Interview: Habu

I recently caught up with the guys from Habu, Alex Brody, Andy Clarke, and Alex Dunbar.

Hi guys, thank you for your time. I’ve had the pleasure of listening to, and reviewing your album “Infinite”, and I genuinely enjoyed it, What was the inspiration behind it?

AB: “Although ‘Infinite’ is not a concept album in the true sense – all the songs are supposed to fit with a particular theme. Although the songs, hopefully, speak for themselves, and touch on lots of different ideas, the central idea is the one that everything that exists has always been here and always will be. There’s a temptation to consider things that have happened and say that they belong only to the past, or even that they’ve gone forever – but whatever the future holds, nothing can change the fact that the things that have been said and done today have happened, and nothing can ever erase that, for better or worse.”

AC: “Musically, the main influences are obvious – Rush, Blue Oyster Cult, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd – but my taste in obscure classic metal and new wave/goth rock has edged into the sound.”

In my review, I said that the stand out tracks for me were “Dead Weight” and “Heavy Chains”. Which are you personal favourites?

AB: “I love playing ‘Dead Weight’, but am really pleased with the lyric to the song, ‘Infinite’.”

AD: “For me, all the tracks have their own feel to them, and I love them all for different reasons… but if I must choose, I would say ‘Infinite’, ‘Dead Weight’, and ‘Grain By Grain’ “.

AC: “I, too, love ‘Dead Weight’, but ‘Measure Of A Man’ has been a live staple, even since before our first album came out, and it has always been one of my favourite Habu songs, so it was a real pleasure to get it down on record. I’m also really pleased with the way the title track, ‘Infinite’ came out – compositionally it does break new ground for us, and feels truly progressive.”

“Grain By Grain”, to me, had the biggest Pink Floyd feel, especially that guitar solo. What inspired this song, and were you aware, at the time, of the Floyd feel?

AB: “The instrumental that leads into ‘Grain By Grain’ is called ‘Isn’t This Where We Came In…’ which, if you didn’t already guess, is a tribute – in name – to ‘The Wall’, so yes, we didn’t set out to write a song that sounds like Pink Floyd, but when it happened – we realised, and didn’t mind at all.”

AD: “Myself and Alex [Brody] actually play in a Pink Floyd tribute band, so having learnt all those songs, I think we were naturally inclined to write something in the same vein. It was the kind of song we felt the album needed, and as all three of us are big Pink Floyd fans, it just sort of happened!”

AC: “That guitar motif was something I came up with in the week leading up to band practice. I showed it to the guys and the song just formed around it, in one evening.”

Aside from the nods on the album, who else would you say have influenced you musically?