In this interview with History of Guns, we explore their new album 'Half Light,' delving into its concept, narrative arc, and creative process. Let's begin!
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1. Your
new album 'Half Light' explores a variety of themes and genres. Can you tell us
about the concept behind the album and how it evolved during the creative
process?
Max: After our most successful album to date (2008’s ‘Acedia’) which focussed
on that kind of ‘angry young man’ energy, trying to take an unflinching look at
the things that had contributed to our mental health issues and emphasising our
punk side, written on guitars, recorded and mixed with live drums. The original
idea to follow it up, was to do something focussing on our electronic side.
Thematically, after the relentless misery of ‘Acedia’, we wanted to do
something lighter and a bit more playful. I originally thought maybe we’d do a
satire on ‘genre-fatigue’. Where could we put History Of Guns next? Of course!
History Of Guns in space!
Because I believe good satire should be virtually indistinguishable from the
thing it is satirising, I set about writing a high-level film treatment.
Whereby Del and I were stuck in a damaged spaceship orbiting a moon. Half the
day was closest to the sun, and got unbearably hot, and half the day we were on
the other side facing a dead planet and it would get unbearably cold. That was
the start of ‘Half Light’. I then set about coming up with a back story for how
we got there. However, due the relative success of ‘Acedia’, and the fact we
had a great live band at the time, it was decided to put ‘Half Light’ on hold
and focus on gigging more and developing the live act, and writing/recording
more guitar music.
When we came back to the idea recently, I’d developed the story into one about
time on Earth having been stuck in 2024 for years by the tech billionaires
building bunkers to escape ‘The Event’. History Of Guns was to build a
spaceship out of gist, to reach the alien race of Arcadians who would help us
unstick time.
The sci-fi story is only one lens to view the narrative through though, it’s
designed to work in multiple different ways.
2. You've described 'Half Light' as an album in three acts. Could you walk
us through the narrative or emotional arc that listeners can expect from start
to finish?
Max: We start with Act One which consists of four relatively straight forward
(by our standards) EBM tracks with proper choruses. Each of these represents
North (Earth/Body), East (Air/Mind), South (Fire/Energy) and West
(Water/Emotions). This is the opening of a door into which the larger aspect of
the world/album exists. The Second Act starts with ‘Flashes of Light (Part 5)’
which walks through the door, deep within ourselves and subconscious, or out
into outer space, depending on how you’re viewing the journey (or ideally both
at the same time!)
Act Two ends with ‘Arcadia’ which is the most joyous point on the album, the
place which imagines what if everything all worked out? In the sci-fi story
this is where we make contact with the aliens (Arcadians) who are going to help
us unstick time on Earth and bring out the evolution of mankind. Alas, life
isn’t like that, so Act Three plunges us down to the darkest point which is
‘Drug Castle’ and addiction and cycles of hate. After the lowest point there’s
a spark of hope in ‘Survive the Night’, and finally the closing track ‘An
Invitation’, which is hopeful, if not exactly joyous.
3. The singles 'No Longer Earthbound' and 'When You Don't Matter' have
received positive feedback. How do these tracks represent the broader scope of
'Half Light'?
Max: It’s always a challenge to pick which track off an album to release as the
first singles. We couldn’t decide. In the end it was my girlfriend, Priyanka,
who said ‘No Longer Earthbound’ is a ‘clear banger’, which decided it for us.
It’s about leaving the planet, whether through death, virtual reality or flying
into space. It’s a good summation of the main theme of the album.
The second single was a much easier choice. We’d had an early version of ‘When
You Don’t Matter’ written back at the time of ‘Acedia’, but it didn’t fit
there, a heartbreaking ballad of abandonment. We’ve tweaked it over the years,
but aside from the guitars added by Caden, it’s not massively different from
the original demo. Now just felt like the right time to finally release it.
4. Max, as a producer and musician, what were some of the challenges and
highlights of working on this album, particularly in terms of blending
different musical styles and influences?
Max: For each album I think a lot about sound design. Our second album
‘Apophenia’ (2006) tried to do every song in a different genre, which was
perhaps a bit too ambitious. These days I have two folders, one for music that
starts off as electronic, and one for songs written on the guitar or piano.
Either can be developed in either way though. There’s a track on ‘Half Light’
called ‘All You Dream (You Can Never Have)’ which is the electronic version.
We’ve also done another version where I took off all the electronic drums,
loops and most of the synths, and added big rock drums and Caden added heavy
guitars. It’s kind of like the opposite of a remix! Maybe a demix?!
5. Del, your lyrics often touch on themes of mental health, society, and existentialism. How does this album continue those explorations, and how have your perspectives evolved over the years?
Del: If you have not lived it, how can you know it? Yes, it’s hard to talk about, so I put it in music because that way I know I’m not alone. If just one person gets what I’m saying, then I feel I have helped them get
the point, that life, is never going to be all pink bunny rabbits and fluffy clouds, a goal of ‘to be happy’ is as impossible as it is ridiculous. There is no light without shade. So many people think they are alone, but nobody is truly alone. You have your mind so use it.
6. 'Arcadia' is described as a pivotal track on the album. What inspired this song, and how does it fit into the overall narrative structure of 'Half Light'?
Max: I was trying to think, ‘what is it, we want?’ It’s easy to sit around and moan about how shit everything is, but what would we put in its place? I think complaining, without thinking of alternatives of how to make things better, is a dead way of thinking or being in the world. The idea of some kind of utopia with no pain or suffering at all would be very safe, but surely soon become anodyne and boring.
