Circa Waves: All Happy Moments Have a Sad Afterglow
☆ interview by Abby Strangward ☆
a short conversation with band Circa Waves
about their new album, HAPPY/SAD
(and a little on navigating the modern world)
☆ Let’s talk about the whole half/half album concept - the first half, ‘HAPPY’, is on streaming platforms as of today (Jan 10), and the second half, ‘SAD’, comes out in March to complete the album. Why release SAD HAPPY like this?
Well, when we were working on the album, we started to realise that we were creating something a bit two sided. It wasn't really something that we planned, to be honest. After realising that, the idea to release the two sides separately just sort of came naturally. We wanted people to be able to hear them as two separate entities as well as one body of work.
☆ Do you find, too, that because this is your fourth studio album, you were looking to do something new? Change it up a bit, force yourselves a bit out of your comfort zones?
Definitely! We've always wanted to push ourselves creatively instead of settling on something that works and repeating it. There's a lot of bands that do that sort of thing, but growing up we always loved bands that evolved. Learning new instruments and getting more involved in synths and drum machines means that you start to think about music differently, and that always leads to something interesting.
☆ Is the HAPPY side just - super happy? Are listeners going to be basking in positivity after listening?
Well, that's subjective, isn't it? But it definitely isn't just upbeat party songs on one side and acoustic ballads on the other. We wanted to explore how these two opposites on the emotional scale can interact with each other. It's a cliche to say that you can't have one without the other, but it's true. Maybe we're all a bit moody, but I think all happy moments have a sad afterglow to them.
There is a real different to each side, but we wanted to make sure that when you listen to the album as a whole it doesn't feel disconnected. It took a bit of juggling to make it work but I think we managed to make something that can work as two distinct parts or as a whole.
“It's human nature to be drawn to the sheer amount of tragedy that's happening. At the same time we're also drowning in choices for entertainment.”
☆ I think Sad/Happy is a hard-to-explain feeling a lot of people can probably relate to right now - being aware of the terrible tragedies taking place all over the world every day, but still experiencing the simple happiness of daily life. How do you think the album, and the concept of the album, fits into today’s world?
I think that's definitely one of the points we were driving at. We've never been more exposed to what's happening in the world - even though there's been real progress in some areas, it's human nature to be drawn to the sheer amount of tragedy that's happening. At the same time we're also drowning in choices for entertainment. The experience of seesawing between these extremes, and I suppose the guilt that comes with that, is a uniquely modern phenomenon.
☆ How do you think you manage those feelings? Get from the ‘SAD’ to the ‘HAPPY’? Be able to appreciate both?
I think if we knew how to do that, we would be much better people than we are.
☆ In our current society, what do you believe the role of a band to be?
Personally, I think the role of bands and artists in society is to create things that reflect on what's happening around them, to help people process the world in whatever way they can. At the moment the world seems to be going through a very transitional and chaotic phase, so it's even more important that we engage with it as artists.
☆ I feel like with everything going on in the world right now, especially politically, it’s easy to feel like making art is redundant or pointless. How do you push through that?
It's a daily struggle to be honest. There's a lot of awful shit going on wherever you look and so it's hard to pull away from that and find the stories that are inspiring, but there's a lot of positive things happening if you focus in the right places.
HAPPY is available now on all streaming services.
SAD will be released on March 13, 2020.
Keep up with Circa Waves here.