Progress Report: HEALTH
Every week or so, Jessica Suarez's Progress Report updates you on what your favorite bands have been doing. Or not doing.
NAME: HEALTH
PROGRESS REPORT: Prepping their sophomore album, Get Color (Lovepump United) for release late summer or early fall, "...barring total apocalyptic economic collapse."
After hearing about Health's recording process for their next album, Get Color, I'm wondering why the foursome don't cut loose a little more for their live performances. It seems like they could use that sort of catharsis after a recording session that member Jake Duszik and John Famiglietti describe as "stressful," "fucking nightmare," "hell," and "a prolonged stressful fucking nightmare." And despite improvements to the recording process -- this time they didn't have to load equipment in and out of the Smell each day, nor did any member touch human feces along the way -- it was still no trip to the Catskills. "No surprise, but we all have serious stress issues," Famiglietti says.
These issues were no doubt exaggerated by how many show HEALTH's played since the release of their 2007 self-titled debut. They didn't write on tour, but took time over week-long or two-week-long breaks to write together. Duzsik says they needed to test the songs out for their own sanity. "Sometimes playing something live allows for moments of clarity where you might have realizations such as 'Oh, I guess this song might be fucking terrible,'" he explains. "Some people tend to fall in love with what they do without the need for outside stimuli. If we don't get a breath of perspective we just eat ourselves alive." Recording itself was equally fraught. Duzsik and Famiglietti say their schedule included lots of burritos, red wine, Xanax, waking up too late, and ulcer-inducing mixing frustrations. "There was probably some diarrhea in the routine as well," Duzsik says. The record was recorded to tape, mixed on Logic, then mixed back to tape. Though they had less time and didn't have "some fucking crazy Fleetwood Mac budget," HEALTH experimented with new equipment, including recording through unusual amps. "We've been using some of the studio's gear as well as a ton of Jupiter guitars were recorded on a tiny amplifier used to check and listen to dialogue by sound engineers for the movies -- extremely old movies," says Famiglietti.
The guys are most looking forward to playing a song called "We Are Water," a "rock/dance/noise" epic, according to Duzsik. They're also excited about their April 7 single from Get Color, "Die Slow," a track that has HEALTH's familiar ghost vocals in harmony, but with a fuller, layered sound and a dance beat. It's a different look for HEALTH, one of a few surprises on Get Color. There's even an album closer Famiglietti reluctantly calls a "ballad." For live performances, "Die Slow"'s rhythm track changes as Famiglietti manipulates feedback. It doesn't always work. "Sometimes this is a big tech issue, the power conditions in the venue can halt the feedback pitch and totally screw up the riff," he says. The stress is probably good for them.
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Posted at 6:03 PM by Jessica in Photo, Progress Report
Tags: HEALTH
Progress report on Slowreader/Artificial Heart, please.
Score = -3
Thanks for taking care of our HEALTH, Stereogum! I can't wait for this one.
Score = 7
I'm really hoping they can better their first record
Score = -2
So fucking pumped about this record. I still listen to their debut regularly.
Score = 5
I'm with dude here...super-stoked about this project. These guys have some good ideas, and a good attitude for music. I have a feeling, anything of their own they would call a ballad is going to be my favorite track.
"...feedback is good for your brain."
Score = 1
progress report on ted leo please?
Score = 2
for an up to the minute progress report on ted leo go to his twitter: www.twitter.com/tedleo
Score = 0
saw health a few nights ago. One of the best shows I have seen in a while. Super energetic and the new songs sound great. Excited for this one as well.
Score = 2
wow, that first paragraph is a tangled temporal nightmare. it's never clear what recording process you are talking about. it says "next," then sounds like it's talking about the prior album, then it says "after a recording session" (which one? this one or the last one?) and then says "this time" they did not have to touch feces. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT stereogum you hurt readers.
Score = 0
Huh? Seems pretty straight forward. Everything up until the part about loading gear into the Smell and touching feces is about this session, whereas that part is about the last.
Score = 0
When does the new PHOENIX cd come out???? It's not in the stores! Help!
Score = 0
Sometime in May (15th or something?) so hold tight...
Score = 1
~BLK JKS!
~BLK JKS!
~BLK JKS!
Score = 1
You can almost see Crystal Castles spying through the window of the studio, eagerly awaiting the song to steal from this album.
Score = 10
A part of me actually wanted to check all the pictures to see if Alice Glass was hiding behind a drum kit or something.
Score = 3
I saw them in knoxville this past tuesday. and i have to agree, they are weirdly reserved as far as cutting loose live. But it sort of makes sense, considering the complexity of their show. It may be that the demands of simply playing songs this complicated are what keep them from being as good as you'd hope they would be in a live setting. Overcoming the alienness of their genre and making it flow and seem more natural is going to be the biggest thing standing between them being a curiosity and being an icon.
Score = 0
Progress report on Amanda Palmer.
Score = 0
do you proofread?
"These issues were no doubt exaggerated by how many show HEALTH's played since the release of their 2007 self-titled debut."
should be:
"These issues were no doubt exaggerated by how many SHOWS . . .
Score = -2
I guess it would be more proper to submit my request via email, but i'm not really sure who i would send it to. Anyways, if you do take requests, i would like to know whats going on with The Mars Volta. Is their new album really due out in June, as wikipedia suggests?
Score = 0
is there anyway they could possibly let loose more in their live shows? unless that was joke, lol yeah it was probably a joke. they're one of my favorite live bands. even though the REALLY hot asian guy thinks i'm a total creep/nutcase.
Score = 0
Nice band name HEALTH. At least it symbolizes the importance of health although this might not be the real meaning of their "purpose" at least there's goodwill in it. And their music also envisions good health and good life.
Score = 0