The Brag

Halfway Homebuoy
Crossing Borders
By Benjamin Cooper

The gentlemen of Halfway Homebuoy have scaled mountains and crossed seas to bring us their debut EP, Crossing Borders. After forming in Switzerland all the way back in 2009, they decided to make the shift to Australia on the encouragement of their bassist Nick Potter. “We were all working in a resort town called Verbier in Switzerland,” guitarist James Davison says, “and Nick said he knew a few people in the industry in Australia, so we thought, ‘Why not? Let’s give it a crack.’”

Davison and his brother Jack are joined on guitars by childhood friend Christopher Burn. The presence of three guitarist songwriters in the band is a source of some pride to the group. “We’ve not actually seen a lot of bands that have that kind of set-up, with three guitars,” Burn says. “We all listen to different music, which makes writing songs interesting. To be honest, it’s probably about the power you get from having so many guitars – and having a really strong rhythm section behind us doesn’t hurt either.”

There’s a distinct power and passion to the band’s music, so it seems entirely appropriate that multiple tracks have featured in extreme sports films like Play Gravity 2 and Xavier De La Rue’s Be My Winter. But speaking about the track ‘Gravity’ that features in Play Gravity 2, Jack betrays a slight hint of frustration. “That song actually got picked up by the film pretty soon after we’d written it, and we hadn’t really recorded a version we were completely happy with,” he admits. “They actually ended up putting what was essentially a demo of the track in the film, which was a bit of a shame because we’ve gotten much better at playing it!”

Involving themselves in different mediums, such as film soundtracks, is important to the band. “Besides touring, having our music played in films has been the best way to get it out there,” Burn says. “We’re quite into skiing ourselves, and I’m not sure if we really think about skiing when we’re writing, but it’s definitely nice to hear your tunes as the soundtrack to some huge mountain run.” When they’re not featuring on award-winning films, the band is in its element on the live scene. “Since we’ve been in Australia, I think we’ve played every single kind of venue,” Davidson says proudly. “We’ve played down and out tiny little rooms all over the city, and that’s great for getting your chops up. I think that kind of hard work makes you a much better performer.”

“It definitely does,” Burn agrees. “It was nice to play at The Annandale recently, I think that opens a lot of doors. You can say you’ve played at one of the homes of Aussie rock, so people look at you differently.” According to Davidson, it was quite difficult for Halfway Homebuoy to break into the scene when they first came to Australia. “We had to figure out which were the venues that we could get people to come along to, and we had to develop some sort of a local following. We should have just gone to university here, because that experience carries with it a whole swathe of ready-made fans.”

Despite three members of the group being English-born, Halfway Homebuoy are emphatic about being very much an Aussie band. “Though I will say that I was pretty excited to see The Darkness touring down here recently, flying the flag for great English rock. There really hasn’t been an act so dedicated to excess since Ozzy Osbourne,” Davidson says. “And he’s been dead for years,” Burn quips. “Pickled and all.”

What: Crossing Borders EP is out now through MGM
Where: The Basement
When: Saturday June 2