In just a few short days, Belles Will Ring will kick off their national tour in support of their acclaimed album Crystal Theatre. I caught up with lead singer Liam Judson to talk about the tour, the new album, Cloud Control and plenty more… while he was awaiting a phone call about a car loan.
Well we’ll try to keep this brief! But there’s a lot to talk about. To start with, Crystal Theatre was released last month to rave reviews. How are you guys feeling about it?
We’re feeling extremely pleased about the reception, as you can imagine. I wasn’t sure, to be honest. I thought it could swing either way. SO it’s really great and reliving to see that people enjoy it. We’re over the moon.
And of course you’ve got the Walking Soul tour in July, a briefish jaunt around the country.
Yeah it’s just a small one, but it will be nice to play the record, and see how it goes down to a live audience. But it’s good. I like these small tours. They’re clean and neat and get you ready for what’s coming next.
How did Walking Soul get chosen as the name for the tour?
Well it was one of those things that we were asked to do. A lot of times what bands do, rather than calling it the Crystal Theatre tour, they grab a snippet from a lyric on the album. We narrowed it down to 20 or 30 options grabbed from Crystal Theatre, and Walking Soul came out of the track “Come North With Me Baby, Wow”. And that’s the one that everyone agreed sounded good! Doesn’t mean anything more than that… just a lyric grab, a nice sounding combination of words.
And you’ve got a Glasvegas support slot coming up too I understand, at Splendour time?
Yeah we’ll be playing with those guys in Melbourne. It should be a cool show.
July should be a big month, a chance to celebrate the new album properly.
Yeah it’s going to be a full on month. And somehow we’ve got to all try and keep jobs throughout it all… it’s going to be interesting to see how that goes. I’ve kind of got two day jobs. One of them, I work in a guitar shop. And the rest of the time I’m trying to pick up more production, engineering and mixing work. Often I’m mixing someone’s record, which is more where my heart is at I guess. I’d like to pick up more of it. The dream is to be recording/mixing/engineering and performing. In an ideal world I’d get by on both of those. But we’ll see how we go.
How much of that was involved in the making of the new album? Were you very hands on in that process?
Well we didn’t have a producer or anything, it was just us – recorded entirely with our own gear. Mainly out of necessity. We’ve never really been a band loaded with money. So what happened with the first record, we didn’t have the money to go into a studio, so we ended up tracking it and recording it ourselves. In that instance it got mixed by Wayne Connolly. But through that we got used to the fact that we could do this ourselves.
I actually started getting the confidence to mix after working on Bliss Release by Cloud Control. They were insistent that I mix it. So I jumped in the deep end and did the absolute best I could, and it went really really well. And so I’ve been doing some mixing since then, and when Crystal Theatre came along we unanimously decided to mix the album ourselves. We felt it was the right one to do ourselves – we’re certainly open to having other people involved in the future, though. But this way we were able to squeeze out of our heads exactly how we wanted it to sound. It was one of those records where we were very clear on how we wanted it to be sonically.
Do you think that put more or less pressure on your guys through the process of making the album?
Probably it puts more on because it gives you so much more to do. It’s a massive process. Just tracking the thing was pretty big time. But then once that’s all finished, and I went in to start mixing it… some songs were an absolute breeze, and some songs I lost sleep over. Just to squeeze those last details out that I felt needed to be there… driving the rest of the dudes in the band insane, because I’d keep sending them mix after mix, with the minutest details of change. They’re like “fine, print it, let’s move on!” but I was insistent on changing it more! But that was only a couple of tracks.
It is a pretty big thing when you’re taking everything on yourself, there is more pressure on you as a band, than handing it over to someone else who’ll make heads or tails of it. That’s not a bad way of doing it either, because you’re able to let go at that point, and allow someone else to interpret it. Sometimes that’s really exciting, because that outside ear can give it something that you never thought of. But here, we’re so happy how it turned out so wouldn’t have done it any differently!
I was going to bring up the AMP winning Bliss Release as well. As we speak, Cloud Control are in Europe and about to support Arcade Fire in Italy I believe…
Is that right? I’m not surprised! Pretty cool to have worked on an AMP winning album. It blew my mind because it’s really the first real record where I’ve been involved in every part of the process – from tracking the first note at their parents houses in the Blue Mountains right through to mixing it. To win an AMP award is… well I don’t think I even realise the magnitude of that. But it makes me realise how much I want to keep doing it, especially when I’m still learning. I’m always playing with new sounds, getting new ideas, many of which since Cloud Control have popped up on Crystal Theatre. I’m sure there are similarities between the two records, too. I’m just trying to gather new concepts, new ways to use reverb, new details… all the kooky little tricks I try.
Who designed the cover for the record?
You know the We Buy Your Kids guys? Sonny and Biddy? We decided on using them. When we were talking about using an artist, they were the first that popped into out minds. They’d done a film clip for us in the past- “The Coldest Heart” off the first record – which we absolutely adored. So we fell in love with their style, and then as people. And especially with the vibes and themes of the record, we felt it was a perfect match for the sort of stuff they do. They listened to the album quite a bit, had a talk to us about the themes, and when we got it back, they totally captured the record. I honestly believe it’s one of the best things they’ve ever pulled out. I feel so privileged that it happens to be for one of our releases!
What does the rest of the year hold for you? Quite a lot of touring I imagine.
Yeah there should be! We’ll probably be doing another Crystal Theatre tour that’s a bit bigger than the one coming up. The whole point of this tour is just to celebrate the release… the album will have been out for a good month by then. But once it’s been out for a bit longer, we’ll end up doing another!
In terms of other things, it’s hard to know at this point. I’d like to work on more records with people. Aidan (Roberts) is putting out a Maple Trail record fairly soon. Aidan is the other singer/songwriter/guitarist from Belles Will Ring, and Maple Trail is his other project. I’d like to work with some other people in a recording capacity. And I would also like to begin conceptualizing the next Belles album. Hopefully for a release in the not-too-distant future. I don’t want to have a gap like the one before. We’ve already started thinking about the next one.
It’s hard to know at this point, but I do sense it’s going to be pretty busy.
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Their new album Crystal Theatre is out now through Dot Dash/Remote Control.
BELLES WILL RING
The Walking Soul Tour
Presented by Street Press Australia and 2SER. Tickets available thru Oztix/Moshtix.
Friday 1 July
The Workers Club, Melbourne VIC
SUPPORTED BY The Fearless Vampire Killers and Cuba Is Japan
Saturday 2 July
Plus One at the Ed Castle, Adelaide SA
SUPPORTED BY Lady Strangelove and Steering By Cars
Thursday 7 July
Sol Bar, Maroochydore QLD
Tickets available on the door
Friday 8 July
Step-Inn, Brisbane QLD
SUPPORTED BY The Dune Rats and Lion Island
Friday 15 July
The Clarendon Hotel, Katoomba NSW
SUPPORTED BY Richard Cartwright of Richard In Your Mind
Saturday 16 July
Goodgod, Sydney NSW
SUPPORTED BY The Fearless Vampire Killers, Richard Cartwright of Richard In Your Mind, Kill City Creeps with Count Doyle and Brigadier Brickman on the decks
