Dots: In theory, were you to meticulously plan your tours The Jezabels could conceivably experience an Endless Summer. Was the track born of a longing for festival climes and all that they entail, or does the song have a more metaphorical raison d'être?
Hayley Mary: It's got nothing to do with festivals at all; instead it's about longing for summer and yes, of the metaphorical kind too, of longing for a light in times of darkness. The lyrics were partly inspired by long distance love and partly by the passing of a good friend in Paris. These things were making me think a lot about the fleeting beauty of ideals and, in some cases, idealistic people.
Dashes: The track itself is a pretty potent concoction of unabashedly anthemic chorus and brooding verse. The two gel extremely well, although does such an effective combo make you yearn for days in which CD singles would be bought and cherished for weeks on end?
Hayley: It is our most obvious pop single to date and we did stop ourselves from adding anything that might make it too drawn out or complicated as we saw its potential as that sort of song. This wasn't really because we are into making commercial music for the sake of it (most of our songs are far too long and weird for radio) but the pop genre conveyed the message of this song really well I think. It's sort of something people romanticise these days, apparently simple pop songs about love but from a time when such songs were still heartfelt. I say apparently simply because they often were revealed to be more complex than they seemed. Think anything by M.J. or ABBA. I guess the pop sensibility of Endless Summer could be seen as an homage to that idea in a way. Actually, in truth, I'm only just thinking this as I type. In the scheme of things I think it's still a pretty left-of-centre song.
The Jezabels - Endless Summer by thejezabels
Dots: Similarly, it's excellently produced. As how integral a part of the recording process do you therefore regard production?
Hayley: Production is incredibly important I would say to the construction of any song. I remember one of the first things I learned in English is that a story is inseparable from the way it is told, and I think that's also true for songs. The instrumentation; the sounds; the production; the mix: these are all integral to the way in which you hear what is being expressed. I think this question ties in with my answer to the last question, about the decisions to make things a bit more 'poppy'. Lachlan Mitchell, our producer, is particularly knowledgable in pop music with a twist so he was pretty excited to experiment with seeing how far we could push the production into the pop realm, while still keeping it 'us'.
Dashes: Your Facebook page affirms almost defiantly that you are... Independent. How does your perception of the current state of industry affairs add up?
Hayley: Well, I guess independence in any field has an air of defiance to it, right? But we aren't staunchly opinionated on the state of the industry as a whole, nor are we qualified to be. We decided that, at the time of receiving deal offers, the independent road was the best for us, both financially and idealistically, particularly in Australia where we've done everything ourselves and found it to be a hoot! But we have signed with indie labels in other territories ([PIAS] in UK/Europe) to help us release music outside of our homeland and we feel confident with the decisions made. Of course there's nothing to say that what works for us would work for anyone and everyone but thus far, there's definitely no regrets.
Dots: To what extent do you feel your Antipodean origins have influenced how you contemporarily sound, both as a band and as individuals, each bringing certain elements to the overall aural aesthetic?
Hayley: To a great extent. We all have pretty different taste, the combination of which is the basis of our 'sound' I suppose. I suspect the Australian music scenes are as eclectic and disparate as the music that the members of our band like; there are totally different worlds. Different scenes at home often have corresponding scenes internationally, but it's such a big country that you can grow up completely oblivious to what is going on outside of your own taste. Unlike the UK or the US where the music people listen to and make is more easily made popular all over the world, in Australia I guess different alternative scenes are often more accessible or relatable to people. So you can get by without even noticing mainstream music or what anyone else listens to. Maybe that's why Heather, Sam, Nik and I grew up listening to very different music even though we are of similar ages and three of us grew up in the same town. That's just my take on it though; might sound like a load of crap to other people who know more about such stuff.
Dashes: Much has been made of your gradual eminence, or gravitation towards greater recognition. Do you sense that pressures rest upon your shoulders to consistently deliver material of a standard similar to that exhibited on debut LP Prisoner, or does your autonomy if you will provide you with ultimate artistic control?
Hayley: They're not mutually exclusive, surely? Our autonomy will hopefully provide us with total artistic control, but we would always want to deliver something of a similar standard to or better than whatever we did last. This only applies to standard or quality though; the type of songs we write and the process of writing has continuously changed and developed and will, hopefully, continue to do so. To be honest the most pressure we experience is generally generated from within, and that has always been the case. Don't ask me why; I think we're just quite intense people.
Dots: Finally, ahead of a return to the UK, much fussing and fighting has gone on since your last sojourn. Do you anticipate any alterations in the reaction?
Hayley: If you're referring to the riots, we're sorry about that; I hope no one reacts similarly again. Really though, no expectations. We're just hoping to meet more of the same kinds of people we met last time out!
The Jezabels play Heaven on November 29th.
