Hooray for earth - Noel Heroux im Interview

Nachdem vor ein paar Wochen endlich auch in Deutschland der offizielle Release von True loves war, kontaktierte ich Hooray for earth Mastermind Noel Heroux via Mail und bekam auf meine neugierigen Fragen auch prompt Antwort. Auf der Insel und in Frankreich waren sie schon zu Gast, da interessierte mich natürlich unter anderem brennend, ob auch bald in Deutschland Besuche geplant sind. Aber nicht nur das: die facettenreiche Gestaltung rund um die Musik von Hooray for earth fasziniert mich schon länger - so fragte ich nach Einflüssen, Entstehungen oder dem visuellen Aspekt der Band. Dabei war Noel so nett und schickte gleich ein paar Links und Videos mit, die ich ins Interview einbauen konnte.

Hooray for earth

To the readers who don't know Hooray for earth yet: Who are Hooray for earth? Where are you from and how long is Hooray for earth existing? What kind of music do you make?

Noel Heroux: Hooray for earth is my band, we work out of Manhattan. Been doing this for a few years, the band started playing out around 2006, starting releasing music on purpose in 2010. I'll take advantage of links (AD: See video below) answer "what we play" cuz I can never answer that anyway!

Hooray for earth - Black trees

Does your band name have a meaning? "Hooray" is a quite happy, positive shout. What's hooray for earth? What kind of things can we associate with earth in sense of the band? Visual, audible things, the nature, the intelligence, the human beings?

Noel: It doesn't have much meaning for me, it's just a name for something. It can be interpreted as sarcastic or as hopeful, whatever you like. My hope would be that people will generally stop thinking about the words in the name and just feel it as synonymous with the music and sound.

Your debut record True loves is now available in Germany too. Why did it take so long to release it over here, cause the US relaese date is quite a year ago, I guess.

Noel: The U.S. release was in June 2011, yes. We had no other record label anywhere else in the world so it just sort of naturally took a while for it to make it's way to you. Glad it's finally worked out though.

Can you describe the process of writing an Hooray for earth song? What comes first? The melody, the beat, the sound snipets?

Noel: I just let it fully pop into my head and then go quickly to something I can record it on, four-track or computer. There do end up being snippets sometimes, or mess-around jams with myself. But generally it's a full song idea just bouncing in the head.

Hooray for earth - Surrounded by your friends 

(directed/edited by Johnny Woods)

You gave an interview to the internet platform Life + Times and told us about the sound snipets you recorded in the New York underground. Is New York, the big apple, a perfect place to catch so many different sounds, that most of all perhaps don't notice, cause they are trivial?

Noel: I do love New York. I don't know how much it actually affects what I'd write or record but it does keep my mind busy. Although when I go to a small quiet town it can be helpful to the mind in other ways. Who knows.

I noticed through a youtube clip that you covered on stage Nirvanas' song Radio friendly unit shifter. Although you made a sort of experimental electronic pop music, are there influences in that direction, like "rock" music from the late 80s, early 90s? Besides that, who are your most pop or electronic influences?

Noel: I love loud, agressive music, but over all I truly love beautiful chordal movement and harmony, melody. I guess it all comes together. I love the vibe of romantic-era classical and also wall-of-sound noise and guitar stuff. The album True loves barely hints at a lot of what I really want to do, I'm very excited to move forward right now and continue on with new thoughts.

As I told you I noticed your band and your music throughout another musicblog. Are you interested in the blogging scene and what blogs do you like (not specifically musicblogs)?

Noel: I do find it to be very interesting but I don't tend to follow too closely. There are a handful though that I really love what they're doing, I think a blog can have it's own aesthetic just the same as any band can. Yours is really rad!

You were in Europe for quite a few shows, in the UK and France. When will you be in Germany? Are there any plans for a larger tour in Europe?

Noel: Coming to Germany this summer! Will float around Europe definitely.

It looks or it sounds like that Hooray for earth is not only an audible pleasure, but also a visual thing too. How important is the visual aspect of Hooray for earth? Do you have any favorite visual or video artists or directors?

Noel: I am very into the visual things. The only bit that's kept us from developing shit live is money.  But with video we do go out of the way to try and communicate that. I grew up listening to and watching the Warp Records catalog a lot (--> chriscunningham.com). If I had full control I'd just like to see colored lights on everything.

I love the cover from your first EP Momo. It displays an underwater volcano during his eruption. The colours are in a very strong contrast. It looks great. The True loves cover is quite similar to the Momo cover, cause both pictures have an aspect of "melting away". Who is responsible for that and where is the underwater volcano located?

Noel: The volcano photo is by a guy who was just vacationing around and posting his discoveries online. Kosuke at Dovecote spent days tracking him down, his name is Kevin Key. He probably has a flickr account or something. True loves is a photo by my friend Drew (--> drewinnis.com). We plan on continuing to make images together for further records and such.

                                                  EP Momo - 2010                                                                            LP True loves - 2012 (Germany)

You have a sideproject called Dpony, a more "sound snipet musicclutter" project than Hooray for earth and you have released the digital record (Movie) from it for free. The physical release is a VHS cassette, if I am correctly. How come? Do you love the retro aspect of publish music and videos on tapes and VHS or was it just for promo? How were the reactions from people who bought the VHS?

Noel: Our visual counterpart in Dpony is Johnny Woods (--> johnnywoods.com), right when the idea came up we immediately agreed that a VHS release would be perfect for Dpony. The whole thing is really fun for us, and for me much less planned and stressful than anything regarding Hooray for earth. There are still a few tapes left! I think maybe we'll make a handful more Dpony records and whatnot, then maybe put together a boxed set someday down the line. Just for ourselves even, so we can put it on a shelf in our homes haha.

Are the Dpony songs former Hooray for earth songs or is it a totally different thing?

Noel: Yeah totally different thing. To go way back though, Seth (the drummer in Dpony) and I were called "Hooray for earth" for a while before Hooray for earth existed in it's current state. Seth is also now in Zambri (--> Zambri at Stereogum).

What do you do in your life, when you are not a musician? What about your bandmates?

Noel: Not a whole lot. I like drinking drinks and hangin' with my lady. Probably similar with the other guys. Joe is a fairly elusive character though, so not so sure with him. We have random day jobs.

Which upcoming releases are you interested in and what music are you currently listening to?

Noel: I'm literally right now listening to the new Clark record. The new Bear In Heaven is fuckin awesome, and Zambri's LP (--> consequenceofsound.net/zambri) is out next week. Other than that I'm basically listening to the same things I always do. I've been recording a lot of new things so not necessarily actively listening to too much else at the moment.

Clark (Iradelphic Workshop)

Bear in heaven - Reflection of you

Thanks very much Noel for your time and answers. The Zambri record is indeed a great one. We'll see you in Germany this summer!

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