Interview: Hurricane Bells

Katie from Live.Love.Twilight. did an interview with New Moon Soundtrack artists, Hurricane Bells, and she’s let us reprint the interview.

Tell us a little about your background in music. How old were you when you stared? Where does the name “Hurricane Bells” come from? What are some of your major influences?

I have been the singer and guitar player in a band called Longwave for years. Longwave has put out 4 records, two for RCA. I have also played guitar on tour with Albert Hammond Jr and Teddy Thompson. I started playing guitar when I was 10, and Longwave is the first band where I ever sang.

I made a record by myself and wanted to call it “tonight is the ghost”. Then I decided I needed a name for the “band”.

Hurricane Bells were heavy stone bells that used to be hung high in trees, by the sea. The only way the bells would sound would be if a very dangerous storm was coming. I thought that was an evocative image and decided to call the thing that.

Can you describe your music/sound?

The Hurricane Bells stuff is kinda stormy, late night kinda music, or rainy day. There is a bunch of echo and reverb on things. Longwave is a pretty guitar heavy band, and I wanted to make something a bit more mellow, that I could put on at night.

Have you read the Twilight series or watched the movie previous to being selected for the New Moon soundtrack?

Nope. sorry! I am reading book 1 now…
If so, what is your favorite book in the series or of the ones you’ve read thus far? Do you have a favorite character or set of characters?

I like bella!

What was your inital reaction to being selected for the New Moon soundtrack?
wow…

Can you describe the process of being chosen for the soundtrack?

It came as a bolt out of the blue to me. My manager had asked for something “exclusive” about 3 months ago. I already had the Hurricane Bells record done. He said the people he was talking to wanted something not on the record. I had “monsters” left over, and I sent it. I told him I didn’t want to know what it was for.

Then I found out that it was really going to happen last week, maybe a week before it was announced. They wanted edits of the song for the movie, and I had to do them. I couldn’t tell anyone, and it was pretty nerve wracking. When it was announced I was so relieved….and excited.

Have you met the director, Chris Weitz? If so, what was that experience like for you?

I haven’t met him.

You can read more HERE

-By Jen