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THE DRONES OFFICIAL WEBSITE / THE DRONES ON MYSPACE VOTE FOR THE DRONES IN THE AGE EG AWARDS - BEST BAND / ALBUM SKIP TO: HAVILAH ALBUM NEWS / AUSTRALIAN RELEASES & TOUR INFO / OH MY SINGLE NEWS / MINOTAUR EP NEWS 
The new world of The Drones is an exotic place, one populated by dark corners, rarely explored avenues, sparse canvases and dense, exhilarating peaks and troughs - and that's just the neighbourhood surrounding their recording studio. Actually it's not just a studio. It's a house in the middle of a forest that the Melbourne band's singer Gareth Liddiard and bassist Fiona Kitschin, his partner, discovered in January this year and decided to make their home. Once settled, they realised it was also the perfect setting to record The Drones' fourth album, Havilah, which will be released in Australia by ATP Recordings on September 20. The splendid isolation in which Havilah was created lies in the foothills of Mt Buffalo, once goldfield territory, outside the town of Myrtleford in country Victoria. In February Liddiard began writing new songs for the album there. Two months later guitarist Dan Luscombe, the Drones' most recent addition, and drummer Michael Noga joined Liddiard and Kitschin to rehearse the new material. Then producer and engineer Burke Reid (The Mess Hall, Gerling) lugged his recording gear through the door and off they went - two weeks flat out - until it was done. "It's like a little world unto itself in the forest," says Liddiard. "It's a beautiful place. You can't always find a good spot to record, but if you can find a house like this that's a bonus." Havilah, like everything The Drones have done, is an album of contradictions, where bombast meets beauty, melancholy wrestles with violent guitars and singer Liddiard's incendiary voice lights up his angular poetry, this time on the nature of, in no particular order, the moon (Penumbra), divorce (The Drifting Housewife) and the acquisition of godlike power and the cult of John Frum (I Am the Supercargo). It's an album that's brimful of the innovation and artistic integrity that has made The Drones one of Australian rock's most critically acclaimed acts here and overseas during the past four years. It was that spark of originality and blunt-edged chaos that won the Melbourne band the inaugural Australian Music Prize in 2006 for their breakthrough album Wait Long By The River and Your Enemies Will Float By. That same need to push boundaries took them to an old mill in Tasmania to record the follow-up album, 2006's award-winning Gala Mill, and in 2008 their invention, innovation and isolation have combined to produce the fireworks of their most accomplished work to date, Havilah (the name, in case you didn't know, refers to a biblical land near the Garden of Eden and the valley in which the album was recorded). There are vaguely familiar nods to Neil Young's paint-stripping guitar spasms on Supercargo and Oh My, while the deliciously meandering pop dirges of Suicide and the Velvet Underground echo in Careful As You Go and Luck in Odd Numbers. The outstanding ballad here, Cold and Sober, is a song The Drones have recorded several times during their eight-year reign without it ever making the grade. "This time it just worked," Liddiard says. There's also the relative immediacy but still complex structure of the first single The Minotaur, Liddiard's scathing rant on the wasters of the world, while the lengthy opening Nail It Down perhaps best reflects The Drones' grand scope, flitting as it does between acoustic ambience and rumbling rock 'n' roll meltdown. It's melancholic, certainly, but Havilah, in its tone and its delivery, is also a celebration. It's a more positive statement than its predecessor. "Gala Mill is pretty fucking depressing," is Liddiard's take on that particular work. "It's not like going on a summer holiday. This time we were ready for something that was less of an ordeal every time we had to play it. And I wanted to write songs that were a bit more abstract, so you can make up your own mind about them." Once you've been around these 10 songs for a few hours, it's not hard to make up your mind about them. They are bold. They are romantic. And they are dangerous. Havilah will be released worldwide by ATP Recordings in early 2009. Havilah Track Listing: 1. Nail It Down AUSTRALIAN RELEASE AND TOUR NEWS
NEW ALBUM HAVILAH - In stores NOW through ATP Recordings and MGM Distribution. Click here to buy from Australia: JB Hi-Fi >> or Waterfront Records >> The new world of The Drones is an exotic place, one populated by dark corners, rarely explored avenues, sparse canvases and dense, exhilarating peaks and troughs - and that's just the neighbourhood surrounding their recording studio. Actually it's not just a studio. It's a house in the middle of a forest that the Melbourne band's singer Gareth Liddiard and bassist Fiona Kitschin, his partner, discovered in January this year and decided to make their home. Once settled, they realised it was also the perfect setting to record The Drones' fourth album, Havilah, which will be released in Australia by ATP Recordings on September 20. The splendid isolation in which Havilah was created lies in the foothills of Mt Buffalo, once goldfield territory, outside the town of Myrtleford in country Victoria. In February Liddiard began writing new songs for the album there. Two months later guitarist Dan Luscombe, the Drones' most recent addition, and drummer Michael Noga joined Liddiard and Kitschin to rehearse the new material. Then producer and engineer Burke Reid (The Mess Hall, Gerling) lugged his recording gear through the door and off they went - two weeks flat out - until it was done. "It's like a little world unto itself in the forest," says Liddiard. "It's a beautiful place. You can't always find a good spot to record, but if you can find a house like this that's a bonus." Havilah, like everything