Artist of the Week- The Jezabels

This week’s Artist of the Week brings with them a dark sound, with heavy lyrics. The Jezabels have made waves in their native land of Australia, now they’re on a mission for success in the U.S. The Jezabels have released a trilogy of Eps, with their latest being “Dark Storm.” The band is touring the US with shows at SXSW ending here in LA at the famed Hotel Café. Though the journey hasn’t been easy, the Jezabels have “achieved everything we could have hoped for 10 times over,” says keyboardist Heather Shannon.

The band began this trilogy of Eps in 2009, with their release “The Man Is Dead,” in early 2009, and followed it up with their second Ep in November of that year. “She’s So Hard” was released with some of their most recognizable tracks: Easy To Love and Hurt Me. With the release of “The Man Is Dead” the band began to get more recognition on the air waves in Australia. With the power of the internet, social media and a great sound, the band’s fan base began to grow.

With the success of their single “Hurt Me, ” the band began to struggle with the writing process for their follow up Ep. When beginning to write tracks for “Dark Storm:” “We had a bit of writer’s block,” says lead singer Hayley Mary. “We were all stressing and being passive-aggressive, and then someone said, ‘I’m really worried that this isn’t going to be like Hurt Me!’ It was as obvious as that. And we were all like, ‘Yeah, me too!’ As soon as it was said, it was a lot better. We decided to write whether we had a single or not. We realized we can’t function in that way.”

Sound thinking prevailed and the end result is an one of the stand out Eps of 2011 (even though it was released in Oct 2010). From the outset, the listener is immediately sucked into the dark tone of their lead off track “Dark Storm.” Hayley’s haunting voice soars through the track, almost ethereal like. Although Dark Storm is an Ep, it has a sound and a cohesiveness that takes you on a short journey (or maybe a small trip).

There is definitely a way the band delivers a song that is rare, yet refreshing. Hayley says, “We do think it’s funny how dramatic our songs are, and I think you could misconstrue how seriously we take ourselves. There is happiness in there, but it is really cool to write this epic thing and call it Dark Storm! It’s a really serious name, but it’s obviously very melodramatic.”

The Jezabels are one the bands to watch for in 2011, and I don’t throw that around loosely. If you’re attending the SXSW festival in mid-March, then The Jezabels needs to be on your list of bands to see. The Jezabels wrap up their North American Tour March 22^nd at the Satellite and March 23^rd at The Hotel Café. Check their website for further details.

Useful Links

KCRW’s Artists You Should Know