fbpx
  • About Us
  • Advertising
  • Legal Notices
Lagniappe Mobile
  • News
    • Cover Story
    • Latest
    • Serial Stories
    • Bay Briefs
    • Community News
    • Open Documents
    • e-Edition
  • Baldwin
  • Commentary
    • Damn the Torpedoes
    • Hidden Agenda
    • Beltway Beat
    • The Real Deal
    • Weather Things
    • The Gadfly
    • Letters to the Editor
  • Cuisine
    • The Dish
    • Word of Mouth
    • Beer and Loathing
    • Cuisine Directory
  • Arts
    • Artifice
    • Art Gallery
    • The Reel World
    • Calendar
  • Music
    • Music Feature
    • Music Briefs
    • Music Listings
    • Submissions
  • Sports
    • The Score
    • The Starting Line-Up
    • From Behind The Mic
    • Upon Further Review
  • Style
    • Media Frenzy
    • Mobile Magnified
    • Horoscopes
    • Master Gardeners
    • Style Feature
  • Lagnia-POD

Select Page

From Gold Coast to Gulf Coast

Posted by Stephen Centanni | Aug 8, 2018 | Music Feature | 0 |

Photo |  Submitted

Australian folk duo Hussy Hicks — Leesa Gentz and Julz Parker — are returning to Mobile with tracks from their new album, “On the Boundaries.”

Band: Hussy Hicks
Date: Thursday, Aug. 16, 7 p.m.
Venue: Callaghan’s Irish Social Club, 916 Charleston St.,
www.callaghansirishsocialclub.com
Tickets: Call 251-433-9374 for more info.

For years, Australian duo Hussy Hicks have brought their harmonic, earthy, folk sound from the Gold Coast to the Gulf Coast. With each local performance, Leesa Gentz and Julz Parker fall more in love with the Mobile Bay area and its music scene.

In fact, the geographic impression has been so strong that the two recorded their album “Lucky Joe’s Wine and Other Tales from Dog River” with Rick Hirsch at his waterfront Studio H2O.

Now, Hussy Hicks return to the Azalea City with tracks from their new album, “On the Boundaries.” For this outing, Gentz and Parker decided to give their folk sound more of an edgy rock flavor than in the past.

In a recent conversation with Lagniappe, Gentz explained Hussy Hicks’ recent experimentation in the studio as well as the duo’s ever-growing love affair with the Alabama Gulf Coast.

Stephen Centanni: Australia has never disappointed with its music, but it’s kind of a funny thing. It’s like you won’t hear of any bands coming out of Australia, and then all of a sudden, they’re here. I have to know what it’s like getting your music out of Australia and to the rest of the world.

Leesa Gentz: Well, Julz and I have always been fairly adventurous girls. Our very first tour together was actually here in the States, like, 12 years ago. It was kind of as much traveling around as it was playing. We have always taken our music as many places as possible. That’s kind of the fun for us. It’s seeing new places and meeting new people and trying new things and struggling with languages and all that sort of thing. We absolutely love touring at home in Australia, but yeah, I definitely think the adventurous side of us loves it when we get to tour overseas.

Centanni: How do you think touring in the South has affected your music?

Gentz: So much! Both of us are head over heels in love with the Mobile music scene. We just think you guys have the most amazing musicians and songwriters and studios. The musical community is so strong, and we feel so fortunate because we met Kristy Lee so many years ago. She really brought us in and introduced us to everyone. We’re so lucky that we have so many friends in Mobile and [have] been allowed to be a little, tiny part of your scene.

Centanni: With that said, how would you compare the Mobile scene to somewhere along the Gold Coast?

Gentz: I would say that apart from the actual type of music that’s being played, I’d say it’s quite similar. We have a really thriving, healthy scene. We’ve got all kinds of music. There’s a lot of hardcore and metal music coming out of the coast at the moment and good hard rock music, but we have a really strong acoustic, kinda rootsy scene as well, which is obviously the one that we fit a little bit better into.

We’ve been really lucky, because the government has been focusing some energy and money into building our music scene and giving us a bit more of a national identity in our country. We live in a holiday area. It’s where people and their family go for their holidays, so we’re trying to establish ourselves as a great music city as well.

Centanni: One of the many friends that you’ve made since you’ve been coming here is Rick Hirsch. You even came and recorded an album at Studio H2O. What was it like working with Rick?

Gentz: Rick is just incredible. Obviously, apart from being the nicest guy in the whole world, his knowledge of music and his ears are incredible. Him and Julz get on like a house on fire. We pop around to Rick’s whenever we’re in Mobile. These two, they’ll sit around and play guitar for hours. They talk about guitar, and they jam. We’ve actually made a lifelong friend with Rick Hirsch.

As far as recording, we had Stan Foster coming in to play bass, and Greg DeLuca playing drums on the record. The five of us sat around and had a ball playing music for five days. We were also lucky enough to have Eric Erdman and Donna Hall and Kristy Lee come in and do some vocals on that record. For two chicks from Australia, having that level of musician play on your album is mind blowing.

Centanni: What was it about Dog River that inspired an album?

