1. The First Record I Bought:
The Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness on double-cassette. I listened to it until my Walkman batteries died, at which point I went to the lounge and plugged headphones into the stereo. It was life-changing.
2. The Last Record I Bought:
Kodama by French band Alcest. We had the pleasure of opening for them earlier in the year. It’s intense, melodic and fierce. My favourite album this year.
3. The First Thing I Recorded:
I was 13 and had just received a nylon-string acoustic guitar for Christmas. Shortly after I was on a particularly unpleasant holiday when I took it up a tree and wrote my first music. I recorded it on a 1970s tape player I found lying around. If anyone finds the tape, I’ll pay you fifty dollars to bury it in salt.
4. The Last Thing I Recorded:
I record most weeks on my phone, sketches. A few months back we finished recording our first album Command the Earth To Swallow Me Up, which we’re now touring around New Zealand and Australia. I’m pretty happy with it, and still enjoy listening to the songs, which is rare after recording for me.
5.The Record That Changed My Life:
Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth is Not A Cold Dead Place. I’d just come out the end of a long running musical project and was a bit disillusioned with the whole idea. Was music worth the time? What happens if you don’t get famous? This record just leapt at me across a bar, and I remember asking the bartender who it was. It led me to a new kind of music that centres on the experience of listening, rather than the image or the people. It saved my love of music.
Hiboux’s debut album, Command The Earth To Swallow Me Up, is available now independently. They play Frankie’s Pizza on Thursday July 20 and the Townie on Friday July 21.
