Harlequin League

Fri 30th Jan, 2009 in Features

Wowing audiences Australia-wide and picking up a J Award nomination, Perth indie rockers Harlequin League have wasted no time in making a name for themselves. Ahead of their tour with Sugar Army, the band took some time out to speak with FL.

With the release of your debut EP, a spotlight feature on Triple J and countless live shows under you’re belt; life must be pretty sweet for Harlequin League?
It’s been pretty good fun so far. We have worked pretty hard and it has all gone down pretty quickly, so we are pretty focused on just rolling along and making sure we are getting better as a live act and songwriters all the time.

Where did the name Harlequin League originate?
It was a song lyric I had early on and Jim thought it had a pretty cool ring to it. We had pressure to come up with a name pretty quickly before our first gig so we just went with it. From memory, other suggestions were Roadside Profits, Scrap Metal and The Deads. I think we made the right choice…

For those who haven’t heard Harlequin League yet, how would you describe your music?
We have always been focused on maintaining a good level of energy through our songs. It’s most fun to play that way. Now we are trying to challenge ourselves by bringing a lot more dynamic into the songs. We feel like we have improved a lot in terms of dynamic over the past year so hopefully energetic, dynamic music. I suppose people take different things from it when they listen.

Your EP We Used To Be Gods But Now We’re So Plain came out in September last year. How did you find the production process?
We recorded in Melbourne with Woody Annison, so it was good to get out of our comfort zone for a while. However, we were very comfortable by the end of it and I don’t think we really wanted to come home. It was a cool relaxed atmosphere, so there weren’t too many problems except for getting ridiculously stoned all of the time, which can be a problem when doing simple tasks after a while.

How have things changed for you since the release of your EP?
We have played a bucket load of gigs and toured a little. It has given us a bit of a spur-on to try and write a killer album, which we are travelling along with pretty well at the moment.

What has been your biggest challenge as a band so far?
Maintaining personal relationships and earning enough income to survive while taking advantage of as many opportunities as we can. Writing good songs like we want to is also a pretty hard task.

Harlequin League has a round of shows coming up alongside Sugar Army, as well as a couple of festival spots.

Wednesday 18 March – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Thursday 19 March – The Evelyn Hotel, Melbourne
Friday 20 March – Annandale Hotel, Sydney
Saturday 21 March – Fowler’s Live, Adelaide
Friday 27 March – Prince Of Wales, Bunbury
Saturday 28 March – Capitol, Perth
Sunday 29 March – Joondalup Festival 2009, Perth