BACK AGAIN: Ha the Unclear are playing at the Whanganui Musicians Club next week alongside Dictaphone Blues. PHOTO/ SUPPLIED
BACK AGAIN: Ha the Unclear are playing at the Whanganui Musicians Club next week alongside Dictaphone Blues. PHOTO/ SUPPLIED
Ha the Unclear return to Whanganui next week as they polish up for a tour of Australia.
The Auckland-based band have won praise since the release of their debut album Bacterium, Look At Your Motor Go, and a national tour last year.
Ha the Unclear were last in Whanganui whenthey played at Space Monster in March and will have a collection of new tracks when they hit the stage at the Whanganui Musicians Club on February 12.
Singer, guitarist and songwriter Michael Cathro said the response to the first album has been great.
"It's been really surprising and encouraging I suppose," he said.
International blogs BBC Introducing and Entertainment Weekly called the album "absolutely bonkers" and "fascinatingly odd", respectively while the band was picked up by Courtney Barnett on her recent New Zealand tour.
Cathro is joined by Ben Sargeant on drums, Theo Francis on guitar and Paul Cathro on bass in creating guitar-based alternative pop.
Lyrically Ha the Unclear explore absurd narratives such as a love song, Secret Lives of Furniture, from the point of view of a coffee table.
The tracks for Bacterium, Look At Your Motor Go, were written over a couple of years and the band has previously toured under the name Brown but "as you can imagine it was hard to find on Google".
The new name came as an anagram of a friend's nickname.
Cathro has continued to write music sometimes dredging up and re-writing old bedroom tracks.
"We've got all the material together for the next album so we hope to get that out mid-year," he said.
Ha the Unclear will be supported by Dictaphone Blues at the Whanganui Musicians Club on February 12. Doors are at 7.30pm and there is a $10 entry.
