Who am I speaking with and what do you do in the band?
I am Danielle Whalebone the founder and songwriter for Animal Hands.
You’re gearing up to play a massive gig at the Reverence Hotel alongside The Long Holiday and Two Headed Dog. If you could take a long holiday with any Melbourne band, who would you choose?
We would take a long holiday with any band that maintains what I believe is the ethos of our style of music. Kurt Cobain said it best: “If any of you, in any way, hate homosexuals, people of a different colour, or women, please do this one favour for us—leave us the fuck alone. Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.” Today, in a climate that is politically similar to that of the ‘90S and at a time when the corporate dinosaurs of the music industry are facing extinction, we still see signs of the sonic youth in Australia. Twenty years on, teens are still bleaching their hair, rocking baby doll dresses, flannelettes and acid face t-shirts and most importantly they are playing in bands. The artists performing at The Reverence Hotel on Friday July 11 are keeping the flame of grunge rock alive and will soon be on the road!
Enlighten us on the current development of the new single. Where are you at with it? What can we expect from it?
My band Animal Hands have just recorded at Birdland Studio with Lindsay Gravina. Once again it was an incredible experience. Lindsay encourages us to push boundaries that we otherwise wouldn’t have and as a result we leave knowing we have given it our very best. We plan to release the first single in September and will be airing it first on PBS Go for Broke.
If you could have the hands of any animal, real or imaginary, which animal would it be?
Too hard to choose as “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”.
ANIMAL HANDS play the Reverence Hotel on Friday July 11.
