{"id":3796,"date":"2016-10-26T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T10:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/interview-hands-like-houses\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T22:11:05","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T22:11:05","slug":"interview-hands-like-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/interview-hands-like-houses\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Hands Like Houses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve always tried to keep a mentality of keeping things fresh every album, so we\u2019re always trying to take a step forward.”<\/h1>\n

While many of their post-hardcore contemporaries have declined in profile and quality, Canberra’s Hands Like Houses<\/b> have persevered, toured relentlessly and continuously expanded their sound and have begun to reap the rewards in 2016. Their third album \u2018Dissonants\u2019<\/i> being released to widespread acclaim in February, and has brought them extensive touring opportunities including a successful run of UK headline dates and run of American shows supporting the almighty Enter Shikari.<\/p>\n

Singer Trenton Woodley and guitarist Matt \u201cCoops\u201d Cooper can be found in the compact dressing room of Glasgow\u2019s 2,500 capacity O2 Academy. Coops is noodling away on an acoustic guitar competing with the sounds coming from the main room where tonight\u2019s headliners, Of Mice & Men, are soundchecking. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some really great opportunities over the years,\u201d<\/i> Trenton states, thinking of how fortunate his band has been to get to the position they are now. \u201cIt\u2019s still pretty wild, moreso just by being somewhere else every day and just travelling as much as we do and being recognised has a cool factor, but as for the whole \u2018living the dream\u2019 thing, it\u2019s easy to get caught up in all the day-to-day stuff. We\u2019ve gotten past that, but we\u2019re still very lucky to do what we do and you still have those little moments here and there where you stop and think \u2018wait, what am I doing here?\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cTouring with Enter Shikari made us feel that way,\u201d<\/i> Coops responds. \u201cThey\u2019re a band we grew up listening to pretty heavily in high school and after going on that tour, I went to my mates back home and showed them the photos. Moments like that make you step back and say \u2018Yeah, this is pretty sick.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Packed with tight riffs and melodies which make for instantly catchy choruses and memorable lyricism, \u2018Dissonants\u2019<\/i> feels like their most ambitious record that demands to stand out among its peers. It\u2019s an impressive triumph, when four years before, Hands Like Houses<\/b> were another name in an expanding mass of pop-infused metalcore bands that seemed set to implode within itself. Trenton acknowledges the importance of keeping their sound up-to-date; \u201cWe\u2019ve always tried to keep a mentality of keeping things fresh every album, so we\u2019re always trying to take a step forward. We\u2019ve seen a lot of bands around us that came around at that time just repeat themselves, and it might work for a couple of albums, then it just drops off a bit and they just end up staying at the same level, then people begin to gradually lose interest.<\/i><\/p>\n

For us, it certainly comes with its own challenges because people will have their own expectation, so it\u2019s always a gamble of whether you\u2019re going to exceed people\u2019s expectations or at least challenge them enough and if they\u2019re going to enjoy what you do. It keeps you on your toes, and I think we\u2019ve approached it the right way and I don\u2019t think any record is better or worse than the last, we\u2019ve just expanded our sound along the way.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Despite coming from a metalcore background, to call \u2018Dissonants\u2019<\/i> a metalcore album would only scratch the surface of it\u2019s crisply produced sound. \u201cWe\u2019re five very different dudes with different influences and as the writing process comes together, I think those influences come through\u201d<\/i>, Trenton remarks when considering where their songwriting ideas came from. \u201cWe just listen to what\u2019s around and what\u2019s fun to play live and it eventuates into what we have.<\/i><\/p>\n