Gentz: I think just the people. We’ve been coming to Mobile for so long, and we had spoken for Rick for a couple of years. He kept saying, “Come on! We need to record something together.” So one year we just put enough time aside that we could sit down and be creative. You know, a lot of the songs were almost finished, some of them were completely finished. All of us sat down and nutted it out together and what direction everything should take.

Obviously, that studio is in one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen, with the magnolia trees and Spanish moss and the river and watching fish jump. We even had those fireflies everywhere at night. So, the place was magical, but the people were the most magical.

Centanni: The new album is called “On the Boundaries,” which I think is appropriate, because it’s an edgier album than you’ve done in the past. For you, how do you think the title of the album reflects that collection of songs?

Gentz: It definitely pushed our boundaries musically. Usually, we go into the studio, and we try and create a sound that can be easily recreated in a live situation. With “On the Boundaries,” we decided not to worry about any of that. We spent about 12 days tracking everything on that album, and we made as many different, kind of interesting sounds as we could. We experimented a lot, and we did a lot of vocal layering. There’s a few songs where it’s like you’re playing in vocal parts on the keyboard. That was all sung live. We created heaps of samples.

After we tracked it, we had several months away. Anytime we were in an interesting place, Julz would get out there recording stuff, and we would capture sounds of the birds or the frogs. So, we got kinda experimental, but we have been playing most of those songs live. I think that if it’s a decent song, then you can strip back all the layers and still have the essence of the song, and those songs have been going over well in live situations. We’re very happy with the album. It just won an award for “Album of the Year” in our local area. Even though it’s different to our other stuff, everyone seems to be responding positively.

Centanni: As far as your experience with this album, how do you think it will affect your future recordings?

Gentz: I don’t know, Julz and I have been talking about what we’re going to do with our next album. I think we might take approaches from both sides, with more band-sounding stuff and the layering stuff.

In Australia, we’ve been traveling with our rhythm section, Tracy and Allie. We’re home for a few weeks in September, then we go to Europe for about six weeks. We’re hoping that once we get back from all that at the end of November we’ll be able to get back in the studio and just play around and see how things fall into place. I think that hopefully it will fall into place, or we’ll have to try a few different things.

This page is available to our subscribers. Join us right now to get the latest local news from local reporters for local readers.

The best deal is found by clicking here. Click here right now to find out more. Check it out.

Already a member of the Lagniappe family? Sign in by clicking here

Share:

Rate:

PreviousGirl next door
NextMAC members on display

About The Author

Stephen Centanni

Stephen Centanni

With the exception of two years spent at Auburn University, Steve Centanni has spent his life in Mobile County while focusing on his two passions: music and the written word. As soon as he was issued his driver’s license, Centanni began to explore the local music scene in the early ‘90s. He filled his weekend with visits classic local venues such as the Four Strong Winds Coffee House, Vincent Van Go-Go’s and Culture Shock, all of which welcomed those who had yet to reach 18. After high school, Centanni traded Mobile for Auburn to complete his B.A. in English with an emphasis on general writing. While at Auburn, he had the honor of studying under the Pulitzer-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, who served as the nation’s Poet Laureate in 2012 and 2014. After receiving his diploma, Centanni quickly moved back to Mobile and completed the University of South Alabama’s graduate program with a M.Ed. Eventually, he was tapped by the nationally distributed Volume Entertainment Magazine to serve as the magazine’s managing editor/senior writer. His time with Volume allowed him to exercise his love for both music and writing. As Volume began to fade, Lagniappe recruited Centanni as their Music Writer and later their Music Editor, where he has remained for a little over a decade. As far as his involvement in the local music scene, Centanni organized Cess Fest at the Langan Park, which was a mini-festival focused on original local music in a time when original local music was veritably taboo in Downtown Mobile. For a short time, he brought original music to Downtown Mobile as the in-house promoter for the now deceased venue Cell Block. He managed local underground powerhouse Fry Cook, until the members parted ways. Centanni has lent his bass to bands such as Keychain Pistol and The F’n A-Holes, and he toured nationally as a member of Abstract Artimus & the Torture Children. Currently, he provides vocals for the garage blues rock outfit Johnny No. Ultimately, Centanni’s experience in the local music scene as both a participant and an observer has allowed him to witness the ever-changing persona of Mobile’s enigmatic music scene, which continues to leave him with more questions than answers.

Related Posts

King of ‘Double-Wide Trailer’ strips down

King of ‘Double-Wide Trailer’ strips down

March 2, 2022

Four arms, two mouths and a room full of sound

Four arms, two mouths and a room full of sound

January 21, 2015

For those about to rock

For those about to rock

December 15, 2021

At Studio H2O, Rick is rollin’ on the river

At Studio H2O, Rick is rollin’ on the river

December 31, 2014

Recommended Stories

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things

By Ashley Trice

Wordles can hurt us

By Rob Holbert

The Great Anvil Shoot of Laurel, Mississippi

By Andy MacDonald

ACAC steps to bat with new exhibit

By Kevin Lee

The Strays finally drop full-length album

By Stephen Centanni


  • Advertising
  • About Us
  • Contacts
  • Jobs
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy
  • Join the Sunday Brunch Newsletter

Search This Site

Browse the Archives

© Lagniappe Mobile 2022