>>PREVIEW
HINTERLAND
Thursday, August 3
Broken City
It’s been said that if you want something done right, you had better do it yourself. Vancouver’s Hinterland learned that lesson first hand.
When the ethereal five-piece cut their first album, the breathy vocals of Michaela Galloway backed by the band’s lush, swirling guitar pop caught the ear of Detroit’s Hybrid Electric Records. The label head was enthusiastic when it came to dealing with the band, but after Under the Waterline was unceremoniously released in 2003, Hinterland had doubts about Hybrid Electric’s commitment to the project.
"We had a lot of questions and we had a hard time getting them answered," says guitarist John Lucas. "Like what’s happening with our album. Is it selling? Is it in these stores? Has it actually been sent to all the people who were supposed to get it?"
Since Hybrid Electric was essentially a one-man operation, working out of a different country, it made communication a bit of a challenge. Still, Galloway was frustrated that since Under the Waterline was on a U.S. label, it had to be sold as an import, even in hometown record stores. The album went on to be critically acclaimed (by those who heard it), but when it came time to follow it up with The Picture Plane earlier this year, Hinterland knew things would have to be different. With the future of Hybrid Electric in limbo, the band members started their own label – Submerged Records.
"I had been against the idea of doing it ourselves because I didn’t want the responsibility of being in a band and running a label at the same time," says Lucas. "Now we have two bands on the label and we might have more in the near future, so it is expanding, for good or bad."
The other band on Submerged is Lucas’s space-rock outfit Windows ’78, which plays as a perfect sister act to Hinterland’s tightly wound dream pop. Although Lucas admits to being heavily influenced by guitar god Jimi Hendrix, his love of stomping on pedals and building walls of sound won out over blues-based wanking. The result in both bands is a sound that takes its cues from the heyday of ’90s indie rock, but Lucas says he hopes there’s more to it than just aping his idols.
"We’re very much influenced by all that stuff, but we wanted to give it a contemporary feel," he says. "Hinterland has influences that date back to the early ’80s or late ’70s with some post punk or new wave stuff and the Cocteau Twins and, of course, the whole early ’90s shoegaze scene.
"With our influences it would be really easy to create a throwback to another era. Our music does remind people of stuff that they liked back in the day, but I think the approach we take is quite contemporary."
That brings us to the other notable difference between Hinterland’s debut and sophomore efforts. While Under the Waterline plays with smooth confidence, The Picture Plane tightens the screws and amps up the delivery. The songs still hover in the four-to-six-minute range, but Galloway’s vocals are more assured and Lucas is clearly not shying away from pop hooks. Right from the get-go, the rhythm section brings a muscular tension to the songs making the overall package that much tighter. Hinterland’s songs still hint at the ’80s and early ’90s, but their new-found DIY esthetic has made The Picture Plane so much more than a blast from the past.
"In terms of wanting to go into a studio and make an album that sounds like it came from any of those eras, I’m not interested in that," says Lucas. "I’d rather take the influence of that and use today’s recording technology to make it sound like a contemporary album. I’m not interested in sounding like a retro band." |
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