“We identified that we can’t really go back and do big long tours because it would be diminishing returns. If you did that too much, less people would come along and it would boil down to nothing,” he says. “So we tried to think of a way that would be good for us to do it and also an interesting way for us to present ourselves back into the market.”
The six years between their fourth album, Watch Me Disappear,and last year’s Havens Dumb, roused concerns about the band’s existence. Nevertheless, they didn’t take six years off. Along with the fact that Havens Dumb took three years to make, the band spent a solid year on the road supporting Watch Me Disappear. Though, compared to what followed 2006’s Moo, You Bloody Choir,it was relatively easy-going.
“That was a two-year touring cycle,” says Williams, “because that went through America and then back again. There was so much interest and so many people coming along, people that otherwise wouldn’t normally come, due to commercial radio play.”
The band’s erstwhile approach – following album releases with stacks of consecutive shows – ensured they could quickly identify the best way to perform the newer material. Converse to this, the intermittent nature of the Havens Dumb tour has led to greater performance fluidity.
“When you play [songs] a lot, they reveal themselves to you, they change,” Williams says. “We rehearsed enough to record the album, but we hadn’t done any touring [for five years]. That’s been an exciting part of it, to bring new ideas, more thought out ones and new textural ideas as well.”
Much like the tour-opening gigs at Howler, the support act for this Friday’s show is Fraser A Gorman, who’s just wrapped up a huge UK tour with Courtney Barnett.
“He’s making his way in the music world now, so it’s good to support that and also interesting to see where he gets to,” says Williams. “He’s really refined what he’s doing recently – the newest songs are getting better and better.”
2006’s One Crowded Hour came out nearly ten years after the band’s inception, and prior to this breakthrough, they worked doggedly to build an appreciative fanbase. Williams gives a nod to the musicians that helped them out in the early days.
“Something For Kate were one of them,” he says. “Paul [Dempsey], Steph [Ashworth] and Clint [Hyndman] have always been big supporters. Crow was another band we did a bit of touring with, which was a Sydney band in the ‘90s. They were heroes as a band and we did some touring together and became friends. That was really fun.”
Before the crossover impact of Moo, You Bloody Choir and Watch Me Disappear, Augie March were established critical darlings. Havens Dumb hasn’t quite repeated the commercial highs of these predecessors, but the feedback has once again been unanimously positive. Williams appreciates the regular critical applause, but it’s not of utmost importance.
“To know that people are listening closely to it, that’s always good to hear, and [that they] have an opinion,” he says. “The only thing worse than having an opinion is not having one, and not being talked about…. There’s things about the record that I think we could’ve done better, but this was another step.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
