‘New Album’ is where a band or artist answers some questions about their latest release. Up next is Aaron from Curlys Jewels, who released their self-titled sophomore full-length album in November last year.
When/where was the new album recorded?
The album was record over the past five years at three studios. Roundhead Studio (Auckland), The Lab (Auckland) and The Surgery (Wellington).
Who produced/engineered the album? How did the tracks come together in the studio, or at home?
Producer – Greg Haver, Engineer – Scott Seabright, Mixing – Clint Murphy, Mastering – Ryan Smith. The songs predominantly came together at our rehearsal space.
How did the songwriting happen? Are there any overall themes within the songs/album?
The songs generally take shape by Aaron and Jel working on an idea at home. The songs are then taken to rehearsal where all four of us jam out the idea then refine. Once we are happy with the idea we send demos to our producer, Greg, who helps us to whip the songs into shape for recording. There is no particular theme to the album. It is a collection of songs that have spanned our band’s lifespan so it is sort of a best of. Hence having it self titled.
Were you going for a different sound/approach on this album?
What you hear on the album is who we are. We didn’t go for a particular sound or style. We were fussy about the striving for high quality production which is why we we were lucky enough to have Greg and the team onboard. The goal was to keep the essence of the song but to sprinkle it with some interesting extras such as additional percussion and weird guitar samples.
Was there any specific gear you used to capture that?
As a band we kept it simple. We are vocals, guitars, drums and bass – the classic rock band formula. Jel just sung through whichever mic was placed in front of her face! Corey used a bunch of different drum kits and snare drums. Andy used Fender and Spector bass guitars. Aaron created the synth sound guitar parts on POGs (pitch shifter and octaves), delays, echos, and reverb. The main guitars used on the album were Gibson Les Pauls and Fender Telecasters though a Marshall DSL 50 and VoxAC30. He also used a variety of acoustics and even a resonator guitar. To compliment the core instruments, Greg (who is an accomplished percussionist and drummer), played some amazing percussion parts including a giant gong on our track Criminal, and a bunch of other percussive instruments on all the other songs.
Is there a particular single/track that you feel captures the essence of the album?
Probably the song the sums it up for us would be Liberate. The song catches our melody, riff and dynamic.
Is there a physical copy available? If not which digital platforms is it available on?
We have a physical CD that is available at our live shows or on request via our social media pages. The album is available on all major streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.
Are you working on a video/videos for any of the songs? Are you doing any gigs or promotion for its release?
We have already release 5 music videos off the album which are all on YouTube. We are playing a bunch of shows across NZ over the summer months including Palmerston North [Curlys Jewels: Globe Theatre, Palmerston North show – Feb 10th] and a couple of yet to be announced festivals early in 2024.
