Led by Romani-Canadian musician, Candace Lacina and world-renowned keyboardist Mike Little, The Hello Darlins are some of Canada’s most in-demand professional session & touring musicians who came together to forge a distinct hybrid of country, gospel and blues. Making a name as one of the biggest breakthrough artists on the international Americana scene with their debut album “Go By Feel”, the band have returned with an even more ambitious collection of material for 2024 in the form of a brand new double album titled “The Alders & The Ashes” which will be released on March 1st and is available to pre-save/pre-order HERE.
The project was recorded at L.A.’s famed United Recording Studios with multi-Grammy winning engineer Ross Hogarth along with contributions from bassist Bob Glaub and drummer Chad Cromwell, whilst the band were also fortunate to partner for a second time on mixes with Grammy Award winner Mike Poole.
We recently caught up with Candace over Zoom ahead of the release to delve deeper into the new project and following their first trip to the UK in 2023 why Europe is now becoming an integral part of the bands plans.
Hey Candace, it’s so good to see you. “Likewise, thanks for meeting with me. I’m excited because this is our first UK interview on this new album so, it’s extra special.”
Oh, I feel even more lucky now. How are things going as you gear up to this album coming out? “It’s good actually, it’s been a bit of a down time since we did Celtic Connections in Scotland and were in Ireland too. We have actually had a window, since we came home where we don’t have too much on the calendar except one hometown show to release the album but we aren’t really touring until later so, it’s been really nice to just have this one thing to focus on. It’s like when artists come off the road to write, it’s nice to just focus on that one thing.”
I first became aware of you when I worked at another publication and discovered you when I reviewed the last record, then I got you see you live just over a year ago in Hackney. Was that the first time that you had been over to London? “Yes that was our very first trip, then we came back again in July to play Canada Day in Trafalgar Square and Maverick Festival in Suffolk. We’re starting to feel like it’s a second home as we are coming back there so much.”
You were here for Celtic Connections last month and your back in Europe during the summer for Tønder in Denmark so going forward is the UK and Europe now becoming something that is a serious part of your future planning? “One hundred percent. We have a Canadian market but Canada is such a vast country that it might as well be Europe. When we travel to Eastern Canada, it’s culturally quite different and the flights cost the same as it does going to Europe so, in a way it is as high a priority to build with UK audiences in Europe as much as it is to continue to build the pockets in Canada. I do say pockets because there do seem to be really concentrated areas of places that the music resonates for some reason and in other places, I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s a different style or different lifestyle but people don’t show up as much.”
For people that have not come across you guys as a band before, it’s you and Mike as the core then I guess you have some talented friends that join you as a collective. “Well, Mike and I write the songs and produce the music so, that is kind of how The Hello Darlins is structured. We are here with each other all of the time, we have our own recording space at home and that is kind of how the music is made. The collective comes about because we’ve always been side musicians and if you are available, you can go on tour and you have got the next six weeks available, that’s fantastic but know so many times where artists have a tour lined up but they don’t have a drummer. The collective, we have a core band that we have really spent the majority of the time touring with and those guys have been with us from the beginning but if they are not available for some reason, we always know that we can call on any of our guests or friends that are of a professional standard as a session or touring musician. If you have done this as your career you are part of the collective of these musicians.”
