll be touring, it’s gonna be quite a big tour, a full national tour,” she says. “We’ll be away almost every weekend for a period of two months. We’re going all over the place, Canberra, capital cities, regional areas…we’re really focusing on that, and our album.

“We’ll be going in [to the studio] in February to record a chunk of it, and then we’ll record the other chunk around May. It’d be really nice to have it ready for mid year.”

BELLUSIRA host the launch for their excellent single Closer To Me’s video and DVD at The East Brunswick Club this Friday January 14 with help from special guests Self Is A Seed, Fading Hour and Anna Salen. Tickets on sale through The East box office, 9388 9794, or via eastbrunswickclub.com. Closer To Me is out now.