Deaf Havana Release Their 7th Album ‘We’re Never Getting Out’

Accepting yourself is one of the most daunting, challenging and altering things you can do in this life. To see every asset of your being, the good and the bad, the wins and the failures, the lessons and the mistakes, all in the same light, and use the clarity uncovered to push you forward into ever greater things, it takes a lot of work. But when it all slots into place, you wonder why you didn’t take the steps sooner.

James Veck-Gilodi has been confronting this for most of Deaf Havana’s career. And it is only now, within the creation of their stunning seventh album, We’re Never Getting Out (out now via So Recordings/ Civilians), that it has all started to make sense. The realisation that he has spent years swaying between extremes of existence, never genuinely finding contentment or happiness at either end. Forever feeling like every step of the band’s journey to now – through Top 10 albums, sold-out tours, total breakdowns, and endless rebirths – has been to please someone else rather than himself. A constant battle of expectation, both inside his chest and on the turntable, that was always going to boil over at some point.

Until the Summer of 2023, James felt like he was sleepwalking into another edition of this cycle. But over the next twelve months, he would make two decisions that would ignite something different inside of him and would lead him towards We’re Never Getting Out. James talks to Hi Fi Way about the challenges involved with album number seven.

Was the real exciting part now the lead up to album number seven?
Yeah, it’s becoming real. I wouldn’t say exciting. I’m pretty nervous to be honest. Normally I’m all right, but this time because I really care about this album, I’m quite apprehensive because there’s nothing I can do now. It’s getting released and people are going to hear it and if they hate it, I’m gonna be sad.

Has that really felt like a labour of love this time around?
Yeah, it really has. The song writing process was really enjoyable, but the recording process was not enjoyable at all. Most of it. Some of it was fun, but doing my parts, I really did not enjoy myself. But I love how it sounds and I’m really happy with it.

Was that because of the usual challenges that come with recording an album?
I think it was because I was going through a divorce, my alcoholism and drug taking was at peak. I’m sober now, which is great, but I’d been trying to stop booze for five years and I couldn’t. Whilst we were recording I was at the peak of alcoholism and I just was not in a good head space, so it was just hard.

Does the song writing process feel like a cathartic or therapeutic kind of process?
It does. I’ve said this before, but I find it easier to communicate my feelings that way rather than talking to people, which is probably a problem in itself, but for me it is quite therapeutic to be able to put it in a song.

Did you approach this particular album any differently than the other six?
I definitely went over the songs with a fine-tooth comb more. I went back and edited them and made sure they were really good songs before we finally recorded them. Normally I get a bit lazy and just go, “Eh, that’ll do.” But this time I really made sure it was the best it can be.

Did that come with experience and getting better at what you do, or was it more like, “This is the one we’ve got to nail”?
I think it’s a bit of both, but mainly the latter. We’re getting older, we don’t know how many albums we’re going to release, so this one has to be pretty good. I was a little harder on myself too. Normally I just go, “That’ll do, that’s good enough.” But this time I was like, “It needs to be perfect.”

In terms of how you wanted the album to sound, was that clear from the beginning?
Not really. We wrote an album before this, recorded most of it, and then scrapped it, it sounded completely different. I don’t know if I had a specific idea of what I wanted it to sound like. We just went back to basics: guitar and voice built into an emotional rock song. The guy who produced it, George Glue, is a good mate of mine. We started writing together and eventually I asked him to do the album. He’s technically amazing but doesn’t work like most producers. He just does whatever sounds good. Half of it we recorded in my house. There are so many weird little textural bits I would never have thought of. George deserves a lot of credit for how it sounds.

Will those textural elements be easy to replicate live?
It’s going to involve a lot of delay on the guitar pedal and a lot of weird stuff, but yeah, we can. We’ve played one gig since recording the album and it was fine. A lot of that stuff comes with trial and error. It’ll probably take a few gigs before we nail it.

