Four's not a crowd in a spacious back-of-the-garden room, Dave Scanlon of Halves tells Sinéad Gleeson
'THE EARLY days of Halves were spent writing and practising in makeshift studios all around Dublin, but we've had this room for the past year or so. The room is a light shade of lilac, and is a 'not-quite-a-rectangle' shape that I'm sure is good for the acoustics. But most importantly, it fits neatly at the end of the garden. It's a comfortable size with a wood floor, and has accommodated the four of us, three strings players, a French horn player and our visuals duo at the same time.
"We had it built in one of the lads' back gardens as we all developed back strain and hernias from lugging amps about town. Between us we have amassed a stupid number of instruments, most of which are liberally scattered around the room should we suddenly feel the urge to bash a tambourine or play two glockenspiels at once.
"At the moment we've got the usual band set-up of guitars, bass and drums, with two keyboards, a synth, a violin, a cello, two glocks, a set of children's bells, two melodicas and an accordion - sound engineers all over Ireland hate us passionately. A musical saw, harmonium, autoharp and DIY music box are also to be incorporated at some point.
"The only decorations we have at the moment are a wipe clean calendar for arguing over setlists, our ever-present bear cut-outs, and a hysterical picture of the Czerniaks as kids in the most ornate gold frame I've ever seen.
"All four of us bring song ideas to the band, although some are more prolific than others. We each have different ways of working; the Czerniaks usually have the chords and structure worked out in advance, Brian comes with a riff or two and an adjective, and I tend to haphazardly bash out piano chords.
"Whatever the song nugget, all of us then add to it, kindly suggesting what the other person should play, and often changing instrumentation a number of times as we bash it into shape. We then add in our guest musicians. We have a cellist - a regular live fixture - and some string and brass players. This pretty fluid collaborative work ethic means that very often a song can turn out quite differently to how it was originally conceived.
"Having our own isolated room definitely helps to focus the mind, as we can lock ourselves away for hours at a time without distractions. We can also bring in our visuals collaborators, a duo called Slipdraft who mix the images live at our shows. We've also started using the room as a studio of sorts, with brass, vocals, strings and more recorded there for our last record."
• Halves play The Pavilion, Cork today; Cleere's, Kilkenny tomorrow and Whelan's Dublin on November 22nd. www.ahomeforhalves.com
• For more Musical Rooms, see http://musicalrooms.wordpress.com
