Happy Valley Interview
Evil noises, and angsty, vehicular screaming coming from a ghoulish throat. Happy Valley knows rune magic, and they’re using it to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Wellington, New Zealand’s Screamo scene. Hamish Morgan (vocals), and Jack Flude (guitar) are obsessively down with the sickness (Punk Rock, not the 19) and both seem to be frothing at the bit to get the word out despite the scene’s innocuous tendency to manage more than a few shows a quarter. I had a cheeky video chat with the two while Isaac Nash (bass) and Aaron McPhail (drums) were busy mauling each other over the infinitesimal resources (sunflower seeds) left in their billionaire apocalypse bunker. New Zealand rules! Last year the band released their debut self-titled EP and the ever-gentrifying flatting landscape of the Windy City has not been the same since.
Jesse: Hamish, you were playing and putting on these houseshows called Hataitai Homewrecker. They were the only punk and hardcore shows happening in Wellington for the last 2 years right?
Hamish: I mean they weren’t the only ones, but they were I guess the most consistent ones. If that’s fair to say.
Jack: Yeah. I feel like over the last 3 years there were probably about two or three total hardcore shows that weren’t at valhalla or at an established venue.
Jesse: And those other ones were mostly just yuppies that were in twinkly bands right?
Jack: Yeah and the Elimination Records shows that have been happening.
Jesse: Were Happy Valley directly involved with Hataitai Homewrecker?
Jack: Well we were supposed to play the first one and then it didn’t happen. We weren’t ready. After that we played one or two of the later ones, and the last one. So relatively so. Especially considering both Hamish and I lived there for the first one.
Jesse: What do you think is going to happen now that there are exactly 0 all ages venues in town, and all music is cancelled?
Jack: Who knows eh? It’s going to be really interesting, because there are probably going to be no international shows for so long. But i have actually no idea what’s going to happen. Like I don’t know if people will start turning out to the other shows more. I feel like they probably won’t to be honest, and it’ll probably just go on as normal. We’ll see all the same faces, and then maybe a few new ones, but I don’t think you’re really going to get the only international show crowd out. But, it remains to be seen. We’ll try.
Hamish: Yeah, my thoughts are similar. I’m hopeful that people will recognise that there aren’t going to be any of your big international artists coming to New Zealand at all, for who knows how long. So why not support the artists that are you know, local, and who don’t only come once every year or two years or however long?
Jack: I mean we’ll definitely be out there doing stuff once we can again. so we’ll keep going.
Hamish: Yeah I’ve had a few thoughts across my mind. I kind of gave the whole ‘doing shows’ thing a rest after doing the last Homewrecker anyway. It was exhausting to be honest. And I was going to -
Jack. Have a break?
Hamish: Leave it alone for a little bit, but I think because of all this happening that it’s going to take people you know, doing stuff to get people excited about music again. Give people something to do and look forward to.
Jesse: During the first show (the one that you didn’t play) you got like, what do you call it, a noise notice? — What are they called when the cops come?
Jack: A noise control notice.
**Hamish gets up and returns with a framed copy of the noise control notice**
Hamish: I’ve got it here.
Jesse: What does it say?
Hamish: Noise direction notice — This notice means you must immediately reduce the excessive noise being produced by ‘Excessive high people’.
Jack: Suffice to say, we did not do that. We did not reduce the noise.
Jesse: So you had to cancel a show with the Menzingers because of the lockdown, correct?
Jack: Yeah, that was real…
Hamish: So they brought in border measures here stating that if you were travelling from overseas you would have to self-isolate for 2 weeks. And they brought that in 2 days before we were due to play. So they understandably cancelled it.
Jesse: Wack.
Hamish: Yeah pretty wack.
Jack: Real wack. We had a special set planned as well. It was so not cool. Not cool.
Jesse: So what have you been doing during quarantine?
Jack: Attempting to push through all of the things that we were trying to do before, which was very difficult in quarantine it turns out. We had very miniscule amounts of recording to do for a recording release. We still have to because we haven’t been able to do it since lockdown and then finishing off a single which is still being worked on, but we’ve made good progress. And then I wrote like way too much guitar so now I have just like probably two or three songs of guitar that we haven’t done anything with because that’s just been me sitting in my room.
Jesse: Let’s talk about your EP. ‘Sober Driver’ seems to be about being straight edge and giving your much cooler friends rides places. What’s it like being one of the 4 people who are still straight edge in New Zealand?
