Hot Press Meets Halves

Tim Czerniak and Brian Cash of Halves are feeling nostalgic. “It used to be a treat to go into HMV on Grafton Street,” sighs Brian.
“Then the music section got relegated to the basement. Then to the corner of the basement. It’s not pornography, it’s a music shop!”
Halves have released their second album, Boa Howl, on vinyl. Their fondness for the format made the decision a no-brainer.
“Music doesn’t seem valuable when you can download it. Vinyl gives you so much more. It’s collectable and has a visual side to it, I’d feel so shitty if I was a graphic designer and 95 per cent of people saw my work as a one inch jpeg. That’s terrible.”
Jpegs are pants for rolling joints on too. Boa Howl is the follow-up to the band’s Choice Prize-nominated debut, It Goes (Forever & Ever), which was recorded in Montreal. This time the band headed to Gothenberg in Sweden where they shacked up in the grandiosely- named Svenska Grammofon Studion for two sleepless weeks.
“When people read Gothenburg they probably think it sounds amazing but, realistically, we were in an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere,” resumes Brian who came up with the album title. “One day I came across this website that listed the names of these Chinese mountain peaks and ‘White Boa Howl’ jumped out at me. When we went over to record the album we had a completely different title in our heads but I had this feeling it sounded like Boa Howl.”
Location is obviously a big inspiration.
“The studio is where the magic happens. We go in thinking the songs are 90% done and then, thanks to this crazy little French keyboard we came across, they head off in mad directions. Never mind the listener, we’re constantly surprising ourselves!”

Boa Howl gets a live airing in Billy Byrne’s, Kilkenny (July 19); Model, Sligo (20); Bourke’s Bar, Limerick (25); Cyprus Avenue, Cork (26); Indiependence (August 3) and Castlepalooza (4)