We definitely think about those sorts of things and we consciously write songs or parts of songs for those sorts of things, like \u2018let\u2019s put in a jumpy part\u201d<\/i>, Coops comments, before Trenton expands on his point; \u201cIf we\u2019re lucky enough, we\u2019ll be able to combine all of the above into the one song, so it\u2019s almost like creating an experience as much as it is a piece of music.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Creating an experience for listeners is every bit at the heart of Hands Like Houses<\/b>\u2019 intentions with \u2018Dissonants\u2019<\/i>, with many of the lyrics intended to resonate with their fans, particularly as the band take an understanding between current and past generations and the realisation that those haven\u2019t been blessed with the same advantages as those before. \u201cOur generation\u2019s inheriting a pretty interesting set of challenges in terms of other generations not wanting to let go of control and not caring about the future so much, and a lot of it comes out of not knowing how to do that, and our generation isn\u2019t too sure how to pick up the reigns.\u201d<\/i> Trenton ponders while considering the rallying cry heard towards the end of the album\u2019s closer \u2018Bloodlines\u2019<\/i>; \u2018If I\u2019m the bastard child of best intentions, If I\u2019m the bitter voice of discontent, If I\u2019m the broken hope of indecision, At least my future\u2019s in my hands.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cThat first line \u2018If I\u2019m the bastard child of best intentions\u2019 comes from the idea that we\u2019re a generation raised on optimism and hope and a lot of that isn\u2019t necessarily realistic, so we\u2019re finding our own place in the present where we\u2019re trying to piece together our own future. I guess the discontent is also part of that. While being the broken hope of decisions is about trying to make that future out of the present and figure it out on our own, which I guess is a pretty poignant challenge for us individually.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWithout trying to get too metaphysical, I feel like a lot of it does come from being raised with that expectation,“<\/i> Trenton continues, "but we\u2019re also raised with this Disney mindset that you can do anything – and there\u2019s truth to both, you could be a hero and that everyone\u2019s special, but that was more of a mindset for our generation, but now we see generations under us that are becoming our fans who have a completely different set of challenges where you need to make your own way, but where unity is also an important factor.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

It\u2019s crazy to think that these little things that we do can have such a huge impact on how people see themselves and the world around them.<\/h1>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a friend of mine once said \u2018the moment you start believing that you are special, you start to believe that someone else isn\u2019t,\u2019\u201d Coops quickly interjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all in this as a whole, and I think it\u2019s more important that we see the whole rather than the individual\u201d<\/i>, Trenton expands. \u201cWe all have special traits to ourselves rather than simply being special, and the entire concept behind the album was just to say that we are dissonant threads, as part of a bigger picture. It\u2019s important that we explore the different parts that don\u2019t always make sense together, but that\u2019s what an individual is, it\u2019s these crazy contradictions, belief systems and nature and nurture combined into this single entity. It\u2019s important than to see that as a single part of a bigger community, or species or whatever physical existence there is beyond what we understand.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

When considering the fact that \u2018Dissonants\u2019<\/i> might help more listeners, particularly of a younger age, understand their ideas of unity, Trenton looks at the way fans that tell them how they relate to their lyrics, to the extent that they could get them tattooed on them, as dedication to the mindset that they share. \u201cSignificance is so relative for those people, that tiny line that, for me, was just something that fit a melody and was a cool idea, that becomes their mantra for their entire life for a period of time, or long enough for them to tattoo it. It\u2019s impossible to measure significance beyond our own individual relationship to it. It means there\u2019s a big sense of responsibility for us. I always try and make sure there\u2019s a sense of ambiguity to whatever I write lyrically, just so there is that point of contact that people can take away for themselves because that\u2019s more important than writing lyrics specific to only me.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

In an instant Trenton Woodley looks up, struck by the weight of his own words. \u201cYou know, there probably is that crazy \u2018living the dream\u2019 moment, not in a \u2018we\u2019ve got it good\u2019 way, but more how it\u2019s crazy to think that these little things that we do can have such a huge impact on how people see themselves and the world around them.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2019Dissonants\u2019<\/i> by Hands Like Houses<\/b> is out now via Rise Records\/UNFD<\/b>.<\/p>\n

Hands Like Houses<\/b> links: Website<\/a>|Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a>|Tumblr<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Andy Davidson (@AndyrfDavidson<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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