That ‘place’ is a place of excitement, a place where dreams are on the verge of becoming reality. Bellusira are a young but hungry and battle hardened rock band who have just released their debut album – an album of rare quality, a ‘moment in time’ rock album that only comes along every so often. A rock album where, upon listening to it end to end, you can hear, feel and sense the pain that went into making it. Already, reactions to its quality have been stunning, and there have been major stirrings of interest in the band, nationally and abroad. The hardships they’ve been through will only make the taste of success they are about to savour all that much sweeter.
It’s a heady, and not to mention busy time for these guys, but Crystal Ignite (lead vocals) and Mark Dalbeth (bass) found some time recently to sit down and chat with us about all things Bellusira.
“With Bellusira at the moment, it’s just nonstop, intense, lots of stuff going on,” Crystal states, the enthusiasm flowing out of her. “We’ve had changes that have happened for the good of the band, and we’re getting a lot of interest in the band at the moment. So it’s really exciting, and the album has only just come out!”
The interest is coming from all angles, but it’s too soon to spill on the details. “It’s a bit of everything,” she says. “I’m sworn to secrecy at the moment. If everything goes through, and everything happens for us, it will be a very productive year for us, and if that happens, honestly, it’s about time!” she says forthrightly. “Mark and I have worked our arses off for ten years on this.”
“It would be nice, nice to get a break,” Mark adds.
“We believe that the hard work should pay off eventually, the energy you put in should come back out,” Crystal concludes.
The album itself, enigmatically titled Connection, is a monumental statement from the band. It’s an album full of passion, positivity, fist pumping rock anthems and much variety in dynamics. It’s a record that should find the band taking their place among the elite of Australian rock, and Crystal and Mark couldn’t possibly be happier with the fruits of their long and often painful labours.
“We feel it’s just a really strong record,” Mark states. “Every song is one to be proud of. We’ve done EPs and singles, but we thought it was time to do a full length. We’re very proud of it, it’s a pretty diverse record, and there’s lots of really strong songs on there.”
“I think every song is different, but it all sounds like Bellusira. We’ve shown a diverse range of what we can do, but still that ‘solidity’,” says Crystal.
The quality inherent on the album is going to extend to the film clips that the band will be releasing to promote the album. The clip to the first single Cachango is apparently just about done, and is set to blow people’s minds.
“Our film clip is coming out soon,” Crystal reveals.
“End of June?” Mark asks.
“Something like that!” she responds. “It’s a really big production, a really big team behind it, lots of special effects. What else can we say?”
“Plenty of surprises!” Mark answers.
“You’ll see me as you haven’t seen me before. And the concept, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it done before. It’ll be something that you just haven’t seen before in Australia, a level that you just wouldn’t see from an independent artist. I reckon we’ll do about four film clips for this album,” Crystal says.
As for the band’s hard journey, the emotion that their story brings up in Crystal and Mark really comes out in the tracks on the album. One song in particular, the atmospheric, more electronic driven Made Of is a standout track on a very strong album, with emotion being carried in Crystal’s impassioned vocals.
“I would say it’s the most vulnerable song we’ve ever written,” Crystal says. “That’s what I was feeling at the time, I was completely devastated. My world was just destroyed. I cried the whole time I wrote those lyrics and sang those melodies. It helped me get through that point, and it really shows what you’re made of. Mark and I have gone through hell in our lives. We’ve had a hard journey in the band, and our lives before that were really tough, but I think the tough times really show what we’re made of. It’s about going ‘I’m still here. I might be crying, but that doesn’t mean that I’m weak.’ That’s what it’s all about.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
