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Yeah, yeah. You know it already. Halifax can really party. Hell,
even the old bag in the cubicle next to you probably knows them from
their stint on The Real World Austin. But what’s decidedly more
important is that the Thousand Oaks, California-reared quintet’s
music translates. Just ask the million plus visitors to the band’s
PureVolume page. But better proof lies with the band’s crackling
debut album, The Inevitability of a Strange World, which finds
frontman Mike Hunau, guitarists Chris Brandt and Adam Charles,
bassist Doug Peyton and drummer Tommy Guindon at a distinct
advantage over other booze-swilling, excess-extolling rising stars.
Sure, many have tried through the years, but few bands have managed
to bridge the great divide between rock, punk and metal with their
hooks, hearts and hopes in tact quite the same way these electric
warriors have.
More than mere trouble makers with guitars,
Halifax are songcraft specialists with enough vision to merge the
best of all possible approaches, which explains the group’s unique
delegation of responsibilities to both Taking Back Sunday producer
Lou Giordano and hard rock veteran Machine. “We loved working with
Lou,” Hunau says. “His expertise was invaluable. But we wanted to
put more ‘Oomph’ on the record, so Machine helped make it more
aggressive. More in your face.” With that said, insistency abounds
on The Inevitability of a Strange World. Be it the pop-meets-pummel
charge of “Nightmare” or the irresistible, inventive first single,
“Our Revolution.” The latter’s Mick Mars-themed riffs and rebellious
“Hell yeah!” refrain qualify it as 7-Eleven parking lot music for
the 21st Century. Says Mike, “It’s an homage to classic metal, and
Motley Crue in particular.”
If Halifax’s melee-inspiring roar
feels as woozily fun as it is proficient (few will be able to deny
the exuberant crunch of “Under Fire,” for instance), it’s
interesting to learn that the quintet’s influences vary from Nine
Inch Nails to the Foo Fighters to reggae to Children of Bodom. “It’s
almost like the music we listen to doesn’t necessarily shape our
sound, as much as it helps to express what we are feeling,” says the
singer.
From the coke-binge-gone-wrong theatrics of “Snow In
Hollywood” to the stunning snarl of “Promise Me A Tragedy,” Hunau
says most of the tunes in the Halifax songbook first germinate when
he and Brandt collaborate. “It’s usually us coming up with a
skeleton of a song and the lyrics and then we’re bringing it to the
table and showing everyone what our version of it is,” he says. “And
then everyone works on it together.” As frustrating as a rock
democracy can be – Hunau says the sequencing of the disc was
laborious due to disagreements – it’s this teamwork that eventually
found the group a home on the infamous Drive-Thru Records label.
Rewind to 2003 and Halifax was just another in a myriad of
unsigned but resolute indie outfits rolling the highways and byways
of North America. Sharing van space, shitty hotel rooms, bodily
aromas, Old Milwaukee and a collective dream in between crappy jobs
in chain restaurants and landscaping, the group recorded and
supported its initial EP, A Writer’s Reference. Within a year’s
time, Halifax found itself among the lower echelon of the 2004
Warped Tour, but its reputation continued to grow. By early 2005,
after establishing friendships with Drive-Thru founders Richard
Reines and Stefanie Reines – and bowling them over during a New
Jersey gig with The Early November – the label tweaked and reissued
Reference. Appending an acoustic version of the band’s beloved
“Sydney,” a track Hunau scribed in tribute to his late grandfather,
Halifax continued touring and building its fanbase while concocting
what would become The Inevitability of a Strange World.
When
Mike, Chris, Adam, and Tommy landed in Austin, Texas for the
renowned South By Southwest Music Festival last year, little did
they know how a routine night in the world of rock & roll coupled
with a few television cameras might sensationalize their image. “A
lot of people who only know us from the TV will come to our shows
and think we’re drunk off our asses or something,” Hunau chuckles.
“But we didn’t do anything on the show that we don’t do normally.
Bands go out drinking and get drunk and have fun and hang out with
friends and chicks. It’s not like we’ll play with other bands and
they’ll say, ‘Oh my god! Halifax is out of control.’ Yet anyone with
an objective ear might garner such a notion in a positive sense by
turning to The Inevitability of a Strange World. Take the
contagious, exhilarating motion of “Better Than Sex,” for instance.
Here, Brandt and Charles’ machine gun riffing escalates amid Hunau’s
memorable, melodic intonations. Catapulted by the rhythmic drive of
Peyton and Guindon, it’s evident that Halifax deserves the attention
they’ve yielded so far.
If their intentions seem simple,
they also seem pure. “No matter how shitty we’re feeling, there’s
redemption when we go out and rock a crowd,” the singer
acknowledges. “We definitely don’t just get up there and play our
songs. We have a blast every night on stage.” Like we said, Halifax
can party. Listen and live in the Strange World.
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