Page 7 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 113

BV113 pg 04-09 THE HARA Interview.qxp_BV113 pg07 02/12/2025 17:14 Page 4

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ccording to the band, ‘The Fallout’ is the got a lot of positive feedback from all sorts of week is horrendous! The real world generally
Amost pure, raw, and authentic they’ve people and I think it was a great opportunity for doesn’t feel real. You’re kind of lost for a week
been. They’ve stated, ‘This is really who we are’. kids to see that this is something you can do, wondering what’s going on. It’s difficult, because
They, in particular vocalist Josh Taylor, reveal all and it’s alright to feel bad sometimes, and it’s to- that feeling you get of performing on stage, it’s
in the open and honest lyrics on the album. tally normal.” like such a unique experience. It makes sense
We begin by asking the band to tell us a bit We ask if they think a lot of people are why a lot of people do drugs to keep that going,
more about who they really are – and what lis- scared to be themselves, especially when because it’s such a high,” he laughs. “But I think
teners will discover about them when they listen they’re young. it is great if you can do it in a healthy way and,
to ‘The Fallout’. “I think so,” answers Josh. “I think it’s harder like you say, it does ground you. I love to go off
“I guess we’re just three top lads, three now, especially with even the generation below in nature and forget that people exist and stuff
blokes from the North of England,” answers us. Growing up at such a young age with social like that, so it’s just learning to find your coping
Josh, casually. “No, I guess they will discover media, I think it’s unnatural, isn’t it? Hundreds mechanisms to slowly bring yourself back down
that, underneath our crazy energy and live and thousands of people can see your life and and then go back up again.”
show, there’s a lot of vulnerability there, and I judge your life and you, as a young kid, can see Success can often come at a price. Some
think ‘The Fallout’ sort of highlights that. Our everything. You judge your success and how people go down the wrong path when they be-
journey, as people, as a band, the sort of battles you look off these random people around the come successful. Jack tells us, “We’ve spoken
we go through with mental health, and just our world. I think it’s crazy. I speak to my mum about about this so much, and how in tune we are with
journey, really. And I think we’re kinda not shying it. She’s a headteacher. She talks about it all the each other and ourselves, and what makes us
away at all with the songs on this album, and time, how mental it is now with her kids, the work well and what makes us mentally at our
sort of just letting them talk about how we feel amount of exposure you get at a young age. It’s best. We’ve spoken so much, like Josh just said,
and what’s been going on, basically.” a lot to deal with, which is why, I guess, the mes- him going out into nature and hiking, stuff like
sage that we’re trying to put out there about that, Zack playing games and chilling out, and
he band released the album opener, being yourself is important. I think that is the having his own space. I go fishing and to the
T‘Trophy’, as a single well over a year best thing you can do. And, I think, learning to football, and all that sort of stuff. We all make
ago. It was the first teaser of what fans would love yourself and express yourself, how you sure each of us has a life outside of it as well
find on ‘The Fallout’. With Josh singing, ‘I wear truly feel, is important. And, yeah, we want to and we have our own space. Even when we are
my skin like a trophy, so they give a fuck about project that and, hopefully, lead by example.” together, that space is there. That respect is
me’, it’s a song about wanting a genuine con- there. We are our own people, even though we
nection rather than just being seen as a prize. n the song ‘Monsters & Demons’, Josh share such an amazing thing, there are differ-
It’s a song with feeling, with depth, and with can- Isings, ‘All your monsters and your ences and we do all that sort of stuff. I think
dour. demons, yeah, they’re here to stay.’ Josh thinks that’s important, no matter whatever level you’re
Later in the song, Josh sings, ‘My heart in a that most people probably have monsters and at, that you have that split. You can be Jack from
tomb till it can’t breathe’. We ask if men, or peo- demons. THE HARA on show days, but when we go
ple in general, lock their heart up or bury it away “I’d hope so. It makes us human,” he says. home and when we’re with our family and
in a tomb. “I think ‘Monsters & Demons’ is also about the friends, we’re Jack Kennedy and Zack Breen
“Yeah, absolutely,” replies Josh. “Masculin- relationship with that and the relationship of and Josh Taylor. I feel like it’s a different thing,
ity, in general, it’s that whole thing where men being a creative person and an artist and the it’s like a separate person. I think dealing with
struggle, I think, sometimes, to be vulnerable. fear of losing your demons and the fear of being that sort of stuff is about having everything in
You feel like you have to be strong and hold it happy, because some of the best art, I believe, your life, just making sure it’s in check. If you let
in, and I think it can be quite damaging if you do and some of the best songs we’ve done comes things slip, if we let slip going to the gym or
that for too long. So, yeah, that’s exactly what from a place of darkness. And, yeah, it’s a weird doing all this stuff outside of work and seeing
that lyric is. Sort of getting used to putting up a thing, to wonder what it’d be like if you didn’t friends, and that sort of stuff, that’s when things
shield for so long, then it does more damage have that side, what would happen, and it’s such get too much and you’re like, ‘Alright, whatever’.
than good. Yeah, man, talk about your feelings, a dichotomy.” We’ve never done mad stuff, but yeah, it’s
which, again, is something that we’re really good There are a lot of dark songs on ‘The Fall- harder if you haven’t got that control or aware-
at and have got better at, which is really nice. out’. Songs such as ‘Stay’ and ‘Violence’ (which ness in everyday life.”
