Navigating the Tides of Time: Halfway’s Sonic Journey to The Styx
By Christian Lamitschka for Country Music News International Magazine
For a quarter of a century, the Brisbane-based band Halfway has charted a consistent course through the often-treacherous waters of the music industry. With eight critically acclaimed albums already under their belts, they’ve cultivated a reputation for crafting immersive, cinematic soundscapes. Their music is a rich tapestry woven with lush pedal steel, layered guitars, and rhythms that propel the listener forward. Now, with their ninth album, The Styx, Halfway embarks on a new voyage, one that is both a return to their roots and an exploration of new emotional depths.
The Styx marks a significant moment for the band, welcoming back co-founder Chris Dale after a six-year absence. His return, alongside contributions from acclaimed guests like Chris Abrahams of The Necks and Adele Pickvance from The Go-Betweens, injects a fresh energy into the group’s established sound.
A River Runs Through It
At its heart, The Styx is a concept album, a collection of stories set in the remote Australian coastal town of Stanage Bay during Christmas 1986. The setting is deeply personal for songwriter John Busby, who spent his formative years in the area. “Growing up, my family would spend time at Stanage Bay in Central Queensland, which is a small fishing village situated to the southeast of the Styx River,” he reflects. The river, a place of both stunning beauty and inherent danger, served as a powerful metaphor. Busby, who was unaware of the Greek mythological significance of the name at the time, was captivated by the local warnings: “People drown in here.” These words, heard countless times on fishing trips with his father, planted the seeds for a record that would eventually bring this landscape and its characters to life.
The album’s narrative is a mosaic of life in this isolated community, exploring universal themes of family, isolation, love, and betrayal. The stories are raw and real, populated by hard-bitten characters that could have walked straight out of a John Steinbeck novel. We meet brothers George and Lennie, a nod to the characters from Of Mice and Men, who battle both the elements and their own inner demons. The plot is set in motion when Lennie goes to check the nets before dawn and never returns, a stark, visceral event that anchors the album’s emotional weight. “The whole Stanage Bay / Styx River area, and the people there, are a big part of this record,” Busby notes. “It’s a place full of beauty and mystery. I had been wanting to base a story there for a long time.”
A Different Current
The recording process for The Styx was a departure from Halfway’s usual live-in-the-room approach. The band recorded the album themselves in Brisbane, layering the tracks and building the songs from the ground up, with the drums often being the last element added. This “weird back-to-front” method, as Busby calls it, gave the band the freedom to prioritize the story and the songs themselves. The result is a sound of sweeping beauty and sonic grace, a poignant and heartfelt backdrop for the poetic tales told within.
The album’s mix was masterfully shaped by Mark Nevers, known for his work with artists like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Lambchop. Nevers’ touch helps blend the band’s signature alt-country and indie-rock influences, creating a sound reminiscent of The Triffids and Phosphorescent. Guitar strings and keys wash over the listener like an ocean breeze, providing a hypnotic and compelling sonic landscape.
A Look at the Singles
The first single, “The Palace,” is a masterful display of Halfway’s core strengths. Noel Fitzpatrick’s pedal steel is heart-wrenching, while Elwin Hawtin’s drums provide a solid foundation for the chiming, hypnotic guitars of John Willsteed, Chris Dale, and Busby. The song’s melancholic grace is a tribute to The Smiths, a band whose cassette album, The Queen Is Dead, served as a beacon of hope and escape for Busby in the remote Queensland town of his youth. The song is dedicated to “the outliers and people living in the margins,” a fitting homage to the characters that inhabit The Styx.
The second single, “Matches,” co-written by Busby and bassist Ben Johnson, is a gentle, atmospheric piece. The song shimmers to life with sparkling guitars and keys, expanding into an evocative sound that recalls the best of Mercury Rev. Johnson describes the song as existing “in the space between ignition and extinction,” a metaphor for the album’s broader themes of uncertainty and transition. It’s a space where nothing is fully alive or fully gone, a place where memories and dreams coexist.
In the end, The Styx is a powerful testament to Halfway’s enduring artistry. As in their songs, as in life, the album navigates themes of love lost and found, pain and hope, and the ever-present connection to the landscape. It’s a record that makes the deeply personal feel universal, a feat that few bands accomplish with such grace. Across nine timeless albums, Halfway continues to solidify their legacy as one of Australia’s most essential and compelling musical storytellers.