Hands Like Houses embrace experimentation, collaboration, and an ambitious concept with their imminent new album, ‘A T M O S P H E R I C S’.
Words: Stephen Ackroyd.
Photos: Oliver Rudloff.
Somewhere between the stratosphere and mesosphere, Hands Like Houses found themselves again. The Australian outfit’s ambitious new double album ‘A T M O S P H E R I C S’ marks more than just their first independent release – it represents a complete reinvention, both sonically and spiritually.
Fresh from touching down after life on the road, bassist Joel Tyrrell speaks with the kind of renewed energy that comes from starting over. “I am pretty zonked, but very well. I’ve just returned to the coast after flying home from our South East Asian tour,” he shares, while vocalist Josh Raven chips in, “I’m existing, but I’m beyond excited to share what we’ve been creating. Today, I’m writing in my journal and looking for insights on how to improve creatively and mentally. We live in some crazy times, and inspiration is around every corner just as much as craziness is.”
This newfound independence arrives after nearly two decades of evolution. “We’re our own bosses now, no label, no controlling overarching entity, so if we’ve had to move projects around or change dates, we’ve been able to do it easily,” they explain. “We face challenges, but our communication to overcome them is at the helm.”
“It feels as though we are finding the version of ourselves we want to express”
The band’s latest chapter began with an unexpected twist. “We started writing songs with Josh in September last year and finished recording the album by June,” Tyrrell reveals. “Our time has been spent refining our approach to writing, and it feels as though we are finding the version of ourselves we want to express by letting the music come out without filtering it as much as our previous habits allowed us to.”
What started as an experiment in collaboration transformed into something far more substantial. “The writing process was so enjoyable and fluid that it sometimes felt way too fast, but once we were happy, we put one track to bed and put our energy into the next,” they continue. “This is a learning experience, and all of this is so new, but we are taking every building block and trying to discover what it means for Hands Like Houses to be a band again.”
For Raven, the project presented both challenge and opportunity. “From a vocalist perspective, it’s been a whole new challenge for me in so many ways: vocally, creatively, and mentally,” he admits. “It’s been a push-and-pull process with my own brain to get the best out of myself. The guys have an open mind toward experimenting, and this has been instrumental for me in peeling back some layers of my identity in music. I’m my own harshest critic, and even though there’s been a lot of growth, we’re barely scratching the surface of our potential.”
“We’re barely scratching the surface of our potential”
The result is ‘A T M O S P H E R I C S’, a sixteen-track double album divided into four distinct EPs, each named after a layer of the atmosphere. “The idea of ‘A T M O S P H E R I C S’ came as we wanted no limits to where we took the project, but still have a vessel that could hold and timestamp our ideas when they were ready,” they explain. “In many ways, it’s us learning how to fly again. Each EP and layer of the atmosphere matched up perfectly and inspired our approach to each EP, both sonically and visually.”
This atmospheric connection runs deeper than mere metaphor. “I’m not generally into meteorology, but I find it fascinating – the pure scope of what’s happening up there. I have no doubt it would be incredibly interesting to learn more about, but I haven’t dived deep… yet. It just happened to fit our new pathway on this project. Even the concept of space is something we know so little about, yet it holds so much mystery. It’s similar to how music feels to me: an unexplainable, beautiful, mysterious world that connects in infinite threads.”
The album’s structure mirrors these cosmic layers, with each volume adopting its corresponding atmospheric colour. “Each colour resembles the most prominent one in each respective layer of the atmosphere, so we tied that into the visuals – video backdrops, artwork, photography, and media,” they note. “It’s been therapeutic for us to have these distinct colour palettes. As we delved deeper into this project, it became clear which tracks sonically aligned with the colours and layers.”
“Even the concept of space is something we know so little about, yet it holds so much mystery”
The path to this point wasn’t always clear. “The first EP’s collaborations began when we had no singer; the original concept was to continue as a four-piece band and have guest vocalists on every song, similar to what DJs do,” Tyrrell reveals. “But after we finished ‘Heaven’ with Josh, everything changed, and we were ready to go. All the vocalists we worked with were amazing at challenging our processes, giving us a chance to expand our approach to songs. We’ve always loved collaboration, but we were previously limited in exploring this area.”
This creative liberation has proved transformative. “This is SUCH A RELIEF for us,” Tyrrell exhales. “It feels amazing to tackle any given song idea on its own merits and make it the best we can. We believe this will give our fans a much deeper understanding of our true influences and what Hands Like Houses is.”
Looking ahead, the band’s trajectory seems limitlessly vertical – much like the atmospheric layers that inspired their latest work.”At this stage, it seems to be going in every direction,” they promise. “There will always be the Hands Like Houses fingerprint, but where we go next depends on what feels good.”
Hands Like Houses’ album ‘A T M O S P H E R I C S’ is out 14th February. Follow Upset’s Spotify playlist here.
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