Talk to your mates. Let it out. Have a cry.” features As December Falls, who the band have
We love that the band are open about men- just toured the UK with) focus on a toxic relation- efore signing to Mascot Records, the
tal health. They have been mental health advo- ship, while ‘Easier To Die’ exudes hopelessness Bband had a period of being an indepen-
cates for as long as the band has been in and despondency. dent band, following the split from their previous
existance. Back in the early days of the band, Some of the songs also cover experiences label. They had some tough times behind the
the trio visited schools and spoke about mental that they’ve had in the music industry. ‘Inter- scenes, which brought up an array of emotions,
health, urging kids to be themselves. galactic Sabotage’ is described as “a bit of a including anger, insecurity and doubt.
“The school tours we did when the band first piss-take song in a way,” says Josh. “It’s very Josh says, for him, it was self-doubt “about
started, it was via an agency, actually,” Zack tells tongue-in-cheek. Us kind of taking the piss out everything, really. You question everything. With
Black Velvet. “I felt like it was a great opportunity of the music industry, how we feel it’s full of bol- the last year, before we joined Mascot Records,
at the time, ‘cause we had just started and this locks. Just us kind of being like, ‘Fuck off’, in a we went independent for 12 months, and I think
guy was like, ‘We’ll put you in front of hundreds kind of funny way. And, yeah, just wanting to go there’s a lot of uncertainty with that when it’s just
of people every week if you do this,’ and we back in time and be a band before social media, us. We’ve got an amazing small team, but I think
thought, ‘Alright’. Not very rock ‘n’ roll, but you’ve before all the bullshit and just play shows and that was kind of a shock to the system to really
got to play every show you’re offered, I feel, that sort of thing. Yeah, that’s the kind of vibe, believe in yourself, and there are days where
when you start. And we’ve always been about just us having a bit of fun with it.” you just… it feels like nothing’s working, or
honing that live show. And there were so many “Stick it to the man in that one, it’s great,” you’re not moving forward, and yeah, that over-
positives, actually, in hindsight. It was so bene- says Jack. “There are things in there, if you pick whelming sense of you not feeling good enough
ficial. Just being on the road all the time, learn- up on them, and I think people in the music in- in yourself, and yeah, just not knowing what the
ing how to play together, learning to know what dustry, if they pick up on them, they’ll be like, I answer is, but yeah, that’s it for me.”
Jack’s going to play next and how I’m going to think, quietly, a lot of people will be like, ‘Yeah, Zack remembers, “On the back of what you
follow that. Just subconsciously, playing to- this is true’.” just said there, Josh, that time where we left our
gether, living together every day, but the way ‘Twist The Arrows’, meanwhile, is related to previous label, and we kind of then commenced
that the school sessions went was, we did pro- how musicians can swing from the elation of writing for ‘The Fallout’, we told ourselves, day
mote mental health as well, which, I think, is a playing to thousands of people to then going one, regardless of whether we get picked up
really great thing to do. And we did that for half back to mundane life at home. We picture the again, ‘We’re doing it, no matter what’. And, I
an hour in our set, the rest of it, we promoted ‘mundane life at home’ as being a good place think, in that moment, yeah, it took a lot of
our music, promoted our tours in the areas that and time to recharge and a way to stay strength to huddle together and be like, ‘Stay
we were touring in, and we’d go visit, promote grounded. true to the vision’, especially with that uncer-
mental health and promote the band. When you “It can be good for that, yeah,” says Josh. “I tainty. We just existed with that uncertainty being
boil it down to that, those bullet points, it was re- think it is a headfuck though, I think that the there. And that was tricky, that was definitely
ally good and we got a good return for it. I’d like more the extreme highs to the extreme lows can tricky. But, I think, Mascot, getting picked up, if
to think/hope that we did help some people in be quite hard to regulate. Every time after we’ve anything, speaking personally, that cemented,
the interim of doing that as well. We definitely done a big tour and we come home, that first ‘Oh yeah, we know what we’re doing. The music
THE HARA