When we last heard from Husky, they were a folk-rock group who lived in Melbourne and hung out with Phil Ek and basically sounded like they’d just stretched and woken up in Laurel Canyon one day. But that was two years ago, and if you need one more bit of evidence that everything in the world has changed in that span of time, then look no further: The group, which is led by singer-songwriter Husky Gawenda, is now a spindly indie rock band who take more cues from Pinback and The National than they do Crosby, Stills, Nash, or Young.
On June 2, the group will release their third record, Punchbuzz, and if that album title sounds like a mission statement, that’s because it is, in a manner of speaking. “It came to me in the darkness, late one night while lying in bed, trying to sleep,” Gawenda says. He likens it to the feeling he gets while surfing—“that point between power and tranquility”—and it seems like an apt way of describing single “Splinters in the Fire,” which we’re premiering today. “The line ‘splinters in the fire’ kept making its way into the songs I was writing,” Gawenda says. “‘Splinters in the fire, summer days in the smoke.’ I guess it’s something about the ruthlessness of fire—and time.” Still, if two years can turn Husky into world-weary rockers, it hardly seems fair to call it ruthless.
You can give “Splinters in the Fire” a listen below.
Punchbuzz is out June 2 via Nevado Music.
