Haley Moley – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

Haley Moley – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

We caught up with the gang from Haley Moley, and asked them for a little razzle dazzle, and this is what we got.

RRX: How does practice go? Is the road practice enough, or do you have a practice shack? If so, how does it look? What’s on the walls? What cool sh*t is in there?

HM: (Jen) We’re incredibly lucky to have been part of the rotation of bands using the Swordpaw practice space at Oakwood Community Center in Troy for all the years we’ve been together, and the sound and feel of that room is inseparable from our music in my mind. It’s a reasonably large, carpeted, low-ceilinged room in the basement of an old church, and as the daughter of pastors, this environment is nostalgic and comforting for me. The space is full of quirky old objects and furniture, random bizarre artworks come and go on the walls. The bands store and share gear there and it’s come to be fairly well-equipped for recording.

RRX: Is there a song you wrote that really died on the vine? Something you all like but somehow just couldn’t make it work. You swear never to play it live, that sort of thing?

HM: (Andrea:) “Love From Afar” is a favorite song that we that came together in a unique way but we could never recreate the magic again live. So that’s sort of a tune that’s been swept under the rug at least as far as performance is concerned. Basically we jammed on a song we were working out and recorded a take in February 2020 right before our drummer Mike was headed to Grenada. We were all loose and particularly on the mark rhythmically. Unfortunately the pandemic interfered with finishing the recording and getting together for practice. Jen was able to piece together a demo from the iPhone recordings we had and wrote very befitting lyrics about dealing with the difficulties of being in a relationship during lockdown. She added some flourishes and recorded her vocals over the practice take and made it sound like a completed song! We even made a music video using clips from practicing over Zoom, adding silly phone filters to our faces, etc, which told a story of how we interacted with our friends and loved ones during a journey into the unknown haha. The song and video live on, but it will likely stay in a proverbial time capsule to never be unleashed on stage again.

RRX: Tell me about your most recent song, album, or video (you pick.) Tell me a story about what went into making it. Not a process, but a cool story that took place within the process.

HM: (Paul:) For the video for our album title track “Everybody Wins,” we convinced the fine folks at Green Island lanes to stay open beyond their regular league night and we played a mini set of songs while all of our friends bowled. We have some very talented friends (Eric-Jon Tasker, Tyler Desjardins, Christopher Brown, Michael Brown) who captured a really fun night of everyone basically bowling badly. A lot of people we love and cherish are in the video including the late Sarah Darby. I’m not sure there’s a narrative in the video, but it’s really just a great snapshot of our scene of people at that point in time. We couldn’t have made it without them.

(Jen:) There was definitely an attempted narrative, but not sure if it’s clear in the finished product – With my edit I hoping to make it appear that everyone was somehow getting strikes with every single attempt (“Everybody Wins!) no matter how poorly executed, as a result of some sort of spell we were casting with our song.

RRX: With the exception of singing, everyone has an instrument, an inanimate object that has the distinction of being a lifelong friend. Smooth or temperamental, these objects have a character. So pick someone to answer, can you tell us something special about what you play, your technique, your instrument?

HM: (Paul) I often get questions about my instrument and it’s time I answered this for a publication. My telecaster looking thing is, in fact, a 5 string banjo (currently no drone string on it). When I was in college at SUNY Binghamton, I had a lot of friends forming bands. I hadn’t played any instrument since 5th grade…so being the dumb 18 year old that I was, I mentioned to my mom that I wanted an instrument. I didn’t specify what kind of instrument and while on a trip she picked up a banjo somewhere near Sacandaga Lake. I procured a stick-on piezo pickup, a small Fender amp and a Boss OD-1 and learned about feedback. It was happenstance, but I’ve always made something out of whatever I had been handed. Nothing I did with it was traditional, so in a sense I forced it into my context while it simultaneously defined my trajectory.

RRX: We have to play somewhere, and sometimes those places have more going for them than a stage and a power outlet. What is a memorable place you played, and bonus points if it’s not a well-known place.

HM: (Paul) We’ve played in a number of cool spaces. Much love for places like the Low Beat, No Fun and Desperate Annies, but the one-off’s often wind up being more memorable just because it’s a one-off. On that front, we’ve played at Hillview Farm. David Van Pelt is an amazing host and puts on some killer shows at his place in the summer. It feels simultaneously expansive and intimate. Also, RIP the Rare Form parking lot, that was a favorite spot to play that is sorely missed.

RRX: Every artist’s first song is a milestone. But so is the latest song. Describe the first song/album you recorded, and also the latest song/album you recorded; what are the differences?

HM: (Jen) Haley Moley’s first batch of songs were actually a heavily electronic collaboration between just Paul and myself – those early tracks can be found on the album “Trajectory.” After we released a couple of those, we had the good fortune to be approached by Andrea, who initiated the expansion of the project into the five-piece it is today (eventually with Pat Thorpe on bass, Mike Broomhead on drums.) The original electronic duo that kicked things off lives on as Architrave, and the latest music from Haley Moley definitely departs extensively because of the dense, live instrumentation and the broad range of influences we all bring to the writing process. All of us are dj’s except Paul, and I think our shared love of dance/electronic music is evident even in our recent songs.

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