I just want to talk about one member of this collective who I discovered a couple of years ago because there is a band over here called The Jackson Line and my friend Keith Porter, who is the lead singer had been raving about this guy called Murray Pulver and his band The Bros. Landreth, that had really influenced their band. Last year Murray actually played their Radio City Sessions round which is in the town where I grew up and he has had this hugely successful career of his own but how did he get involved with becoming a part of what you guys do? “Well Murray has been a friend for twenty years, we’ve known him, co-produced with him and spent a lot of time in the studio with him. It was his idea that we start this band, we’ve written tonnes of songs with him and he said you guys have got this batch of songs that nobody else is cutting, why don’t you just record it? We said ok, we’ll do it but let’s collaborate together so, Murray is a core member of the beginnings of The Hello Darlins and ANY time that he’s available, EVERY time he will join us and we love having him there.” Let’s get on to the main event and talk about this wonderful new album which is a double record coming out on Friday. Let’s start with the title, we haven’t got a track called “The Alders” or one called “The Ashes” so where do we get “The Alders & The Ashes” from? “I think this has been a really interesting season, this album has been in the works for almost two years, then we were just writing an in that time was a missed attempt to come to Hackney because we were scheduled to play the year before until Omicron shut that down, which was so heart-breaking so, we were writing in that season. Also, we had a very interesting roadblock which we were not expecting as in between the making of this record, Mike was diagnosed with cancer and it parked us for a little while but luckily it was a very treatable form of cancer and he is doing extremely well. It wasn’t something that transformed our lives so much, except emotionally and it reframed our understanding of what’s important in life. So, “The Alders & The Ashes” is kind of about letting go of an old way of being and an old way of feeling because we felt like different people. The Alders was about the growth and the new day that comes after you go through something that is so difficult but always sparks new growth. That was the metaphor between “The Alders & The Ashes” where on it there were a few tracks that we weren’t expecting to cut like “Better Days” which features our friend Dave Fenley and that became our mantra during this season that was so difficult that we thought we don’t know what the future looks like until you know that you can get through something. It really was about these last two years of our lives, so, “The Alders & The Ashes” is about letting go of what was the old way and making space for brand new adays ahead.”
It’s definitely a record that you want to hear live and having seen you live gives a good representation of what to expect from your shows. “Yeah and for me, who wants to go to watch a show where an artist plays ninety minutes of mid-tempo sad songs? Like, if you don’t move energy, to me that’s not even music, it’s like how Miles Davis talked about the space in between notes and for me it’s that beautiful moment that comes after you have played a really poignant sad song. Then all of a sudden you go, you know what, let’s play something that’s a little higher tempo and put a refresh so, the record was kind of in the spirit of mirroring what our live show is, which is all of that.”
Lastly on the album, you recorded it in Los Angeles so, how did that come about? “You know, it was one of those kind of magical moments and it was half done in LA, then the rest of it was done in our basement. A lot of the pulling it together was done here but United Recording Studios has such a history in music and particularly in the Americana genre. I mean it’s where The Doors did their records, Jim Morrison did his poetry album there and the musicians that we had the opportunity to work with like Bob Glaub, he is Mr Americana and has played on so many records. When United called, they called us because it was a studio agent that heard the first album and said that they had this window of time if you would be interested in coming down, we would give you the space to write, do some demos or whatever because United is changing their platform. We were actually one of the very last bands to be able to record in that space that has tonnes of history from the days of Laurel Canyon and the heart of where that LA sounding Americana started so, we wanted to jump on the opportunity and make use of that. They are now closed, their doors are closed and they no longer do the recording in the same way, it’s used as a film space so they were like there is a tiny little snippet of time and if you could just absorb some of that magic, what could that do for the music or for you as an artist? It was in the walls, it really was.”
Then just to finish up, we talked about coming back over for Tønder in summer and you were just in Scotland so even if we can’t say specifically when as of right now, have we got some plans for some shows this year in England? “Yes, definitely. After Tønder we are going to be playing the Shrewsbury Folk Festival and yeah, we would love to try and do something in the round with our friends from The Jackson Line as that would be fun and maybe some other shows. We did play at The Green Note which was great because it is so cosy and a beautiful little club but there is going to be a number of other shows before we go to Tønder and some afterwards as well so, it’s all just starting to come together now but the answer is YES and we can’t wait!” I look forward to seeing you then. This has been really cool and I truly mean this in saying that I absolutely love this record and can’t wait to hear it live in the summer.
The new album “The Alders & The Ashes” from The Hello Darlins will be released on March 1st and is available to pre-save/pre-order HERE whilst you can keep up to date with all that the band are up to by following along on INSTAGRAMTWITTER & FACEBOOK.