HALO CIRCUS return to the Troubadour Dec. 14
Halo Circus, a culturally-diverse band that reinvents genre by creating music in which pop, metal, industrial and alternative rock can coexist, will return to the venue where they first played, the Troubadour on Dec. 14.
“The Troubadour was the first gig we ever played as a band, so going back there really means a lot to us,” singer Allison Iraheta said. “We’re going back there with our friends, we’re inviting our fans, our family, we’re making a big party out of it. It’ll be the same songs we played the first time, but it’ll sound so different.”
Iraheta, bassist/producer Matthew Hager, drummer Veronica Bellino and guitarist Brian Stead are performing on a night they’ve titled “Say it Loud! A Night of Cultural Disruption.” This night was inspired by the unique cultural experiences of Iraheta and other members as a means of contrast, yet unity. To display this unity, the band is getting together a diverse lineup to showcase the importance of all genres, such as punk, pop, funk and more.
“But also making a statement about how it’s not really easy to go out on any day of the week and find a show that has different music,” Iraheta said. “I don’t know, we’ve lost that, or we’re scared to put on a show that has different music, just different bands or musical artists. We wanted to make a statement that it’s time for different sounds and environments and bands to be heard.”
The band’s upcoming concept album to be released in 2016 is a chance to discover the boundaries of modern music techniques mixed with old soulful melodies that Iraheta belts with ease.
“We’ve been making a concept album for the past three years, and on this album the songs are meant to be heard back-to-back,” Iraheta said. “When you’ve been working on something for three years, you want to make sure it’s going to be released as good as you want it to be, and also we’ve had these fans, these incredible people that have been hanging on by a thread with us and they’ve been following us, so we want to give them the best-sounding album that they deserve, that they’ve been waiting for.”
To truly capture the old soul of the music industry, Halo Circus covered Duran Duran’s “Do You Believe In Shame?” adding an aggressive undertone that separates the song from its 80’s roots, bringing it to life as a dark, alternative rock number.
“I think behind the song itself with the lyrics, it’s things that Simon from Duran Duran wrote that needed to be captured — there’s longing, there’s sadness, there’s beauty,” Iraheta said. “And the director captured who we are as a band live. There’s a lot of mystery and curiosity and darkness but also some beauty, like Alice and Wonderland meets Donnie Darko.”
Halo Circus truly is the vision of the band name, giving off the eerie vibes of an abandoned circus, while contrasting the beauty of the bright colors that inhabit it. This is not your typical bilingual alternative band, but a band set for any genre it throws itself into.
“We want to go very weird, but at the same time we want to go really familiar,” Iraheta said. “You know, we have people online saying we’re a dark metal band and some people saying we’re really, really pop. So it’s really fun having that kind of range of people talking about how different your music is.”
Since Iraheta’s appearance as a finalist on American Idol at 16, she has grown as a musician, developing the style of grunge meets pop that is iconically Halo Circus.
“When you’re on a show like that, you’re given this kind of gift to not have to think for yourself because you have people telling you what to do and how to do it and where to be and where to go,” Iraheta recalled. “After being off of a show like that it’s like learning how to walk again on your own. I think I was able to find who I wanted to be as an artist, find who I wanted to be as a human being, find what kind of adult I wanted to be.”