Naarm’s HTRK (pronounced Hate Rock) have just released their 5th studio album, Rhinestones. Wednesday Arvos host Darren Lesaguis had a chat with band members Jonnine Standish and Nigel Yang about the power of radio, lucid dreaming, lockdown letters, and the 10th anniversary of their classic album ‘Work (Work, Work)’.

Latest record/recent FBi Album of the Week ‘Rhinestones’ has seen a departure from 2019’s ‘Venus in Leo’; Nigel and Jonnine tell how stripped back songwriting and more diverse influences, combined with their signature moody and magical sound, has given their songs more immediacy and intimacy.

Nigel: “For this one we had a really concentrated period of time, and we had the NTS show making us think about a really wide range of music, whereas Venus In Leo was quite insular – we were drawing on teenage memories of our love for music, which might have been a bit more naive. Rhinestones is a whole other thing energy wise I think.”

Jonnine: “We quickly became obsessed with songcraft and the idea of a song. The songs are actually quite short rather than being lush, freeform pieces. We spent most of our time editing, subtracting and condensing the structures and the gaps between different parts – it was a really different process, far more complex.”

Listen back to Darren’s full interview with HTRK up top!

Tune in to Arvos with Darren Lesaguis every Wednesday from 3pm!