HANA BRENECKI
and
KATE ALEXANDER
release debut album
DON’T YOU HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO?
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When songwriters Hana Brenecki (Hana & Jessie-Lee’s Bad Habits) and Kate Alexander (Local Coward, Ute Root) decided to record their debut album Don’t You Have Better Things to Do?, their vastly differing musical ideas and tastes could settle on only one thing: harmony.
Throughout Don’t You Have Better Things To Do?, the record stretches its arms so broadly around popular music of the past hundred years that it’s impossible to describe; at times delicately yet classically poppy, à la the Everly Brothers, at others a grungy onslaught of distortion and yet at others, a mournful and sparse country offering, replete with the mechanical clunks of an old church organ. Through it all, the harmonies of these two distinct voices murmur and howl together, melded so closely at times that the lines blur as to who exactly is singing what.
Released independently on March 29, the first single to be lifted off the album is the infectious ‘I Was Trying Not To Think Of You’. The song starts with an ethereal reverb drenched guitar and dual vocal harmony that intricately weaves together along the melody, before snapping straight into a pop hand-clap rock n roll dance around the lounge room beat, whilst still carrying that parallel harmony the whole way through.
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Stream album DON’T YOU HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO?
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Stream single ‘I WAS TRYING NOT TO THINK OF YOU’
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After meeting in a Melbourne recording studio in 2016 (having been both asked to sing on a mutual friend’s record and politely fighting over the same vocal part), the pair quickly bonded over their shared love of singing old pop and country tunes. It was seemingly inevitable that they start sharing song ideas, emails flying thick and fast between their hometowns of Adelaide and Melbourne. Since then, they have played a number of duo shows between Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, including recent supports for the Kill Devil Hills, Ben Salter & Mick Thomas, and in their separate bands for artists such as The Peep Tempel, Cosmic Psychos, Cash Savage & the Last Drinks, Cold Chisel and Kasey Chambers, gracing a variety of festival stages and touring Australia, USA and Japan. Indeed, the two all-too-often find themselves at opposite ends of the country or globe.
Separation has not deterred the pair, concreting their signature woven harmony style through stories conjured together and apart, pouring their narratives out to audiences with a discernible on-stage connection that often feels like they are singing only to each other as the room falls away.
Despite both Hana and Kate regularly touring nationally and internationally at the whims of various busy bands and their own solo endeavours, they managed to record this LP in December 2017 inside a 143-year-old bluestone church, perched on the outskirts of the Victorian town of Romsey. The planning for this record took place during the incredibly damaging run-up to the Australian same-sex marriage plebiscite, and it was extremely important to all involved to find an inclusive and accepting space, which they did. The Romsey Uniting Church was chosen for its acoustics, its gorgeous setting and its emphasis on anti-discrimination and tolerance.
Co-produced by Nick Finch (Cash Savage & the Last Drinks, Graveyard Train) and engineered by Matt Chow (Shepparton Airplane, Graveyard Train), Don’t You Have Better Things to Do? was captured directly onto an 8 track tape machine, with the uniquely artful and expressive drumming of Julia Watt (Moody Beaches/Party Pest/Hot Wings/Hana & Jessie-Lee) pulsing throughout. Due to the 727km distance between them, the record was overdubbed, pulled apart and smashed back together over the following 14 months with the exceptionally talented Robin Waters (Machine Translations, The Boat People) engineering and co-producing at Glamour Trowel Studios, plus the inimitable addition of flown-in bass player magician Annie Siegmann (from every band in Adelaide). The result is undeniably eclectic, and yet strikingly distinctive in its sound.
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The debut album ‘DON’T YOU HAVE BETTER THINGS TO DO?’ and first single ‘I WAS TRYING NOT TO THINK OF YOU’ will be released March 29 2019.
Available on vinyl, CD and digital and through all major streaming services.
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Launch Dates
Kate Alexander and Hana Brenecki
Live
Friday April 5 | The Old Bar, Fitzroy VIC
Saturday May 4 | Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide SA
Sunday June 2 | Billyroy’s Grassroots Music Club, ALLSAINTS Bendigo VIC | w/ Lachlan Bryan & The Wildes, Ben Leece & Left of the Dial, Georgia State Line, The Good, The Beard and The Ugly + more…
TICKETS
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Connect with
KATE ALEXANDER and HANA BRENECKI
FACEBOOK / WEBSITE
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