INTERVIEW: To Love GLADES

Glades is certainly using their voice to make their mark. You may be aware of Glades’ popular ARIA Gold certified smash ‘Do Right’. Now, Glades has delivered their first complete album ‘To Love You’. The album is filled with 11 tracks, each with their own spin on love, and is sure to have you hooked. We talk all things Glades with multi-instrumentalist producer Joey Wenceslao. Here it is below!


GLADES’ journey sparked as high school students in Sydney in 2015. Since then, the trio’s ideas and experiences have manifested into their first full length album, ‘To Love You’. 

Since your journey in high school, how would you say your ideas have grown as you’ve grown as people? How does this translate on your first full body of work?

I guess naturally our perspective on the world and the way we see everything has changed as we’ve grown. Thematically and sonically it feels like we’ve matured from our first EP, This is What It’s Like to our new album, To Love You. I think our songwriting’s developed a lot, and that we can more clearly articulate what we want to say now.

 

Can you talk about the similarities and differences between all of you and how that binds you? How does a contrast of sameness but also diversity in you all help your creative process?

I think if we were too different we wouldn’t be able to hang around each other the amount that we do! In terms of music, you could form a venn diagram of all the music we each listen to individually, and the middle would end up being To Love You. In terms of diversity, each of us has different skill sets. Some might be better at producing, some might be better at melodies, and some might be better at lyrics – but everyone complements each other, and our individual skills fit together. This whole thing wouldn’t be the same if it weren’t the three of us!

 

Was the idea of singing lyrics that stemmed from another group member ever hard to wrap your head around? How did you adapt to make it a bit more flexible to everyone?

Having three of us in the band is great – sometimes one of us gives an idea and one person won’t fully understand it, but another person can act as a translator in a sense.  We’re usually on the same wavelength, or very close to it with bit of explaining!

Behind every song and lyric, the group have a strong-minded, purposeful intention. Each song takes on its own distinctive mould, adding dimension and layers to the album.

Can you share why some songs messages were more effective in an upbeat setting, whilst others shine as ballads?

We definitely wanted to cover a lot of ground sonically and lyrically with the album. With Do Right, there were so many terrible things going on in the world, so we wanted to put out a positive message alongside a positive-feeling, upbeat song, because we felt like that’s what the world needed to hear. Thematically, Sweetheart could’ve been a sad, ballad-y song but we didn’t want to play the victim and feel sorry for ourselves – we wanted the message to have some power to it, so it’s upbeat with more attitude. In Through To You we talk about speaking to a friend in another country while it’s really late at night in your time zone – so a gentle, more intimate sounding ballad felt more fitting.

 

How is there a shift in stripped down, gentler songs like “Better Love” and “Through to You” versus the more bouncy and energetic tracks?

Songs like Better Love and Through To You have a more intimate message so we wanted the lyrics of these songs in particular to be at the forefront. I guess to do that we stripped back the instruments so that Karina’s voice would shine and you can more clearly hear the message of what she’s saying. Upbeat & energetic tracks definitely have their place, but so do the more “in-your-feelings” songs.

 

The trio creates atmosphere through the raw and vocally driven verses, bolstered by powerful, cutting edge choruses. 

Can you share if this was the intent and why? Is this the kind of music that makes a strong impact on you individually?

That’s a good pick up! You never want to show your cards too early and you gotta have somewhere to go when you start, otherwise the song’s a straight road that feels the same the whole way. So when we start with Karina singing in a softer voice with softer instruments for example, you can concentrate on her voice and the words a little more, and then a big chorus comes in as a payoff. There’s something cathartic about a big chorus. Hopefully it makes you want to sing along!

 

A recent tweet saw Glades announce, “due to popular request, ‘porcelain’ will be on the album”.

Who makes the ultimate decision to cater to fans needs? How do you pick up on these trends and feedback?

We wrote Porcelain last year and sent it around to some friends. For the longest time they kept telling us to release it! Sometimes we send songs to our team and if it goes from 1 play to 60 plays within a few hours, we know it’s a winner. We always road test new songs when we play shows and if people are vibing a song (especially one they haven’t heard before,) it’s a really clear visual indication for us whether a song works or not. We can also tell by the amount of times a song gets posted on peoples’ Instagram stories or posted on Twitter after we play a show, for example. There’s a lot of gauges to test a song nowadays, but of course there’s no perfect science to it!

 

‘To Love You’ stands as a continuum of all the pieces of love. From vulnerability and hopelessness, through to overcoming hate with love, and not being blindsided by the power of love, the album pays close attention to the spectrum of love. 

Can you talk about how the evolution of this album broadened your awareness and perception of love?

We had the title To Love You in mind for 2 years, but being perfectly honest we didn’t think about it that much while we were writing the album. Maybe we did subconsciously. We just wrote what was on our hearts. But as we wrote more and more songs, we realized that everything revolved around this central theme. I guess as we were writing we knew that there’s so much more to love than wide screen, Hollywood, picture-perfect romance, but now we feel like we understand different aspects of it so much better – whether it be self-love, loving the people around you, or being there for your friends and loving those who are there for you.

Open in Spotify

 

The album is titled ‘To Love You’. Were the songs based on experience centred around a particular person and that story? Or was the ‘You’ more of a general concept?

The “You” in To Love You is more of a universal “You” – the “You” can be whoever it means to you. With every song we might have particular people or experiences each one is written about, but we want you to make each song yours!

 

Supporting the release, Glades is embarking on a nationwide tour this summer.

Can you talk about what’s in the works for the tour and how it captures this new Glades era?

We go on tour around Australia from the end of November to the start of December. We always want to grow and add more to our live show and we want to make it more and more of an experience every time we play. So this round, we’re adding screens & visuals which we’ve never done on our own tour before, so that you can hear as well as see the album. And we’re planning a lot of special moments during the shows for all of us to remember!


GLADES ON TOUR: 

SAT 24 NOV – CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE VIC

FRI 30 NOV – JACK RABBIT SLIMS, PERTH WA

SAT 1 DEC – JIVE, ADELAIDE SA

THU 6 DEC – METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW

FRI 7 DEC – WOOLLY MAMMOTH, BRISBANE QLD

Tickets: https://gladesmusic.net/tour/


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