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Let the buzz begin! Haley Bonar’s fifth full-length record Last War is just around the corner, it drops May 20th on Graveface Records.
With distorted guitars, synthesizers and hard drums, the album features dark brooding soundscapes that reel you in and don’t let go.
GroundSounds recently caught up with Haley for an exclusive interview, check it out below.
Can you tell us about working on your upcoming album Last War? What was the recording process like this time around? Where did your creative inspiration come from?
The recording process for this record was a little bit different from my previous records. I spent two days in a studio with my band recording the majority of the tracks, but I also recorded two of the songs (“Eat for Free” and “From a Cage”) almost top to bottom with a microphone on my laptop in my apartment. The songs felt good in their raw, stripped down state, and though I tried to record a band version of “From A Cage”, I just couldn’t love it as much as the one that was recorded immediately after writing it. The final addition to the album was “Woke up in my future”, which was a happy accident. We got to fly out to LA and record in Dave Grohl’s studio 606 for a charitable 7″ for the Liz Logelin Foundation, and I immediately wished that track could be on Last War. Two weeks later my manager called me stating that the distributors refused to release anything under 32 minutes as a full length, which was 3 minutes more than my album was at the time. Though I think that should be entirely up to the artist to decide what is regarded as an EP or an LP, I decided to add ‘Woke up in my future”, and give 5% of my record proceeds to the LLF. Everybody wins.
Creative inspiration for these songs was fully based around some major life changes I was going through at the time. My baby daddy and I broke up, I was suddenly a single parent to an infant, and I quit drinking booze. Everything was heavy, confusing, grown up. I had a lot of sadness and rage to get out, which thankfully I am able to do because I write songs.
Sonically, Last War takes a darker direction, what inspired the brooding soundscapes?
Well, I can honestly say that my music has always been relatively dark. I think the main difference here is that I have the help of harder drums, distorted guitars, and synthesizers to help me exercise my demons.
Looking back at my garage band files, I noticed that I had been messing around with a song called “last war” for a couple of years prior to the song that is on the record. Something about it is haunting. It means death but also rebirth, the end of something potentially violent or destructive. The only thing that can happen after an empire is burned down is to rebuild. I feel that human relationships can often reflect this… the last time you fight with someone, the last time you do something fun, the last time you are intimate, these all mark the end of one thing and a beginning of something else.
What music are you currently listening to?
Cerebral Ballzy, The Motels, Goat.
You mean besides running in army boots? haha. My favorite part of filming was during the scenes with the fires… running around that dump with broken furniture and appliances and doll parts everywhere. It was creepy, but also insanely peaceful. Plants grew all around the trash, nature was taking over. And we lit stuff on fire and I ran through it.
Can you tell us about the creative and writing process behind the track “No Sensitive Man?”
I find it interesting that in the music culture (specifically related to this song), there are guys who are disrespectful to women, but hide behind a normal, “sensitive musician guy” quality. I wanted to turn the gun around, making it the woman who was involved with a sensitive man, but really desired someone who she could belittle and possess. Someone who would shut up and worship her from a distance, who couldn’t touch her, disrespect her, or fool her.
You had quite the feature with Justin Vernon appearing on two tracks, what was it like working with him?
Justin is a super good human. I introduced myself via email because we have a million friends in common. We became sorta pen pals for a little while, and I just sent him some demos for kicks. I wrote “From A Cage” with him in mind, because I wanted to impress him! I sent it to him 10 minutes after I recorded the demo, and he wrote me back the next day saying he had listened to it on repeat while ploughing his driveway and was obsessed with it. A few weeks later I went out to April Base to hang out with him and some friends and he offered to sing on my record. He added his vocals on his own time and sent them to me. I’m honored.
How is your punk/new-wave project Gramma’s Boyfriend comin’ along?
I love Gramma’s Boyfriend. It is the band that I want to listen to, the band I have always wanted to be in. We have a new record coming out this summer and I’m so excited. We all have a magical chemistry together and are somehow able to write songs with structure in a way that is unbridled, charismatic, and free. It’s totally fun and frightening.
What books and poets have inspired you most?
Off the top of my head, Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History”, Margaret Atwood’s “Cat’s Eye”, Charles Bukowski’s “Ham on Rye”, “Post Office”, and “Burning in the Water, Drowning in the flame”, Cookie Meuller’s “Walking in clear water in a pool painted black”, Emily Dickinson.
After the release of Last War, what are your next plans?
Hopefully we will tour Last War, the Gramma’s Boyfriend record will be released and toured, and I can go back to being a mom, refilling my creativity, and writing the next record.
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