Hamish: I don’t know. I mean. I guess joking between friends I guess it could be. The song is more or less about New Zealand’s drinking culture, and my reflection on that. You could be driving down Courtenay Place on a friday or saturday night and seeing people spewing on the side of the road.
Jesse: Yeah, Crate Day fucking sucks, right?
Jack: We had a Homewrecker on crate day like multiple times.
Hamish: We had two of them fall on Crate Days. So the second to last one was pretty sloppy.
Jesse: Why was it sloppy?
Hamish: People were just off their faces. They were way too wasted. It was fun.
Jesse: Do you think being straight edge is a form of opposition?
Hamish: I guess it could be seen as a counter culture or a political view so yeah I agree with that.
Jesse: There’s two car themed songs’ Auto-motive’ and ‘Sober Driver’. Is your EP car themed?
Hamish: That’s actually our next project.
Jack: Oh god. The amount of memes about this is through the roof. It’s funny as you know. Funnily enough it’s not car themed, it just happens to have two car themed songs but we roll with it.
Hamish: Yeah.
Jesse: Have you ever stolen a car?
Jack: I definitely haven’t
Hamish: No. I have not.
Jack: I have never driven a car, let alone stolen a car.
Jesse: How do you think you fit into the culture of punk and hardcore in Wellington?
Jack: Badly.
Hamish: We don’t fit at all.
Jesse: Why not?
Hamish: We aren’t heavy enough for the hardcore crowd, and we’re not punk enough for the punk crowds. We’re somewhere in the middle. That’s How I see it.
Jack: And there’s very little middle in Wellington I would say.
Hamish: We don’t have breakdowns so the hardcore kids aren’t into us, and then we’re not punk enough -
Jack: For the crusties
Hamish: For the crusties. So we’re just this weird in-between band.
Jack: It’s going to be interesting to see because some of our new stuff is a lot heavier, and I think some of it’s like in a similar realm. But I think that even though we have some heavier stuff, we’re probably still going to sit awkwardly in the middle forever. But I’m cool with that.
Hamish: That’s fine. I’ve grown to accept that. I mean we’re not trying to pander to one particular crowd or sound, we’ve got our own brand. You know, bang your own drum so to speak, and that’s fine. It does irk me sometimes that we do get, I don’t know, snubbed maybe. But it’s fine.
Jesse: What do you mean snubbed?
Hamish: I don’t know there’s just this expectation that we should be playing more shows, It feels like ‘oh we should fit into that’ whatever.
Jesse: You played Hamtown Smakdown though didn’t you?
Hamish: Yeah
Jack: Yeah
Jesse: You’re the only active screamo band in Wellington?
Hamish: I believe so.
Jack:I believe so. The more I am in a band, the more I realise it’s really hard to genre categorize your own music, especially as more time passes and you continue making new stuff. The band was always intended to be a screamo band, and the first EP totally reflects that as I love the style with all my heart. But as we write new stuff we are moving all over the place stylistically so it is hard to say where we best fit. Basically yes we are the only screamo band in Wellington though.
Hasmish: Yeah. If we want to catagorise this as falling under that screamo or post-hardcore thing, then I’d definitely say we are the only band of that type in wellington. Currently.
Jesse: Hamish you organized the Ferguson street stage at the Newtown Festival and played with Ayn Randy?
Hamish: I did along with some other people. Yeah.
Jack: Playing outside was super fun. I’ve never done that before. it was an experience. in the blazing sunlight of mid-day. Perfect.
Jesse: Hell yeah. Did you get sun stroke?
Jack. Thankfully not. I managed to drink some water and put on sunscreen so I didn’t get horribly sunburned.
Hamish: I got mad sunburn on my legs but other than that I was all good.
Jesse: Jack, you were like the Screamo mogul of internet piracy for a while, correct?
Jack: Yes and I continue to still be that. In a slightly smaller way, because I got to the top rank on this website where there’s rad user ranks and you get benefits, and then I couldn’t be bothered uploading anymore. But I still am up there.
Jesse: You told me once your dream was to get arrested for it.
Jack: Yeah. You’d definitely go down in the history books, you know. At least 3 people on the internet would think I was the man.
Jesse: I think the only thing you’re going to get arrested for is helping me sell all those records I shoplifted from the Warehouse and JB Hifi.
Jack: Yeah I mean if they somehow trace that… it would not be great. I still buy records from JB Hifi sometimes. What if I can’t get my records?
