The Holy Soul’s bass player Sam Worrad dropped into the studio with Alex Pye to speak about their new album which marks their first record release in over four years.

Although we haven’t seen an album from the Sydney four-piece for little while now, the band has been keeping themselves busy with an Asian tour, some time spent in Europe, and a few collaborative shows with Damo Suzuki.  The band accidentally fell into the collab around 2004 when Sam asked Suzuki to sign a postcard for his girlfriend.  Suzuki asked if Sam knew of any bands that could play at Big Day Out, an opportunity The Holy Soul jumped at – and the rest is history.

Their new album, titled Fortean Times, was released at the end of last year and delivers punchy rock, laced with indie and alternative undertones. The record came together in Victoria with producer Gareth Liddiard in a small space they rented and converted into a studio.  On the album, Sam told us,

“It was probably a little more collaborative. Every few weeks or so we would get together at Trent, our singer’s place, and we probably did that casually for a couple years until we realised we had enough songs to do a record.”

In addition to the new album, the band has been releasing videos to accompany the record’s singles including ‘Family Magician’.  Each video has a different director to create their own vision and take on each track.

“We’ve done two so far. There’s a couple that are in the works and maybe some more still. We were half planning on going full Beyonce in the beginning and just doing everything, but whether that’s going to happen I’m not sure, it might take us a while. There’s definitely at least a couple more that are coming.”

New music and more videos to come?  After four years without an album release, it feels like a bit of a shock to the system.  With the prospect of traveling to Japan later this year and the support of The Laurels and Terza Madre here in Sydney, The Holy Soul are ready to get out there again – and hopefully stay out there.  Keep an eye out for those new videos and listen to the full interview above.