High Highs announce album details

Words by Scenewave Australia - Published on December 18, 2012

High Highs have revealed plans to release their debut album, Open Season, on Fine Time/Sony Music on January 25th.  The band will support the release in Australia with an intensive schedule of live appearances, including three at the Laneway Festival, and headline gigs in Sydney and Melbourne.

Jack Milas and Oli Chang are High Highs.  The Sydney natives – now Brooklyn residents – craft music critics have described as an “unholy” marriage of acoustic-guitar textures and synthesized atmospherics that shimmer and stun with “sun-kissed sadness.”  The High Highs sound is a dynamic widescreen vision of their own reckoning, as deep as it is delicate.

Open Season picks up from their eponymous 2012 EP, and addresses their ambitions to encompass an even broader palate.  The twelve songs of hypnotic found sounds, guitars, pianos, percussion, and electronics create the intimate sensation of being overheard from other rooms – as if we’re eavesdropping on the band’s folk-tinged acoustic turns and unmistakeable harmonies.

Milas’s now trademark falsetto has been described as a “weapon of mass emotional destruction.”  Lead vocals were initially duties he endeavored to shirk.  “I just had so little confidence in my voice,” he confessed.  “Falsetto was the only way I knew how to get any vague vibe out of it.”  Chang concurred.  “Your speaking voice is you. With falsetto, you can become someone else. You don’t have to deal with listening to yourself.”

The tracks on Open Season evoke the powerful quiet of Nick Drake being backed by the glowing atmospherics of Boards of Canada – or the delicate workings of Nils Frahm with touches of Neil Young: simultaneously modern and timeless.  “There’s obviously a lot of scope for what you can do with a laptop and a keyboard,” Chang explained.  “It’s more straightforward which palettes of sound work with acoustic guitar, drums, and voice.”

The title track has been warmly embraced this year by alternative and community radio all around the country.  The band is tipped everywhere as one to watch for 2013.  And the rest of the world is taking notice, with “Flowers Bloom” and “Open Season” featured in several international ads, TV shows, and feature films.

High Highs will be home in Australia to show off their wares as part of the East Coast leg of the 2013 Laneway Festival.  They’ll treat fans in Melbourne and Sydney fans to their hypnotic live experience with shows at The Toff In Town and Oxford Art Factory, with support from City Calm Down.  Tickets are on sale now.

“Synth-laced acoustica with pop choruses; lullabies with bite.” – The Guardian, New Band of the Day

“The EP is a breathtaking debut from the three-piece, providing stunning vocals and quietly confident instrumentation, with much promise for the future.” – Tone Deaf

‘Musical lushness at its best’ – NME

 ‘Airy, harmony-laden indie pop’ – Pitchfork

Highs Highs – Open Season tracklist
Dey
Milan
Flowers Bloom
White Water
Open Season
Bridge
Phone Call
In A Dream
Once Around The House
Love is All
Slow It All
Pines

Secret Sounds by arrangement with Artist Voice presents

HIGH HIGHS
With special guests City Calm Down
Presented by Brag and Beat

Wednesday, January 30
The Toff In Town.
Supported by City Calm Down
Tickets available through MoshTix

Thursday, January 31
Oxford Art Factory
Supported by City Calm Down
Tickets available through MoshTix

Friday, February 1
Laneway Festival Brisbane

Saturday, February 2
Laneway Festival Sydney

Sunday, February 3
Laneway Festival Melbourne

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