How does a band with no hits to speak of, albums that don’t chart and a virtually unrecognisable name, make a viable living after a decade in the game? Being brilliant appears to be the answer, mostly. Half Moon Run operate outside the mainstream music biz while quietly going from strength to strength. And now, they have made a classic album. Dylan Phillips enlightens us.
I recently traversed London from Richmond to the Kentish Town Forum (the overground Richmond-Stratford line is one of those rare gems of transportation) to see a band I had never seen live before. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had gone on the basis that the Montreal trio Half Moon Run had released my favourite album of 2023, Salt, knowing the band was showcasing songs from that album on their current world tour.
From the opening bars of first song ‘You Can Let Go’ to the last note of the band’s ‘hit’ ‘Full Circle’, the show was stunning. So much so, that some members of the audience would not leave the floor - somehow hoping the band might come out and do a second encore when we Londoners knew the curfew was up and the show was done. But we stood there anyhow, just in case.
Two days later I was on a train North to Manchester, to catch the band again, at the city’s rather splendid Albert Hall. By now I'm completely obsessed. But I’m not alone. On the way into that show a fan came up close to me (things happen in the North of England that you do not experience in London) with fist to his heart saying “this band has got me here”. “Well, me too” I replied, and what followed was an evening of making new friends and meeting kindred spirits. Manchester 1, London 0.
And that’s music fandom at its best. Bonding through mutual love and admiration for a band that amounts to one of those best kept secret type things. And don’t the fans know it. I’d guess that 2/3rds of the audience at both shows were loyal die hard HMR fans with the remainder being friends and family who had been coaxed along. If money and time was no object I would have followed the band across Europe. I am envious of those Montreal fans who will welcome the band home when the Salt tour closes, because that will be a very special evening.
I had invited the band onto the podcast after first hearing Salt - and then again after the London show - imploring their BMG publicist to arrange it as a matter of priority. Speaking with Dylan Phillips was an insight behind the creative process of the (decades long) making of one of my favourite records in ages. Also, I had never spoken to a drummer who is simultaneously a keyboard player, but that is part of the modus operandi of Half Moon Run - a continual swapping out switching up of instruments between the band’s three members, Phillips, Devon Portielje (also lead vocals) and Conner Molander.
Half Moon Run was formed over a decade ago, originally as a four piece (with Isaac Symonds). The band’s 2012 debut album Dark Eyes was a well received and exciting addition to the indie-rock canon. But now four albums into their 14 year career, their 2023 release Salt really is something else. It is the sound of a band finding a different level. The band itself knows this too: “It’s the first time we felt unanimously that we were fully happy with the work we did on a record”.
So how does a band with no hits to speak of (‘Full Circle’ is the nearest thing, approaching 50M streams on Spotify), albums that don’t chart and a virtually unrecognisable name (Half Moon who?) make a viable living after a decade in the game? Being brilliant appears to be the answer, mostly. Work as hard on your songs and performance as Half Moon Run does, and enough fans will follow you to the ends of the earth. Or at least from city to city.
Making an excellent album certainly helps. Salt is the complete work, a perfect album - as close as this band has come to a masterpiece, even if it will not chart or feature on many (if any?) critics best of lists.
“We had done this little project called the 1969 Collective, with Connor Sidell, and we called him to see if he was interested in making a new full length record. He was, so we put all cards on the table - opened the books on everything we’ve ever done. Even if we’d failed with some of the songs before, maybe we could succeed this time around. We went from 80s songs to 24 and then brought it down to 11 songs for the album. A lot of the songs were a gift from ourselves, songs we’d had been trying out for a long time”.
So, once a special record has been made - surely it deserves a wider audience? Or, as I prefer to say about Salt - people deserve to hear this record. Is the band itself happy with their modest level of success?
“I’m super grateful that we are making this work. It’s tough though, especially when it’s hard to make a tour just about break even. When you want to make a good production of it”.
Perhaps Half Moon Run will keep running purely on the strength and passion of the band’s existing fanbase. It’s those fans that are frustrated about the band’s relative lack of recognition. It isn’t enough to just make it out of Canada (a theme that may emerge in the current season of TAoL if you follow the podcast episodes). But that is the modern music industry. The very best music doesn’t always naturally rise to the top. Salt won’t be on the 2023 ‘best of’ lists simply because the compilers of those lists will have missed it in the glut of music albums that come week-on-week. Yet It stands up as a modern indie-pop/rock classic. That said, it’s encouraging to know that BMG, one of the industry’s most organised labels, has signed HMR to a new distribution deal and will hopefully help to encourage this band to make more records.
On that note, some excellent news for HMR fans i.e. the other 13 songs recorded for the Salt sessions, will hopefully see the light of day very soon. In turn, if that provides the band with a good reason to get back out on the road all the better.
My advice is, do not miss the chance to see them.
Salt is on vinyl here. The Half Moon Run Salt world tour continues in the USA and Canada through February 2024.