Dancing Heals

DANCING HEALS by CHRIS JOHNSTON (The Age) Here is a picture of Melbourne band Dancing Heals – who have a definite thing about cosmic American music and all the associated Americana -- living the dream. It is 2012 and they are on their second trip to the United States. This time it was to play at the CMJ Music Marathon, a very desirable mini-festival in Brooklyn and Manhattan every American autumn. The first visit was an epic roadtrip through the west coast’s rock-and-roll mythology, but more of that later. CMJ in 2012 went well. By then the Heals’ first album Into The Night was out with tracks Live and Learn and Leave Them All Behind already used on US TV and first ever single Out Of This used for a month as a promo for the NBC show Parenthood. Afterward, the band headed out of New York to North Carolina and the city of Asheville, renowned for many things but most notably beer and music. It has a strong counterculture and has been named by Rolling Stone magazine as the ‘new freak capital of the United States.’ “Asheville, North Carolina,” says Heals’ guy Jon-Lee Farrell, who shares lead vocals and songwriting duties with Daniel Trakell in the band and also plays guitar and keyboards. Farrell says ‘Asheville, North Carolina’ in the way romantics for this kind of thing would say ‘Lubbock, Texas’ or ‘Memphis, Tennessee.’ “Asheville, North Carolina,” he says. “Not to be confused with Nashville. We are not quite Nashville.” The hill town is home to a studio called Echo Mountain in a converted Methodist church. Band of Horses, Smashing Pumpkins and Justin Townes Earle have all recorded there. And so had the LA band Dawes, the “authentically vintage” (Rolling Stone, again) Laurel Canyon acolytes who Dancing Heals love. “Dawes had just finished their third album there the day before we started,” says Farrell. “We took that as a really good sign.” Dancing Heals spent a week at Echo Mountain making new album You Will Never Be Younger Than You Are. This is where that picture of them living the dream takes place. “It was amazing,” says Farrell. “The people in the town were great, the live music scene was great, the people in the studio were great. We stayed in a house about a mile away and every day we walked to the studio, everything was set up in there all the time, we could just turn up and plug in and record for seven hours. A lot of crappy big pots of coffee going around all day. The walk was through a quintessential white picket fence part of town, down a hill, through some trees which had all these amazing red and yellow leaves. Frosty mornings. Incredible.” He says it was a “solidifying songwriting moment” for the band with two principal songwriters and long histories between all four of them in other interconnected outfits. “There is a big stained glass window overlooking the whole studio,” Farrell says, “and organs and pianos and lots of vintage gear. Everything sounded warm.” The studio records to tape in ancient and glorious analogue. “We had already decided to make a pretty tape-sounding, honest-sounding record,” he says. “We wanted it to be soft on the ears even though it was rock ‘n’ roll.” That right there is the best mantra for the Heals’ assured and at times extremely tender second album – soft on the ears even though it’s rock ‘n’ roll. Put that on the posters and the point-of-sale things in the record shops. The whole Laurel Canyon thing is in full effect, Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles being the spiritual and sonic home of melodic American rock starting with Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in the 60’s and spreading right through to Jonathan Wilson and Dawes in the modern era. Dancing Heals’ songs on You Will Never Be Younger Than You Are (half of which was done in North Carolina and the rest thanks to an Arts Victoria grant back home in Melbourne) are cut through this prism. Ancient and modern. Melody and structure and songcraft are the top three attributes. The guitars sound awesome. These are love songs from right across the spectrum from head-over-heels to rejected-and-alone. The sound relates to that road trip made during the time of the shows in LA after the first album. The band got a car and took off driving as soon as they could, deep into the heart of an American musical fantasy with a soundtrack to match. “We drove through the desert listening to our favourite records,” Farrell says. “Lots of Tom Petty and Fleetwood Mac. We went through the Joshua Tree (the place, not the U2 album), the Mojave desert, to Arizona and back to LA.” Back in the here and now Dancing Heals have shrugged off early uncertainties to become a cohesive unit who make great records. All four members come from different geographies: Jon-Lee Farrell is from Launceston, drummer Jarrad Long is from Newcastle, bassplayer James Lovie is from Mt Eliza near Melbourne and Daniel Trakell is from Ballarat. The genesis of the band was in other bands who ended up playing together on Melbourne’s vibrant indie and rock circuit and then, in an evolutionary step, joined forces, jammed, recorded, endured more comings and goings and fruitful times and lean periods before settling on the lineup we see today. According to Farrell, patience is the key. Don’t rush a song, don’t be in a hurry to see one made. Also, he says, a good song works no matter how it is done. If it is good, it is always good. “If we have the shell of a song it should be good whether it is stripped back or a full band. “Good melody,” he says, “and good chord structure.” W W W . D A N C I N G H E A L S . N E T TONE DEAF - 26 June 2012 ...a delightful listening session which transcends age and genre. [on Into the Night] BEAT Magazine - 22 Feb 2012 After the release of Diamonds and ahead of their debut album, Melbourne’s Dancing Heals serve up a double-side single of two glistening pop gems. Live & Learn is a spooling, West Coast Cali-flavoured track with dreamy vocals – somewhere between The Thrills and Teenage Fanclub. Having kicked around as a demo for the last couple of years, the intoxicating Hilary May gets the full studio treatment here. They pump it up with a swinging beat, but essentially it’s the same beautiful song. BEAT Magazine - 25 May 2011 Diamonds is the first single from the forthcoming Dancing Heals album; a tune that's been kicking around their Myspace for months and a highlight of their live set. I must have listened to it a few dozen times towards the end of last year, and a few dozen times since. The verse is unassuming, a starry twang of guitar and a dreamy vocal melody that builds gently toward the chorus, pulls back, and builds up again. When you finally get to it, the chorus just knocks you off your feet. Everything is drenched in reverb, a wall of sound, but the melody cuts through and absolutely fucking soars. Earnest but epic songwriting. BEAT Magazine – Single of the Week – 28 July 2010 Melbourne’s Dancing Heals are teasingly familiar, but defiantly odd; the melody never quite goes where you think it should. Jon-Lee Farrell’s voice strains slightly, pulling their lush and bullish indie rock into melancholic corners, bringing a country twang to their sound. It makes for such lovely listening. FASTERLOUDER.COM.AU – DH opening for Fanfarlo – 5 August 2010 Dancing Heals begin the night with a cracking and high energy set of youthful material. Their enthusiasm was instantly noticeable… Dancing Heals remained tight and controlled throughout, putting forward a great set and certainly one that will make people follow their paces. OFF THE RADAR – Blogspot A smooth flowing indie rock gem… New album "You Will Never Be Younger Than You Are Now" out July 5. Debut album "Into The Night" out now. www.dancingheals.net