Australian alternative rock four piece, Bellusira are a hot new band to look out for, having released their debut album June last year titled ‘Connection’ which received positive press and earned them international attention. The band have been busy since, as recently signed with Stephanie Christie Management and Publicity as well as being co-managed by veteran rocker Will Hunt (Evanescence/Device) and are currently touring in the US for the first time. There’s lots happening for them right now, so we had interviewer Carina Lawrence ask bass player, Mark Dalbeth about being signed, the album, touring and what is to come for the band.
Firstly what does Bellusira mean and how did you come up with the name?
The name is a combination of two latin words which are Bellus (Beautiful) and Ira (Anger). Life is full of light and dark moments and that also comes through in our music. Our singer Crystal was the one that came up with the idea for the name.
To those who haven’t yet been fortunate enough to hear your music, how would you describe you sound?
I don’t like to put any preconceived ideas into people’s minds about how we sound so generally I just lead them to the music:
https://bellusira.bandcamp.
You signed with Stephanie Christie Management and Publicity and are also co-managed by veteran rocker Will Hunt (Evanescence/Device), how did this make you feel and what has it been like so far working with them?
It’s been an incredible experience so far working with those guys. Even though it’s very much the early stages of the relationship, we can already see the benefits starting to come through with having such and amazing team backing us.
You are heading out on your first US tour, how excited are you about this?
Getting over to the US has always been the big
goal for us. Everything so far has been a step towards achieving that. We are working on dates at the moment with management and will no doubt get those up on our pages soon.
What can attending fans expect from your shows?
The most important thing for us is that people get a show. If people are going to make the effort to come down and support you, the very least you can do is entertain the hell out of them! This whole new thing of looking bored on stage and shoe gazing makes me want to vomit in my mouth.
After your US tour, are there any plans to tour in Europe/UK? And also if you could play anywhere elsewhere would you like to go?
We would love to play in Europe/UK and that is definitely something that we are keen on and have already talked about. The idea of traveling the world and experiences new places while playing music that you love is the ultimate for us, we will happily play any stage, anywhere in the world and love it!
Your debut album, ‘Connection’ was received well in Australia, how proud did this make you feel and what would you say have been the biggest highlights for you as a band so far?
We were very pleased with how the response was from the record. After spending so much time in the studio, it was hard to let go of it but we had to
just believe in the songs and trust that it would make that connection with the fans.
The biggest highlight to date was when we landed the mgmt deal because we knew that we finally had a strong platform to launch from. The most important thing for us is to get our music out to as many people as possible so getting that has certainly put us in a much better position to do so.
What was the recording process like for ‘Connection’ and what are the main themes running through the album?
It was a tough recording process; we had to work really hard on the songs and had very high standards with each section of each song so a lot of culling of ideas was going on. Crystal wrote all the lyrics for the record and as much as she doesn’t have a set theme that she writes about, she always draws from her own life experiences and also how she is feeling about the world that we live in.
Do you have any main influences or inspirations that contributed to the album?
We are a band that listens to a lot of different styles of music so that naturally comes out in the writing process. We also try and stay away from what everyone else is doing in the scene, trying to latch onto something like that will no doubt be career suicide. The most important thing to us is to write the best songs that we can write. It worked
for the Beatles right?
Have you started writing any new material yet, or are you just focusing on touring with your debut at the moment?
We will be pushing the debut album overseas as it will still be pretty new to people over there but saying that Crystal and I have been doing some pre production work on the second release and have around 4 or 5 song ideas that we are starting to develop.
As you’re about to head out on your US tour, have you got anything you would like to say to your fans?
Firstly thank you so much for the support. Every day we get messages from people and it’s amazing how much they love what we do and what the music means to them. Hopefully we can meet a whole bunch of US fans while we are over there and have a drink with them!
Finally, what else does 2014 hold in store for Bellusira?
World domination and meeting Ellen Degeneras! We don’t mind which order that happens in!
If you haven’t already, you need to check out this band: http://www.reverbnation.com/
Keep up to date with the latest news and tour information on their Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Also check out their latest video for ‘Cachango’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?