Such is their authority in the originally LA-orientated genre of thrashy industrial noise rock, you’d be forgiven for thinking HEALTH were old timers in the scene.
You might be surprised that it’s only two years since their self-titled album upgraded them from performing for free at cult clubs like The Smell to touring and trampling over Europe’s festivals with their wildly energetic and disturbingly loud live sets.
But with second album ‘Get Color’ looming on the horizon, HEALTH are becoming in demand for their big sets and wild shows. And they’re happy about it. Focal point of the band John Famiglietti exclaims, “It’s more fun playing big shows outside at night time. It’s sexier. People don’t want to have sex with us when we’re playing early in the day. I couldn’t even get my own mother to have sex with me when it’s light.”
Safe to say HEALTH have a lighter sense of humour than their dark and physical music suggests. But when you delve a little deeper you can see where their sometimes painful, sometimes nauseating, always beautiful sound comes from. John explains, “Before the band we all had draining jobs. Jupiter worked restraining emotionally disturbed girls aged five to ten from shitting themselves, Jake worked as a medical historian at an orthopaedics office, BJ made coffee and I was the bottom of the pile of a TV crafts show. We have this collaborative stress and neuroticism that went into our music. We just did not want to make a mediocre album.”
And HEALTH’s second album, while not mediocre in any way, is somehow more accessible than their first self-titled effort. Vocalist Jake Duzsik explains that they are not ashamed in making songs that have progressed beyond the atonal style of 2007. “We’re never going to stop experimenting but we definitely want everyone to be able to respond to the music immediately. Even if people think ‘what the fuck is that’, we still want them to be bobbing their head. We’re not going to be a style-changing band but the sound will evolve. Our song writing has evolved and developed and is better now.” Horror of horrors, some of ‘Get Color’’s tracks even go so far as to have melodies and repetition.
The band are not lacking in ambition, which Famiglietti exudes. “We want to make a great album one day. We’ll do it. Not to say that I don’t think this one’s good. But you want to accomplish something else afterwards. The unifying thing for all of us is that music is the most important thing in our lives. We don’t joke about it; we take it all really seriously.” They are a band who exude drive and determination in their personalities and their ominously serious music. You should be drinking to their health this year.
Words by Henry Greaves
