Previous interviews with Husky Gawenda and his cousin Gideon Preiss (the frontman and keyboardist, respectively, of local indie-folk sensation Husky) leave the impression that although they’re super-polite and lovely lads, they err on the serious side. Today, while they sit at a boardroom table signing an endless pile of copies of their new albumRuckers Hill, they’re happy to let their guard down. For a start, while it’s well known that Preiss used to watch with envy while his older brother played guitar with Gawenda in the garage, it turns out there were certainly some awkward musical years for the singer.

“There was a tiny little metal phase,” confesses Gawenda.

“It wasn’t that tiny,” Preiss laughs. “I remember when Husk got his first electric guitar, which was a B.C. Rich. It’s a metal guitar and it’s set up for shredding and playing fast. I used to go around there and Husk and my big brother would be working out Guns N’ Roses and Metallica solos – ‘Enter Sandman’, that kind of thing. I could not have been more jealous.”

“But that phase didn’t last long,” Gawenda interrupts, trying to regain some ground. “That guitary, wanting to shred thing lasted a couple of years and then I went back to Leonard Cohen songs.” He then lets slip that Preiss’ mother (along with so many ladies of the era) had a little thing for Ricky Martin. “And you loved it,” he adds gleefully, before Preiss makes him take it back.

The boys have made no secret of the fact they’re influenced by singer-songwriter greats (not to say anything against Metallica or Martin). They draw on Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, and of course, Cohen. This was the stuff playing in their parents’ cars when they were kids, and they’ve always connected with it. “They’re artists that you grow with as you develop,” Preiss says. “But I loved Dylan, Neil Young and Cohen as a kid. I loved them then and I love them in a different way now. I guess we were lucky to have good musical influences early on – good records playing in the lounge room.”

Cohen comes up in conversation a lot with Gawenda and Preiss, partly because he’s just released his 13th studio album, and partly because Gawenda was reading bits of his last novel Beautiful Losers in his local cafО during the recording of Ruckers Hill. Neither Gawenda nor Preiss wishes to compare their band to Cohen or any of the other greats listed above, but they do provide a yardstick of sorts for their songwriting.

“If the song’s not taking me away,” says Gawenda, “I’m thinking, ‘Man, what’s the fucking point, when guys like them can make this kind of music and these kind of songs?’ On the flip side, you don’t have to write the greatest songs ever written and make the greatest albums. You can just aim to do something good and move people. Most of the time, I feel like if we are achieving that at all, we’re achieving plenty. I’m still jealous of Leonard Cohen though. He’s a once-in-a-century kind of guy.”

As a unit, Husky described the experience of recording their 2012 debut album Forever So as unique, insofar as they had complete creative control over the process. They recorded it in a shed out the back of Gawenda’s rented Fitzroy abode, which also meant they weren’t fettered by constraints of time or money. If holding the reins is something the band values, how did the experience of recording Ruckers Hill compare?

“I think we did have the same degree of creative control,” says Gawenda. “The difference this time was that the label and other team members invested in what we were doing. That creates some pressures and expectations that we hadn’t dealt with before, but essentially, we were totally in control of what we were doing and I still feel that the greatest expectations and pressures came from ourselves, as they did on the first record.”

Similarly, the fellas have said they didn’t write Forever So with any particular audience in mind, and it was equally true this time around – the band’s musical integrity is not up for grabs. “You’ve got to answer to yourself on all of these things,” says Preiss. “In 20 years’ time you want to feel like you created something that you’re happy with. When we made the first record, we never really had any expectations around how people would receive it. I was actually very surprised that it was well received. I feel like I don’t have a choice about it. You have to set those standards for yourself. There are certain things that you don’t compromise and authenticity is one of them.”

“It can be a little bit like chasing shadows with a flashlight, though,” qualifies Gawenda. “If you’re trying too hard for authenticity, that’s not authentic. You need to let go of trying too hard for anything. Often, it’s best just to let go of all of that stuff and just write and record.”

Did they achieve that with Ruckers Hill? “An album’s a snapshot,” Gawenda says. “Forever So was a snapshot of three years ago and Ruckers Hills a snapshot [of now]. If the album sounds different, that probably has more to do with the fact that time has passed and life has changed and we’ve read different books, listened to different music.”

“And spent time touring,” Preiss adds. “That has an effect on the things you write and what you want to do going forward.”

They say you should never work with friends and family, and Preiss and Gawenda are an exception to prove the rule. It’s obvious that they’re not only good mates but their shared history is an advantage. Preiss has a nice spin on it. “I feel that it makes at least parts of working together easier,” he says. “The best example I can think of is when you’re touring, because when you’re away for long stretches and you’ve got family there, you feel like you’re taking a bit of home with you, and there’s a lot of comfort in that for me.

“If someone had said to me when I was a kid that I’d get to tour and work and play music and do all of the things we’ve done together with my big cousin, I would have been the happiest little kid in the world. It’s nice to remember that.”

Ruckers Hill out now throughLiberation. Catch Husky atOxford Art FactoryThursday November 13 (tickets here) andThe Brass Monkey Sunday November 16 (tickets here). Also appearing at The Small Ballroom, Newcastle on Friday November 14 (tickets here).Husky headline Sip & Savour at Sydney Craft Beer Week, Carriageworks, on Sunday October 26.

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