The album you scrapped, would you ever revisit it or is it just not good enough?
It’s probably not going to be revisited. Two of the songs made it over to the new album, but we changed them a bunch. When we listened back, it sounded like an album of B-sides. There was no “Yeah, this is great.” My feeling toward it was “Eh, it’s all right.” And if I’m thinking that before release, what would I be thinking in a year? So we went back to the drawing board.

I love the song “Car Crash.” What’s the story behind that one?
Thank you. I wrote that while I was still in a ten-year marriage. It’s basically about knowing the relationship’s going to end, or already has, and feeling conflicted about how to approach it without hurting anyone. Of course, you end up hurting everyone involved, myself and my ex. It was me going over in my head the best way to approach it.

As these songs started coming together, was that a moment of validation for yourself? Like a moment of triumph?
It did. It was a bit more depressing at the time, more like, “Oh God, this is reality.” But having recorded it and going back to listen, I definitely felt validated.

What were your thoughts when you played the album back for the first time, start to end, without the producer’s hat or any inclination to make adjustments?
Honestly, the first time I got it back and listened to it, I hadn’t slept, I’d been out the night before, and I remember listening to it and thinking, “No, this is shit, we got to do it again.” I texted my brother, who plays guitar in our band, and said, “I think our album’s shit.” And he was like, “It isn’t, just sleep and listen to it again.” Then I listened again and thought, “That’s the best thing I’ve ever been part of musically.” I don’t know what was going on in my head the first time, but I felt really accomplished. It’s the first album I’ve made where I truly think it’s the best possible representation of what we can do as a band.

The album is fantastic, is positive feedback hard to accept? Do you ever wonder if people are just winding you up?
Yeah. I think because I’ve been doing it for a fair amount of time, I tend to believe people when they say it’s good. If I show it to my friends, they’ll be honest for sure and fans, I guess, will be honest too, there have been people who’ve said, “Nah, it’s not for me.” I don’t take compliments very well because I’m quite self-deprecating. But with this one, I’m trying to take them on board because I do believe in this album and I love it. I like to think other people will love it too.

How do you think the Deaf Havana sound has changed or evolved between albums?
It changes quite a lot. All our albums sound different because I get bored with what we sound like. I listen to so many types of music that I always want to do something different. On this one, I think we came back to what we really want to sound like. A couple of years ago we did an album that was way poppier than the others, and I ended up not liking it after a year. This one feels real, we weren’t trying to sound like anything, it just ended up sounding like that. If anything, we’ve gone back to our initial vibe: real lyrics over emotional rock songs.

Were there any particular bands or influences that were significant this time around?
Not really. We definitely took some sound elements. I’m not a huge fan of this band, but the producer and my brother love The War on Drugs, and they have all those weird textural elements in the background. So we took influence from that. I can’t even remember what we were referencing, we just didn’t want it to sound overly processed. I wanted the drums to sound like real drums, not programmed or fake. I wanted it to sound like people in a room playing music. Honestly, I just don’t listen to that much music. I’m really bad at that.

With seven albums now, how do you approach the live experience? Do you focus more on recent material or include older tracks too?
We were just coming up with a set list two days ago for the UK tour in October. The more songs you have, the harder it is, you want to play what you want, but also not piss off the people paying to see you. I try not to play too many new songs since the album will have just been released. We’ll play the singles off the new album, and then it’s pretty evenly spread across the others. The only one we’re not playing much from is the record we released during COVID, we’re only doing one song from that. Honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of that album. So yeah, it’s really hard to keep everybody happy.

Any touring plans in the works for Australia?
I hope so. I said this to someone else earlier, I’d hope we come back to Australia on this record. Hopefully next year. I’d love that to happen. As far as I’m aware, there’s nothing planned, but we definitely want to. It’s one of our favourite places to come.

Interview By Rob Lyon

We’re Never Getting Out is available now via So Recordings/Civilians.