Half no measures

A slow-burner of an album, revealing itself over time, enveloping the listener in its dark atmosphere. A methodical band behind it, recording with painstaking care and attention after a long gestation period. With their debut It Goes, It Goes (Forever & Ever), Irish trio Halves have all the components to become a cult concern. They certainly seem in it for the long haul. The Brothers Czerniak (two-thirds of Halves, which seems like the basis for a bad maths class) explain their musical philosophy, their love of the album as an art form, and how they went about perfecting their own.

“It’s been a while in the making,” says Tim Czerniak, responsible for Halves’ high-pitched, otherworldly vocals. “We’ve been sitting on it for almost a year so it’s nice to finally have it out. We wanted to make sure that we planned the release properly.”
“We’ve taken a while to get to where we want to be,” concurs his brother, Elis. “Our first EPs were just testing the water. I think this album is more what we’re about.”
Halves are a group that know exactly what they’re about. Everything is planned, each detail accounted for – it has to be for music this eclectic and expansive.
Tim goes on: “We made sure that, throughout the recording process, we always had in the back of our minds what the finished product was going to be. We knew the order of the songs, or the bookends at least. We just had to figure out how it was going to get from one end to another.”
It was important to make that journey cohesive, the album flowing as a whole.
“Absolutely,” agrees Tim. “Even though it comes from several years worth of writing we made sure that we were making something that stood as an album. There’s no way we’d just have song after song after song. It had to work together and make sense as a unit.”
On this point, as with most others, the brothers are in accordance.
“We didn’t go out to write singles,” says Elis. “The three of us work separately on songs [the third member being Brian Cash]. I think that’s why it works so well. We’re not releasing any singles. So, I guess that’s the only way to get people to listen to it – make it good!”
Their love of the album, of physical records, is clear.
“It’s a much better experience when you have one entire album that you can listen to all the way through.” reckons Tim. “Before all this digital stuff people would buy albums before they heard them. They wouldn’t know what they were getting until they took it out of its package and put the needle down. That whole excitement surrounding the new album has dissipated. That does kind of bug me, that people don’t make proper albums anymore. It seems a bit of a cop out. A bit lazy.”
It’s not something you could accuse Halves of. The band went to great lengths to maximise the recording process. More specifically, they went to Montreal, Canada.
“You feel like you’re allowed to do things you wouldn’t here in Ireland,” explains Elis. According to Tim, the idea of going away to record was essential. “It gives you a fresh perspective. You’re taken out of your comfort zone, to some place you’ve never been before.”
Listening to their debut, it sounds like the band hope to do the same with their music. They don’t go in for half measures.
“There are way too many bands that you hear one single from and they’re just gone,” concludes Tim. “You want to be in a band that, if not changing people’s lives, at least makes an impression.”