Photo: Jeff Hahn
Three years seems like a lifetime in the Soundcloud age where music trends come and go faster than you can yell “lil”. Three years is exactly how long it has been since HAELOS broke big onto the music scene with “Dust,” an ethereal trip-hop burner that had Massive Attack vibes.
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The 2016 hit song gave HAELOS’ debut album Full Circle clout, taking them from a little-known British studio band to playing at major music festivals across the world. Now, Lotti Bernadout, Arthur Delaney, and Dom Goldsmith are back with former touring guitarist Daniel Vildósola now a permanent member. They have a new, 11-track LP, Any Random Kindness, coming out in May that should avoid the dreaded sophomore slump. Check out their latest “Boy/Girl” below.
We had a chance to chat with Delaney about the first single off their new album, their songwriting process, and what they learned from their breakout debut that will help them this time around.
Mandatory: Your first single off the new album was “Buried in the Sand.” What’s the one memory you will take from making it?
Arthur Delaney: “Buried In the Sand” was one of the tracks that came out of an early writing session we did in the basement of an abandoned house where we had been given keys to set our studio up. It got written around a modular patch of Doms that he and Daniel were playing around with which reminded us all of New Order.
There’s a lot of intricate layers going on. What was the creative process like?
The beginning of it came together pretty quick with all of us jamming parts and melodies down. That evening I got invited to dinner by a friend with all these kids from the Instagram nouveau-glitterati. They all seemed more concerned with performing for people that weren’t there than enjoying the moment and there was a dark comedy to watching them filming each other filming themselves. I was struck by how weird things have become, how distorted we are by this new flood of technology. “Everybody’s here, nobody’s here” was just a description of what I saw and Lotti and I spun the rest of the lyrics out of that sentiment the next day.
That message of being “here but not really here” comes across in the song title and the music video. How can music change that or at the very least make people aware?
Art will always have the power to shift perspectives because it is concerned only with the truth. We are all free to choose if we want to be changed by what the art is trying to say, if we relate enough or are inspired enough to allow it to shift something in ourselves.
What was the one song that “woke” you up to the world around you?
“Good Morning Good Morning” by The Beatles.
Full Circle came out of nowhere to put HAELOS on the music map. What’s one thing you learned from the experience that you will take forward from it?
A circle has no end.
Tell us a little about the forthcoming album, Any Random Kindness.
It’s an album about times where all the cards hang in the air and no one knows quite how they will fall. The best clue I can give you is €rr0rc0de:: //11par¥diseMSDOSt••(fl00d)\\… and only the future knows how it will be received.
We have no idea what that code means but we do know that HAELOS will be heading out on a North American tour in support of Any Random Kindness that kicks off with a headlining date at SXSW. For the latest news on the band, go here. Check out the album cover below.
