Rock trio The Hara released their latest EP ‘Play Dead’ on 16th September!
Since the release they have been faced with overwhelming amounts of success from over 270,000 streams to ranking number 1 on both the iTunes rock charts and all genre charts! According to frontman Josh, this is the best response to an EP they’ve had so far!
We had a chat with The Hara to discuss the effects of lockdown and all about their new release ‘Play Dead’!
How long were you working on the EP?
Josh: “It’s weird because obviously this year’s gone down the gutter so it’s kind of felt like we’ve been working on it for ages. But actually in January we wrote the full EP basically in 1 week/2 weeks, and then we’ve had the demos and we recorded it and since then we’ve been sat on it just waiting to get them out.
“Here we are today and they’re out in the world, and the world is a better place now that they’re out!”
How has coronavirus/the current situation impacted how you typically write/produce/release music?
Josh: “I think things just take a lot longer, right?”
Jack: “Yeah things definitely take a lot longer. I wouldn’t say it’s really impacted the release as much, but it has impacted the campaign around it.”
Josh: “It has given us more time to think about it.”
Jack: “It has given us more time to think about it but we can’t tour it and that’s a big downside.”
Josh: “We wrote this EP to play live, that was the whole point of this EP.”
Jack: “The whole point is that they’re meant to be played live and unfortunately because we can’t do that, I suppose that’s the thing that makes us feel restricted.”
Did you consider releasing it any later?
Jack: “I think being in the situation where you can’t tour, you become very dormant if you’re not doing anything. So it was kind of important to have things to keep people interested.
“We released like 3 singles, ‘Circles’, ‘Off The Edge’ and ‘Animals’ which all came out like a month apart and then the EP dropped so we were always keeping people interested during lockdown.
“I think if we hadn’t have done that and we’d have just sat back and waited for shows to happen then it would have just damaged us more than if we just put stuff out and stayed active.”
‘Until It Happens’ was co-written with Max Heyler from You Me At Six, how did this come about? What was it like? Did you learn anything from the experience?
Josh: “It was mad. We got an email the night before dead casually saying: ‘By the way, is it alright if Max from You Me At Six joins the session tomorrow?’. We were like ‘Yeah, alright sure!’.
“I remember we walked in the studio and he’s just the maddest guy, so full of energy. I opened the door and he was like ‘YOU ALRIGHT GUYS?! I’VE GOT THIS!’. It literally didn’t stop from that moment, he’s so cool.”
Jack: “He’s so talented as well, he definitely pushed us in the right direction, and he’s a lovely guy.”
Zack: “He’s in a wicked band as well!”
Josh: “Just the energy and the way he bounced off each of us, it was just a great experience to be with someone like that. He listened to every single thing we had to say in the session, it wasn’t just like ‘Oh here’s my idea, this is what it’s going to sound like’. He genuinely did care about what everyone thought which was dead nice as well.”
Lyrically, ‘Animals’ and ‘Off The Edge’ really stood out for me. What was the inspiration behind these tracks?
Jack: “This kind of touches back on the festival thing… its obviously something that’s super in-your-face and doesn’t stop, and that’s what ‘Animals’ does. But we wrote ‘Animals’ because Josh went through a little situation, didn’t you at a pub?”
Josh: “Yeah, it was on my birthday. I never usually go out in my hometown, I hate it. But anyway, I went out with my mum – would you believe it?! Went out after my birthday meal with my mum and my sister and I just knew there’d be so many people from high school out there.
“You know how its dead awkward when you see these people after years of not seeing them? I walked in and they were all like ‘Oh Josh, how’re you doing?!’. All these people that would never give me the time of day back in school and that used to be a bit nasty, ‘Josh you’re doing so well!’.
“I just thought, you know it’s amazing how this stuff happens. If you genuinely believe in what you’re doing and you go for it, in a few years’ time the people who said you’re not going to do it are suddenly right behind you. This is exactly what ‘Animals’ is about, it’s a middle finger to those people.”
Jack: “We make it very apparent that it’s kind of like you didn’t give me the time of day and you ridiculed me for trying to do this, yet as soon as it becomes a thing and as soon as you become known for it then they all want to piggy-back on your success and be a part of it.”
Josh: “’Off The Edge’ is actually quite a deep song, would you believe it? The lyrics are obviously very in-your-face, we’ve got nipples in there, we’ve got boners in ‘Animals’. When we sent it to radio we had to ask the question, ‘Can we put nipples and boner on the radio?’, and you can do it!
“But yeah, it’s about relationship struggles but we wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t dead cringey or with really obnoxious lyrics. Then obviously a dirty riff behind it you get ‘Off The Edge’ slightly hungover from the night before.”
Do you all have an input when it comes to writing songs? What does your writing process typically involve?
Josh: “We all have our individual roles, don’t we? It’s you sir (Zack) that started off with your riffs and your guitar stuff, then me and Jack sort of switch about roles. We do lyrics and melodies together and Jack does the beat obviously.
“Then the people that we’re in with, because we co-write pretty much all the time, especially on ‘Play Dead’. There’s a guy called Nick who wrote on all of them, a guy called Brad who did ‘Circus’, and then Paul Whalley and Lewis Gardiner who produced the EP. So, it’s all mish and mash.”
Jack: “Typically we come in with a vibe we want. So, we might have heard a song, or just something that was cool that we want to emulate in a song. So we come in and say: ‘right this one, we want it to be big, fat, heavy, it can be fast, it can be whatever.’
“Then Zack usually gets a riff idea or we get synth ideas and things like that, and then it just builds up from there. We build up from the music part.”
Zack: “Generally, 99% of the time I’d say it starts with a musical idea, I think that’s where we build it up from. Some bands focus on the rhythm or maybe the lyrics first, but I think we’re very grounded and get the flavour right, get the vibe right first and build it from there.”
Josh: “Although, with the lyrics as well, I usually go on my notes the night before and just write whatever’s in my head, like the stupidest stuff. That one line could end up being what the song is about. It’s like creating a baby, it’s a process.”
What are you all looking forward to the most once we return to some form of normality? Doesn’t have to be music related!
Josh: “It’s obvious isn’t it! You know what it’s going to be…”
Jack: “Festivals!”
Josh: “Living again. Doing what we actually made this band for. We just want to be out there crowd-surfing, breaking drumsticks and snogging Zack Breen while he plays guitar…”
The Hara’s latest EP ‘Play Dead’ is out now! Be sure to give it a listen!