“Yeah, there was definitely that chance. We weren’t overly keen about the idea of carrying on after we came home from touring in 2009,” Nick divulges. “It was three years of constant living on the road, we needed to make the new record and we had band members change. It sort of fell though a bit. We realised we needed a change, because we weren’t doing it for the right reasons. We were like, ‘Let’s give it a break.’ We realised it wasn’t going to happen if we continued. I didn’t really want to care about the new record really,” he states with candour. “I wasn’t bitter, I just wasn’t that keen, you know? But with the time away it became apparent that it was something that I wanted to do. I kept writing and by the end of last year I was like, ‘Let’s just do it.’ So we made the record the way we wanted to do it, and that’s where we are now.”
This tumultuous lead-up to Hollow seems to shine through in the songwriting with lyrics possessing a dark, more sombre air. “Well, that’s in there to an extent. I mean I feel like a lot of that is kind of a part of growing up and realising things about yourself, about your aspirations or just about the way things work out. You know, sometimes you’re disappointed and feel like you’ve drawn the short straw or things haven’t gone really well. So I guess there’s a little of that in the lyrics – the theme of Hollow is sort of about growing up, getting a bit worn out,” Nick muses.
There was somewhat of a stylistic transition between the guitar-driven hooks of Cut Off Your Hands’ earlier EP, and that of their debut record, a trend that continues with Hollow. “Well, it’s probably quite similar,” Nick states in regard to the transitions between the EP and the two records. “I mean, we’re still very much the same band. This is quite different though. There’s definitely more emphasis on the groove,” he says. “I was trying to put my finger on it yesterday. It’s sort of like we’re not focused on thrashing around and being loud and fast like we were before. It’s like pedalling on the groove, like the bass player just plays in the one note while the guitar melody can happen over the top, and things evolve much more subtly rather than blaring and bashing everything you’ve got all at once. Maybe that’s a bit of a change. But this record is also a lot less ‘candy’ lyrically, and methodically it takes its time a bit longer. And I definitely didn’t make that choice. It’s just if I tried to make songs like those from You & I they’d sound really bad. I don’t even like listening to You & I anymore,” he reveals.
With a hint of distaste for the group’s earlier material, they still manage to pull out the hits for their live show. “We’re playing a few. I think as a band, you’re always trying to move on. But I think also as a punter, you want to feel like you’re paying to hear something that you know. It would be ideal for us to play a whole new set and not play anything from the old album and have everyone be as pumped as they would be if we did play some of the old songs, but realistically, it’s not going to happen. I think it’s a bit selfish of us as well,” he admits. “So I mean we’ve been starting with all the new songs and finishing with all the old songs, and that seems to transition well enough. I guess it keeps people happy. Can’t wait till we can just play all the new stuff though,” he laughs.
Listening to Hollow, you can almost go crazy playing a game of ‘spot the influence’. Each play through conjures different rosters of late ’80s post-punk greats. Most interestingly, there is a distinctly Australian flavour to the songs which seems to hold a stronger presence than that of New Zealand’s venerable Flying Nun Stable. “A major band that kind of got me back, just after I burnt out I suppose, was a band called The Bats from Flying Nun,” Nick says. “Yeah, this record called The Law Of Things – I listened to that a lot. And when we were making our record, actually recording it, we were thinking about The Church, The Go-Betweens, the way those bands sounded.”
