The loss of a close friend has helped inspire the sophomore set of Wellington's Family Cactus, writes Jacqueline Smith.
The sense of spaciousness in Family Cactus' new album Spirit Lights was born from the band's exhaustion, says lead singer Adam Ladley.
They lost a dear friend to a rare, aggressive form of cancer, during their recording period last year. It deeply affected all six members of the Wellington troupe of twentysomethings, and not a song escaped the heartache. In fact, the title track, about someone needing the help of kind spirits, came out of their mourning.
Without being funereal the lightly strummed, sometimes orchestral and sometimes melodromatic folk rock tunes on Spirit Lights take the listener there.
For all the band members, it manages to pinpoint the sense of emptiness that humans feel when life betrays them.
"Mira was a family friend of many members of the band, and became our very good friend, and it definitely had an effect because it was so tragically quick," Ladley says.
Pained melodies and airy vocals in Moss Green Cape, which alludes to nature claiming a soul, and the soft eerieness of The Dragon Flies featuring the lyrics "body is afloat in the sky", are specifically about the death, and trying to find beauty in nature's ways.
"Looking over it all, I was a bit unaware, but you can see themes of it running through the whole thing. Especially as we were so intent on changing and trying and not saying no to any ideas, and things were constantly being written. That happened right in the middle of it and did have quite a big effect," Ladley says.
As well as the grief, Family Cactus had a lot of expectation hanging overhead throughout the recording of this sophomore album.
Ladley knew they had a lot to prove, having split from their record company Sony, citing a desire to be independent. On top of that, Family Cactus had set themselves rather high standards with their widely acclaimed 2009 debut Come Howling, which described them as New Zealand's answer to emotive powerhouses like Arcade Fire, or Phoenix Foundation in country-mode.
"I don't think we were having a difficult time for all the classic reasons like having a big commercial hit or being really famous, because we don't have any of that. It was more because we were trying to do something different and it was hard to realise.
"We wanted to make a much better record. I have personally grown as a much better writer and musician and we wanted to push forward," Ladley says.
Seeking to push his creative inspiration further than before, Ladley headed to a little bach in "an amazing, tempestuous, elemental" Wai-iti, north of New Plymouth, with his guitar and keyboardist Graeme Cummack.
That led to the birth of the songs - more percussive, yet airier than ever, but Ladley says the album evolved vastly once he took them back to the band, which has reshuffled its members since Come Howling. Two guitarists left, amicably, to pursue study and new drummer Reese McNaughton and bassist Matt Armitage joined the posse.
"It was always going to be interesting to see whether the family aspect of the band could weather the storm," Ladley says.
It did. In fact the band has just finished building its own Blue Barn studios, in a Wellington warehouse.
It's fitted with plenty of double and queen-sized bunk beds in case they all need to crash after a hard night of recording. Or partying.
"It's not on the level of The Surgery or Roundhead or anywhere we have recorded, but it's definitely a bit of a dream," says Ladley.
It was a desire to have their own space, and do their own thing, that lead to the band's long, drawn-out split from Sony. Perhaps coincidentally, the decision came soon after the band travelled to America to recover from recording and to be inspired.
"The thing about New York for us, is that we had recorded this really difficult album over about five months, and really pulled our hair out over it and had a lot of really difficult things happen, so by the end we were really exhausted," Ladley says.
The band piled into an old Brooklyn apartment with a basement where they were able to play and write songs. Well, that's what they did for half of the time, the rest was spent seeking out crazy New York encounters, and fielding comparisons to Flight of the Conchords.
"It's hilarious especially being from Wellington and people saying 'Wow you know those guys'.
"I don't think you can go over there as a band now without someone making a joke. So we can thank Bret and Jemaine for that."
LOWDOWN
Who: Wellington band Family Cactus
What: New album, Spirit Lights, out May 30
Live: Kings Arms, tonight.
- TimeOut
