Holy Fuck Share Info on New Album and the Reasons for the Wait

BY Matthew RitchiePublished Aug 25, 2015

It's been five long years since Canadian electronic experimenters Holy Fuck released a new album. After a seemingly endless bout of non-stop touring, the band decided to take a break in 2012 and haven't returned in full since.

"The only plans we intentionally made after our last record [2010's Latin] was that we needed a year off," says band member Brian Borcherdt. "Spending time apart proved to be easier than we realized… What ended up being difficult was re-grinding those gears anew."

Thankfully, according to Borcherdt, the wait will soon be over.

"It's been a slow five years, but in that time we've made a record," Borcherdt tells Exclaim! in an interview conducted earlier this month about the band's upcoming show at the inaugural edition of Toronto Island music festival Camp Wavelength. "We've probably recorded at least 18 songs, 10 or 11 of which are on the record that was mastered just last week."

According to Borcherdt, the band's new record was recorded at Toronto's Revolution Recording over a year ago, but was ultimately put on hold to allow the band time to set up a steady support group behind the scenes.

"We really spent a lot of this time putting the right pieces together — the right people, the right management and booking agents — because we want to make sure we have people who know how to work with us without overworking us," he says. "I think that's one of the mistakes we made in the past and it had to do with being a little bit mismanaged and stuff. As long as we were busy, all the people busy working with us, or for us, were happy. Especially because we were known as a live band… Because of that we just played constantly. We just never stopped. We can't do that anymore obviously."

A lot has changed for the band in their time away from the touring circuit; the majority of Holy Fuck's members have started families and been busy working on various side-projects (Graham Walsh with Julie Fader as Etiquette; Borcherdt with Dusted and LIDS).

"This record would have been even better to put out two years ago, there's no doubt in my mind about that," Borcherdt says. "By the time it comes out it will be six years between records, and that's pretty inexcusable."

That being said, Borcherdt says the album will most likely see its release sometime in the new year and will have been worth the wait.

"I think, at the end of the day, what helps us the most is the way we make music and the fact that, and if I can be so bold as to say, in the 2000-teens… we're still able to make music that doesn't sound like other people," he says. "I think that's a great accomplishment."

Until then, catch their Camp Wavelength performance on Friday (August 28). Full festival details can be found here.

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