For a while I’ve been thinking one of the main problems with society is that it tends to reward sociopaths and psychopaths to become the ultra-rich and powerful, whereas kind, decent people with empathy don’t push themselves to the top and find themselves powerless, used and trodden on. I was researching this and came across an article saying it was during the Bronze age where humans stopped working collaboratively and started implementing rulers and social structure.
So, I came up with the idea of a planet called Arcadia, which had mirrored Earth in development, but evolution had gone in a slightly different direction during the Bronze Age, and the sociopath trait had pretty much been bred out of human existence, so things are generally much better there than on Earth in 2024. People on Arcadia are still selfish and argue, and there is still drama and tragedy and art and all of that, but everyone has some degree of empathy and what authority there is, is generally benign and for the good of all.
My dream is a world that’s like it is now, just a bit less shit, corrupt and controlled by capitalism, with a bit more kindness.
7. Caden, as the newest member of History of Guns, how did you approach integrating your guitar work into an established sound like theirs?
Caden: I’ve been surrounded by History Of Guns music from a very, very, young age. I've grown up with it and therefore it kind of comes naturally to me. I can feel what fits, and what wouldn't in the songs. I believe that guitar lines should be written and used meaningfully for maximum effect, rather than just including them for the sake of it.
8. Your music has been categorized under various genres from industrial to darkwave. How do you see 'Half Light' contributing to or challenging these genre classifications?
Max: In the mid-90s, when we started, people didn’t know where to put us. There were reviewers who just didn’t think punk music and electronic beats could go together. Our press releases at the time described us as ‘Fat Boy Slim meets Joy Division’ which probably didn’t do us any favours. I’ve always struggled with genre classifications. Mick Mercer once described us as if you went back in time to particular point in music of a genre, but then forked off into a different direction, there you would find History Of Guns, which I think hits the nail on the head.
With Half Light, for the first half the sound design was to take early 00’s dance and industrial and then see where we could take it. The second half we wanted to fit with the first half but get more experimental and push into ambient, avant-garde, and then there’s that moment in ‘Survive the Night’ where it’s just a voice and acoustic guitar. And I think it’s effective because it’s such a change of instrumentation, but flows on from, ‘Drug Castle’’.
9. The album artwork for 'Half Light' is quite striking. Can you tell us about the concept behind it and how it ties into the music?
Max: We were lucky enough to have an amazing artist Amara O’Neill willing to work with us. And she asked what kind of thing we were looking for. Our approach always when collaborating with other creative people is not to tell them what we want, but to tune into what we’re doing and play what they feel, (which can be very frustrating for some people.) But with Amara we just said, ‘Listen to the album and create whatever comes to mind’. Which is what she did. And we absolutely love it.
10. History of Guns has been active since the mid-90s, experiencing various phases and evolutions in your sound. How does 'Half Light' reflect where the band is today compared to its earlier work?
Max: That’s a great question. Stylistically it’s more of a return to our first proper album, ‘Flashes of Light’ (2004), which is why we have the track ‘Flashes of Light (Part 5)’. The main difference is that I was pretty new to Cubase back in 2000, and both me *and* Cubase have evolved quite a bit in the last 24 years.
11. You've mentioned influences like Nine Inch Nails and Coil. How have these influences shaped your approach to music-making on this album?
Max: ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ by Nine Inch Nails was one of the albums, all three of us liked when we started the band. Having been a keyboard player in rock bands at school, it was getting to the point where all keyboard players seemed to be doing was playing boring string pads which didn’t interest me, and then came grunge and it seemed keyboard players were redundant. I was at the goth/alternative club ‘The Catacombs’ in Manor House in London, when I first heard ‘Head Like a Hole’, and I thought, maybe there’s hope for keyboard players after all, and I started getting more into the programming/sequencing side.
Coil I came to later. SWANS had been an influence in letting things breathe and not the constant need for structure and chord changes. ‘Pattern Death’ on Flashes of Light is a good example of this influence directly; the whole song has a one note bass line that never changes. When I came to Coil it reminded me of what I’d tried to do with ,Flashes of Light, but I thought their artistic approach was so beautiful, it inspired me to write much directly from heart and spirit place, and less cognitively, where I’m thinking, ‘Hmmm changing to a relative minor chord would work there.’
12. Looking ahead, what are your hopes for how 'Half Light' will be received by both longtime fans and new listeners, and what's next for History of Guns after this release?
Max: It’s already been our biggest success since ‘Acedia’ which has completely blown us away. There were times when we thought we were finished, and we’d never get a second chance. We’ve learnt so much from the mistakes we made last time, and had such a joyous time making ‘Half Light’ that we just want to keep going for as long as we can. We’ve already got the first few tracks for the next album, which might hopefully end up being a double. Music that originated on guitars on disc 1 and then electronic music on disc 2. We’ve been offered a few gigs, but sadly had to turn them down so far due to not having a full band together. If we do it, we want to play with live drums and not a laptop backing. We’re in talks with a few old comrades though, and going to book a rehearsal studio session to see if we can get a live band going. Regular rehearsing and getting properly tight it a big commitment though, and people have lives, jobs, families etc.
The next thing we’re most excited about is a short film we made with acclaimed film director Howard Gardner called ‘Drug Castle’ which should be coming out around end of August or early September.
History Of Guns - When You Don't Matter (youtube.com)
Musique | History Of Guns (bandcamp.com)
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