In Session: Head Sound

TROY – Adding to the ever-burgeoning scene of original music in the Capital Region is Head Sound. With their dreamy take on shoegaze that draws upon influences ranging from Beach Boys to My Bloody Valentine, the band is beginning to churn out some very interesting sonic flavors of their own.

With a yet-to-be-named album in the works, I took a chance this past week to sit down with Stephen Stewart and Richard Hazleton to get a chance to know them better. What follows is our conversation.

Lucas Garrett: Thank you, guys, for sitting down tonight to talk about Head Sound. How’re you both doing?

Richard Hazleton: Doing very well.

Stephen Stewart: Good.  

Lucas Garrett: Tell us how the band started and where the name came from.

SS: It started because I was playing music out for people, and I was often just playing with an acoustic guitar. I found myself at an art gallery one time, and I felt like nobody could hear me. So, I decided I didn’t want to play any more unless I could be loud and amplified.

I asked Richard for some help and he came along and got us all linked up… he made us sound really good. We added a drummer and bassist and decided to get specific with the genre and started playing shoegaze. The name Head Sound comes from a My Bloody Valentine song.

LG: Where did the two of you meet?

RH: I remember meeting Stevie when I was 13. He was a good friend of my older brother. He had these dreadlocks and I [thought], “Man, that guy is the coolest guy ever.” I’ve known him for 12 years at this point, and we just recently started music together. It’s been great.

LG: What does each member do in the band?

SS: I play rhythm guitar through a bunch a pedals, and synthesizers through pedals, and I sing and write songs. Richard also writes songs and sings, plays guitars through a bunch of pedals, and keyboards. Richard often plays lead parts, sometimes while he’s singing. He’s amazing. He’ll set us up with our live stuff. Phil Albanese plays drums, and he’s the nicest human on the planet. Aiden Gauer plays bass; he’s great. He has a jazz background – I’m happy he dumbs down to play shoegaze with us. Richard’s brother, Sam, helps with sound.

LG: That’s awesome having a sound man right in the band. Steve, what drove you to make music in the shoegaze genre?

SS: I have loved the genre for a long time. Around 2010 was when I first heard Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. I found it very striking. I listened to it late at night and got swept away by how dreamy and ethereal it was. It’s beautiful music. As I made different music over the last decade, I’d often try to create a wall of sound, and I never felt like I could hit that mark. [The songs] were very minimalistic: the guitar part, a very simple bass part, and some electronic drum tracks I’d throw on there. I told Richard I wanted to start playing shoegaze. I think he had an idea what I meant… he spent some time listening to My Bloody Valentine. He was very quick; he gathered an appreciation for the genre rapidly.

He told me he wrote a shoegaze song, and showed it to me. It was “Like a Painting.” We could make this music: he cracked the code! He’s helped me refine my sound where I feel like I have this pretty incredible wall of sound… I’m really proud of the sound we have now. I think it’s pretty unique for the area, and I couldn’t have done any of it without boy genius.

LG: You keep mentioning wall of sound. It makes me think of Phil Spector from back in the 60’s and 70’s. I’m wondering, for the both of you, what are your top creative influences?

SS: I love what Phil Spector did… the influence he had on The Beach Boys. Pet Sounds is one of my favorite albums.

LG: It’s an amazing album.

SS: Yeah. Other influences are slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Brian Eno’s ambient work. His album, Music For Airports, is another one of my favorite albums. We’re also very influenced by Sigur Rós, especially their first five albums. It’s beautiful stuff, that post-rock influence. We’ve recently gotten into Godspeed You! Black Emperor. We’ve been to a few shows and have been influenced by how they do things visually, their art behind them as they play.

RH: Radiohead is definitely an important one. [They] go back to when Stephen and I started playing music together. That was a musical link that we both shared as a big influence. When I started playing with Stephen, I really didn’t know what shoegaze was until he introduced me. Things clicked in my mind afterward. When it comes to guitar work, I definitely felt really heavily influenced by bands like Death Cab For Cutie; a lot of Ben Gibbard’s work, including The Postal Service; Bombay Bicycle Club. [Bombay Bicycle Club] are really fluid and move between genres. I appreciate that, and it inspires me to think outside the box in terms of guitar sounds.

LG: I hear you’re working on a new album, correct?

SS: Yep.

LG: Tell us about that.

SS: We’ve been writing songs for this album for a couple years. About a year ago, we decided we had to have something we could show different venues. We created the Demos EP for that. We added three songs of mine and three of Richard’s. Mine are very stripped back – guitar, vocals, and effects… Richard’s demos are these full, beautiful songs with all these different parts.

[For the album] we have eight songs and a couple instrumentals that have been recorded and are in the process of being mixed and mastered. We recorded it together; it has a live element to it. We’re still working on it – it doesn’t have a name yet.

LG: Do you know when we can expect the album?

SS: We have one single, “Like a Painting,” that should be released pretty soon – it sounds wonderful. Then, after that, we have the single, “Optimistic.” It’s about my wife, how she’s really awesome, and how I want to be more like her, in regards to her optimistic personality. We’ll release the album in the winter next year.

RH: February or March seems reasonable.

SS: We have good artwork that our friend has made for it. We’re excited to get it out to people, and I’m hoping that we can reach some playlists and catch the ears of shoegaze fans locally, and even across America or other places. Trying to break into the genre while living our lives at home.

LG: Who are some of your favorite local bands?

RH: I’m a big fan of the album Laveda has released. It’s really good; I like what they’ve done with the interlude tracks. Their songwriting is fantastic.  A good friend of mine, Chase Keener, is in the band Precious Metals. I’ve seen them a few times and really enjoy what they do. J. Lee is the front man, and also a friend of mine, and really good.

SS: I’ve seen Laveda play live, and they’re very good. Definitely inspired by what they’re doing. There’s this guy, Ben Seretan, who does ambient music. He does really cool stuff. I really like how he manipulates sound and creates beautiful, ambient stuff running. Sometimes he’ll have a broken keyboard ran through pedals. It’s beautiful what he does. Blue Ranger is great. And, all the bands attached to the [Super Dark Collective] scene are also great.

LG: Where can we see you play next?

RH: We’re playing on October 27^th at Dog Haus Biergarten. We love playing up there; they’ve had us several times. We’re doing a Halloween show. It’s going to be very fun. It’s a little outside-the-box – the format is different than we’ve done the past year. We’re excited to try new things, and maybe we’ll wear some silly costumes! We start at 6:00 pm.

LG: Thank you both for taking time tonight! Have a good one.

SS: Thanks a lot!

RH: Thanks so much, Lucas.