Husky Gawenda’s band begins Punchbuzz tour in Bellingen

Evolving band brings its Berlin vibe to Bellingen.

Gideon Preiss and Husky Gawenda from Melbourne band Husky at Bakehouse Studios in Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty

The best thing about having a new album out, many artists will tell you, is hitting the road to perform the songs from it. So one can imagine Husky Gawenda’s disappointment when, just as his band Husky was about to embark on a national tour last month, a bout of glandular fever got in the way.

“I’m feeling good now but it was pretty grim for a while,” says the singer, chief architect of the band’s modern folk agenda on its latest album, Punchbuzz. The Melbourne outfit’s third album, released early last month, should have been followed by an extensive tour a few weeks later. Instead all dates had to be postponed.

“I was in bed with a fever when the album dropped,” says Gawenda, “which is a pretty trippy way to experience the culmination of all the hard work we had gone through in the making of the ­record.”

Now fully recovered, Gawenda and his Husky collaborator Gideon Preiss, alongside drummer Aaron Light and bassist Jules Pascoe, begin their rescheduled trip across Australia tonight, as one of the headliners at this weekend’s Bello Winter Music festival in Bellingen, northern NSW.

“It was tough to push back the dates, but we’re still doing all the shows,” he says.

The past couple of years have been transformative for Gawenda and Preiss, Melbourne cousins who formed the duo Husky in 2008 and won Triple J’s Unearthed Pushover competition in 2011. Since the beginning their brand of acoustic folk has evolved, through their 2012 debut album and its successor, 2014’s Ruckers Hill, but Punchbuzz is the pair’s biggest stylistic leap so far, taking their largely organic agenda of the past into much more electronic terrain, as can be heard on tracks such as Ghost and the more atmospheric Cut the Air, as well as the anthemic earworm from late last year, Late Night Store.

It’s what preceded the recording of the album in Melbourne last year with producer Matt Redlich that has been a game changer for the group. In 2015, following heavy touring on the back of Ruckers Hill, Gawenda and Preiss left Melbourne to set up camp in Berlin. A heavy European touring schedule was part of the reason, but the move was more to do with putting Husky and its music in unfamiliar territory, just to see what would happen. They stayed in the German city for almost a year.

“We were excited about the opportunity to live somewhere different for a while and have new experiences,” says Gawenda. “We chose Berlin because we knew it was an interesting, vibrant, eccentric city. We wanted to explore, take our next step.”

Berlin, of course, has been a source of inspiration for many artists through the decades, including Lou Reed, David Bowie and our own Nick Cave. That was part of the attraction for the two Melbourne musos.

“We were aware of that,” Gawenda says. “Hearing the stories of Nick Cave and David Bowie and others probably had an influence on us wanting to move there. It didn’t disappoint.

“We had a really exciting, colourful time there. There are so many artists and weird and wonderful things going on in Berlin, in nooks and crannies, in big venues and street corners and the middle of the night at train stations.”

Although the songs on Punchbuzz didn’t take shape until the duo was back in Melbourne, a new European environment and a music playlist that included bands such as the War on Drugs, the National and Tame Impala pointed Husky in a new direction — one that demanded they incorporate electronic elements into their otherwise organic approach to songwriting, recording and performing.

“Those bands combine organic and electronic elements and do it really well,” says Gawenda. “We both felt it was time to explore sonically. In the past we’ve often stuck to acoustic instruments and I love that approach, but this time we were open to whatever the imagination can conjure.”

This reconfiguration of Husky’s sound means adjustments to their make-up on stage as well, as fans around the country will discover over the next six weeks or so. Gawenda’s calls it “the different beast”.

“It’s a pretty extensive sonic palette,” he says. “There are only four of us so we have to get creative.”

Among the creations is Pascoe playing an instrument that is part bass, part electric guitar, while Light will add electronic elements to his percussive tools.

“My illness took us out of action for a bit,” Gawenda says, “but the band has been rehearsing and it’s a challenge to bring these songs to life. We are having to use our hands and legs and voices all at the same time.”

Bowie was one of the artists who took up residence in Berlin and enjoyed a lengthy career by constantly reinventing himself. That’s something Husky hopes to do as well. Gawenda is already thinking about the band’s next album, which he believes will take them in yet another direction.

“When I think about the future, I would like us to continue to evolve,” he says, “to explore sounds and songs. I don’t feel like in the making of Punchbuzz we were thinking that, but it’s always in the back of our minds.”

And he and Preiss would even consider relocating again in the continuing search for inspiration, although maybe not Berlin next time.

“I’d be happy to move again,” he says. “I would love to spend more time in the States. If it was going to be Europe I would be inclined to make it southern Europe next time.”

Husky has spent a lot of time touring locally and overseas since the release of the band’s debut album.

Aside from their own shows they have supported big-name acts including Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Gotye and Devendra Banhart in recent years.

Now they’re in charge of their own tour and their own destiny.

“The biggest reward from making a new record is touring with it, getting the fans’ reaction,” Gawenda says.

“I love the challenge of bringing the songs to life. It’s real music. You have to work hard for it.”

Punchbuzz is out now through Liberation. Husky’s national tour begins tonight at Bello Winter Music in Bellingen, NSW, and ends in Melbourne on August 24.