Photo credit: Oliver Crawford
Indie off-kilter guitar pop quartet, Ha the Unclear today release a new track recorded with legendary US producer Sylvia Massy (Johnny Cash, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Tool) at Roundhead Studios, Auckland whilst Massy was guest producer for the annual NZ Music Producer Series curated by Greg Haver and part of the Recorded Music NZ’s Tui Series. Final edits were added by Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Finn Andrews, Soaked Oats) at Paquin Studios.
The release of ‘Julius Caesar‘ comes a week after the announcement, Ha the Unclear have a song shortlisted for the second year running in the APRA Silver Scroll Awards. ‘Where Were You When I Was All You Needed‘ comes from 2018’s album Invisible Lines.
Sylvia Massy began her career as part of the San Francisco alt-punk scene in the all-female band Revolver. In the late 1980’s she became an engineer at Larrabee Sound in Los Angeles engineering for Prince, Paula Abdul, Big Daddy Kane, Seal, and Aerosmith.
Her production work with the band Green Jello led her to produce the “Undertow” and “Opiate” albums for Tool. She then began work with producer Rick Rubin, which includedSystem Of A Down, Smashing Pumpkins, Tom Petty and Johnny Cash.
After a stint at Sound City Studios, she set up her own RadioStar studios in Weed, California. Massy now travels widely, holding seminars around the world to share her unusual techniques for manipulating sound.
Recording ‘Julius Caesar’ Sylvia used techniques including plugging a guitar into a wedge of Gouda (yes, the cheese), running a guitar signal through a lightbulb, using live satellite delay on the vocals and rewiring an old op-shop phone on the fly to use as a drum mic.
A wonderful array of support acts are joining to Embrace the Glace and defend against the winter.Dolphin Friendly in Christchurch, Hot Donnas and Rezzy Crook in Dunedin, Nic & Reuben, Souldropin Wellington, and Skilaa and Daffodils in Auckland
Christchurch – Space Academy
Supported by Dolphin Friendly who’ve had a massive, non-stop year running alongside bands like Mako Road and Corduroy.
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Dunedin – The Cook
Supported on the night by Hot Donnas fresh off an Australian tour and Rezzy Crooks
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Wellington – Meow
Nic & Reuben are a wonderful duo from Dunedin who are flying out in their spaceships to greet the Wellington crowd for the second time ever!
Souldrop is the audio equivalent of that whacky green smoothie your nan makes. What’s it even made of..?
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Auckland – Whammy Bar
SKILAA is the brainchild of Chelsea Prastiti and Michael Howell – good beats with a healthy dose of neo-soul, hip-hop, alternative folk, and improvisation, in addition to some thick vocal harmonies that draw inspiration from both African-American/Rnb and Balkan singing traditions
Daffodils is an indie-new wave act making a huge dent, made up of Isaac Keating (Drums), Jade Bryham (Synths/Keyboards/Backing Vocals), Louis Graham (Bass/Backing Vocals), Theo Spike Salmon (Guitar/Vocals).
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