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Cape Town rock band, Red Huxley had the amazing opportunity to record their debut album at the world renowned Rancho De La Luna studio in California, owned by Dave Catching from Eagles of Death Metal. This week sees the band proud to release their debut album, entitled Nothing More, to their South African music fans,.
We caught up with Red Huxley and chatted to them about the experiences of recording the album, the album itself, the launch tour and more. Check it out:
Your debut album, Nothing More, has finally been released. Explain the feeling of accomplishment with this album?
Wow! It feels like the past 3 and a half years of working our asses off, up and downs and just pushing as hard as we could and with a lucky break and getting to record this album the way we did, all compressed into 11 songs. It just feels so good to have an album, an actual ‘thing’ that we can now share and say “this is us….. Red Huxley”.
Tell us what went into making your dream of recording at Dave Catching’s from Eagles of Death Metal studio become a reality?
When we heard they were coming to Cape Town we thought, we have nothing to lose, let’s get backstage and give him our stuff and even if he rejects it, at least we tried. So when he replied and said we should go to his studio, Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree California, we went nuts. Then we needed money to make it all happen, so after investigating many options Kickstarter.com came along and just seemed like the best option. We set it up to raise $25000 in 40 Days and worked our asses off to get the word out and we succeeded with 6hrs to go! It was crazy and then all that was left to do was tell Dave we were coming and book flights.
What was it like recording at the Rancho De La Luna Studio?
It’s hard to sum up in a short answer but the short of it is that it felt like home. Dave was like a buddy, who owned hundreds of amazing instruments and made us feel so comfortable and that everything was on our terms so we could be the best on the album. Added to the fact that the place has such history we were in such awe most of the time, it really was special and we’ll never forget it.
What do you think recording at the world renowned studio did for the album and the band?
Well with Dave and Mathias’s combined experience we think we achieved the best album we could have at this stage in our career. Being there did create a kind of intense focus among us three in the fact that we had to deliver on this big trip to ‘America’. But we really did learn a lot, not only about recording an album and those technical things but also about being a musician in the big wide world of music. Those are probably the most valuable lessons we will take into the next album.
How long were you guys in California for and what was the experience like?
We did 3 weeks at Rancho and then 1 week in LA. Just being in America, never mind Joshua Tree is a crazy trip! It’s hard to explain but everything really is bigger and faster!
Joshua Tree is an amazingly serene place out in the desert 3 hrs inland from LA that just really has something special about it and it’s easy to see why guys like QOTSA and Arctic Monkeys have fallen in love with writing music out there. It lets your mind run free into places you never thought you would go.
LA was next level. We did as many musical related activities as possible one of which was sorting out the mastering of the album. All we can say is that we would go back in a heartbeat, just to experience more of the music culture there, it’s huge.
What do you think Red Huxley as a band learned the most on the trip?
However often you may have heard this, we really did learn to just be ourselves. How to put everything of ourselves on that album as much we could and that’s how you become original and interesting as a band. People need something to connect with and music does that.
Also that the world of music is just so huge, meeting the few musicians we did on that trip just felt like the tip of the iceberg and inspired us to want to dive deeper.
What were some of the craziest thing experience during your trip and recording?
In summary, Meeting the guitarist and sound engineer of QOTSA, Murray met the Arctic Monkeys, Dylan fell in a hole and nearly died, Jamming with Hayden Scott from AWOLNation, hanging out with Jesse Hugh’s from EODM, writing a song with Money Mark from Beastie Boys and many more.
Give us the nitty gritty of the album “Nothing More” and what can fans expect from it?
A bit of old, a bit of new and it is something we can confidently say we are proud of. It’s been 3 years in the making since we started and lots of things have changed and shaped us. So it’s a good sum up of our total growth as a band. It captures the last three years on record. Of course we also added all sorts of bells and whistles from Rancho.
You will now be going on the nationwide “Nothing More” launch tour. Will you be performing all the tracks from the album at the gigs?
Not all the tracks make it into our live shows. Some are more suited to acoustic shows and others we only throw into the mix on certain occasions, but most of the album and new songs will be played live, we are very excited to get out and play.
Which part, venue, city of the tour are you looking forward to most?
We had a really great show in Cape Town at Friday’s launch at Assembly, but so far Pretoria’s Arcade Empire has given us some of the craziest times. We are excited to get back there. Also we are going to Durban for the first time and we’ll playing LIVE with Crash Car Burn. That should be rad.
What’s next for Red Huxley after the launch tour?
We have a few festivals lined up for early next year but we really can’t wait to get back into writing. Who knows what’s going to come out after all this madness!
The Red Huxley Nothing More Album Launch Tour Gig Guide:
Friday 22nd November – Tanz Live, Johannesburg
Saturday 23rd November – Arcade Empire, Pretoria
Sunday 24th November – Park Acoustics, Pretoria
Friday 6th December 2013 – The Winston Pub, Durban
Saturday 7th December – Live the Venue, Durban
Sunday 8th December – Upstairs, Durban
Friday 27th December – City, Port Elizabeth
Saturday 28th December – Raggies Bar, East London
Tuesday 31st December – The Mexican, Jeffreys Bay
Photos by Kim Hinrichs
