The pretty pop of Waikiki has turned into the dark PJ Harvey-ish Howling Bells.

 

AUDIO: Howling Bells - Low Happening

http://media.fairfax.com.au/?rid=19887

 

Feline singer Juanita Stein realised the band she fronted, Sydney indie-pop kings Waikiki, was in trouble during a gig two years ago.

 

"I realised onstage that night that I wasn't into it," Stein says. "I didn't believe in what I was doing. I thought, 'How will [the audience] feel it if I can't?' "

 

At a crisis meeting with her bandmates backstage, Stein said they could continue on their "straight and narrow" path as Waikiki or take an "extreme left turn" and try to achieve something greater.

 

"I didn't have to finish the sentence," she says. "They were on the same track."

 

Waikiki moved to London in 2004 and have returned two years later as Howling Bells. The band features a markedly more confident Stein and fellow core Waikiki members Glenn Moule and Joel Stein - Juanita's brother. But on the Bells' self-titled debut album, they sound poles apart - or at least a long way from the equator.

 

Stein's voice retains its distinctive affectations, but her melodies nod more towards alt-rockers PJ Harvey and Mazzy Star than anything from Australia.

 

On guitar, the Stein siblings have traded their former, brighter pop stylings for the blues-infused country jangle beloved of their father, Peter.

 

The old man wrote the final track on Howling Bells. Drummer Moule has abandoned flair in favour of thumping toms and squashed hi-hats, while bassist Brendan Picchio neatly fills the vacancy left by Waikiki's Jimmeh Brandon.

 

Lyrically, Stein tackles themes of desire and anticipation, motifs she started to explore well before the band moved to London.

 

"I felt a passionate longing for something to happen," she says. "Everything about this music came from some kind of desperation."

 

These themes are most evident on such tracks as Across the Avenue, Velvet Girl and on standout songwriting moment A Ballad for the Bleeding Hearts. Stein says the songs were inspired by her experience of falling in love with someone at the same time as she was "falling out of love with someone else". The anticipation of moving to England to work with Coldplay producer Ken Nelson added to the tension.

 

"I'm constantly wanting and waiting for things to happen," Stein says. "I'm not sure if it's my fate or if it's something I am bringing on myself. In a twisted way I enjoy the longing."

 

The band's relocation didn't pay immediate dividends. They were in the same position as most aspiring young Australians in London: sharing a small room and working in bars and clothing stores. There was talk of calling the whole thing off and coming home.

 

"I even had to share a bed," Stein says. "It was very claustrophobic, a huge culture shock. Suddenly you are sprung with the realisation that you don't know anyone. There was no definite date for when the producer would call us up to start the album, just some promises from his manager. Our two months of waiting turned into eight months."

 

Nelson eventually proved worth the wait, nailing the band's brooding vision over a three-month recording stint in wintry Liverpool.

 

Howling Bells have found their feet in Britain, garnering instant indie credibility thanks to rave reviews of their album and live shows from music bible New Musical Express. Stein is cautious about whether the hype associated with such overseas acclaim will rub up Australians the wrong way.

 

"I have no idea how we will be received here," she says.

 

"The UK welcomed us because to them we didn't have a history. I can't help feeling that here in Australia there will be a few crossed arms."

 

http://www.smh.com.au/news/gig-reviews/howling-bells/2006/09/21/1158431829138.html?page=2

love their songs especially setting sun

 

juanita is so pretty and she know how to dress- i've stockpiled my cupboard with

clothes similar to hers lol.

can't believe only one post lol

 

setting sun

 

blessed night

Oh wow, there's a Howling Bells thread! :D

 

I heard "Setting Sun" last week and I've been listening to it constantly ever since. It's fantastic. Actually, all their music is.

 

Their whole album is currently streaming on their webpage. http://www.howlingbells.com/

I saw them live a couple of months back, but I wasn't very impressed.

 

They're not bad, just not my cup of tea I guess.

^Yeah, I hate country so I was kinda weirded out at first... but if country sounded like what they seem to think it does, I would loooove country music. Can understand if other people wouldn't , though.

 

I wish I could see them live... I wish I could see almost anyone like that live. Alas, they never make it past Montreal.

Yeah, I heard Setting Sun randomly on MTV2 a while ago and then got the album online.

 

It's not bad, I think.