The Drones have done, is an album of contradictions, where bombast meets beauty, melancholy wrestles with violent guitars and singer Liddiard's incendiary voice lights up his angular poetry, this time on the nature of, in no particular order, the moon (Penumbra), divorce (The Drifting Housewife) and the acquisition of godlike power and the cult of John Frum (I Am the Supercargo). It's an album that's brimful of the innovation and artistic integrity that has made The Drones one of Australian rock's most critically acclaimed acts here and overseas during the past four years. It was that spark of originality and blunt-edged chaos that won the Melbourne band the inaugural Australian Music Prize in 2006 for their breakthrough album Wait Long By The River and Your Enemies Will Float By. That same need to push boundaries took them to an old mill in Tasmania to record the follow-up album, 2006's award-winning Gala Mill, and in 2008 their invention, innovation and isolation have combined to produce the fireworks of their most accomplished work to date, Havilah (the name, in case you didn't know, refers to a biblical land near the Garden of Eden and the valley in which the album was recorded). There are vaguely familiar nods to Neil Young's paint-stripping guitar spasms on Supercargo and Oh My, while the deliciously meandering pop dirges of Suicide and the Velvet Underground echo in Careful As You Go and Luck in Odd Numbers. The outstanding ballad here, Cold and Sober, is a song The Drones have recorded several times during their eight-year reign without it ever making the grade. "This time it just worked," Liddiard says. There's also the relative immediacy but still complex structure of the first single The Minotaur, Liddiard's scathing rant on the wasters of the world, while the lengthy opening Nail It Down perhaps best reflects The Drones' grand scope, flitting as it does between acoustic ambience and rumbling rock 'n' roll meltdown. It's melancholic, certainly, but Havilah, in its tone and its delivery, is also a celebration. It's a more positive statement than its predecessor. "Gala Mill is pretty fucking depressing," is Liddiard's take on that particular work. "It's not like going on a summer holiday. This time we were ready for something that was less of an ordeal every time we had to play it. And I wanted to write songs that were a bit more abstract, so you can make up your own mind about them." Once you've been around these 10 songs for a few hours, it's not hard to make up your mind about them. They are bold. They are romantic. And they are dangerous. Havilah Track Listing: 1. Nail It Down “The Drones were their usual cathartic, thunder and lightning best. The new songs from their album out next month sounded strong, while they still manage to find new light within their older songs. "They're a pretty intense little band," remarked a punter standing next to me. That was the understatement of the day so far.” Richard Kingsmill – TRIPLEJ After a blistering performance at Splendour In The Grass, The Drones jumped a jet plane relocating to the USA for two months. A tour with the likes of Built To Spill and The Meat Puppets and a special trip east side to hit the stage at the infamous All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in New York … what a perfect way to warm up for the release of their highly anticipated fourth studio album, Havilah, due in store September 20th 2008. When they return home in October, The Drones will be joined by a number of special guests as they embark on a national tour to show off their new creation.
“you want to shrink your stinky footprint? The Drones new single Oh My is heading to Australian radio this week, nearly every community station in the country has given their latest release Havilah the honor of a feature record, every media outlets has hailed them the best band in the country and every commercial radio station continues to ignore them. Such is the life of a Drone. With their national album tour imminent, the band return home from a whopper two month American odyssey that encompassed a talked about performance at the ATP Festival in New York and a support tour with Built To Spill and The Meat Puppets. They return to Australia with just enough time to replace the gear that was stolen from them in LA, and pack the car for their national album tour, kicking off October 15th in acoustic mode supporting Patti Smith at the Sydney Opera House. (see above for dates) 
NEW SINGLE - THE MINOTAUR - DIGITAL/PICTURE DISC EP OUT NOW The Drones are more than pleased to announce the release of the first single, The Minotaur off their anticipated fourth studio album, Havilah. To celebrate their upcoming tour of the US, The Drones will be releasing The Minotaur as a limited edition picture disc (featuring artwork from acclaimed artist Deran Wright) and will include a selection of tracks from their Australian Music Prize Award nominated Gala Mill (2006) and AMP Award winning LP Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By (2005). Recorded in a mud brick house somewhere in the mountains outside of Myrtleford, Victoria, The Minotaur is a lusty and brutal blitz, that over three and a half minutes, manages to draw the historical line between ancient Greek mythology and current-day time-wasting. A half-salute to modern-day sloth, and the painful decisions our future leaders face, between holding the destiny of the world in their hands, or holding another X-Box controller.... The ep will also include another track from the album, Nail it Down alongside Baby2 and Sitting on the edge of the bed cryin' from Wait Long by the River and Jezebel and Sixteen Straws from Gala Mill.
The Minotaur + a brief retrospective will be available digitally from August 26th 2008 through ATP Recordings. Havilah will be released by ATP Recordings in September 2008 in Australia and early 2009 worldwide.
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