Review Fix chats with Halo Circus Lead Singer Allison Iraheta about the band’s month-long residency at Hollywood tastemaker venue The Hotel Café, kicking off on September 26, as well as the bands goals for the future and create process. Consisting of bassist / keyboardist / producer Matthew Hager (Duran Duran, Scott Weiland, Simply Red), drummer Veronica Bellino (Jeff Beck, DMC of Run-DMC) and guitarist Brian Stead, the band has the pieces in place to make a sure and steady rise to success.
Review Fix: How does it feel to be playing a 4-week residency at The Hotel Café kicking off on September 26th?
Allison Iraheta: It’s an incredible feeling. It’s such a strange thing to create songs in a room together and then take them out in the world. We wanted to do something a little different and a lot of people (especially in the music industry) expected me to release a continuation of my debut album. The past few years have been spent playing the Halo Circus songs live, getting better as a band and trying to make them undeniable. We’ve played anywhere and everywhere. We’ve played to 10 people and we’ve played to 7,000. To be offered a residency by such a unique and influential venue is like a stamp of approval for our hard work and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity.
Review Fix: What would you say makes Halo Circus “special”?
Iraheta: That’s a great question. It’s almost not my place to say what makes us special, but I think Halo Circus is one of those rare bands that (I believe) is doing it all for the right reasons. We aren’t terribly concerned with trends and we have a lot of patience. We are more concerned about getting it right for us as individuals and for our audience than we are being the next big thing. We’ve all been in this business for some time. Veronica Bellino (drums) plays with Jeff Beck and DMC (of RUN DMC) and Matthew Hager (bass/keyboards) has had major success as a producer, songwriter and musician for acts like Duran Duran, Scott Weiland, Simply Red and countless others. Although most people know me as being a finalist on season 8 of “American Idol,” I grew up in South Central Los Angeles and was singing professionally at age 5. With this band we get to explore every avenue our our creative past and somehow it’s all turned into the “Halo Circus sound” that I just couldn’t be more proud of.
Review Fix: Which of your tracks do you feel best personifies you as a group?
Iraheta: Technically, we’ve only released one song at this point. When we were writing the album we decided to release a teaser track called “Gone” (http://bit.ly/1sYG2py) through Manimal Vinyl Records. They are the indie label who first released bands like Bat For Lashes and Warpaint. We released it as an EP with its Spanish-language counterpart “Yo Me Voy.†I don’t know if it best personifies us, but it was the song that Manimal chose to show people that we weren’t just doing an Allison Iraheta album. I really love both versions of that song. “Yo Me Voy” might be my favorite. We are releasing a cover of Duran Duran’s “Do You Believe In Shame?” (http://bit.ly/1BMeFS9) for the forthcoming Duran Duran tribute album Making Patterns Rhyme along with artists like Moby, Little Dragons and Warpaint. It’s a big honor for us and I think it very much represents our live show and what you can expect from a Halo Circus concert.
Review Fix: What are your goals as a band?
Iraheta: Right now our goals are pretty simple. We want to release our debut album with the right label and tour the world. We want to build an audience that likes what we do and we want to keep challenging ourselves as writers and musicians. We’ve been incredibly fortunate at this point already. We have only released one song and now we are on a great tribute album and we’ve written songs with musical icons like John Taylor and Paul Williams. We are already in dream land so I think the biggest goal is that we never wake up.
Review Fix: You all have so much experience, how do you work together?
Iraheta: Since we are all professionals, working together is incredibly easy. We’ve all gone through the phases of wanting to hear ourselves as much as possible and now we just want to make great music. Rehearsals tend to be fairly short, our shows tend to be incredibly energetic and our conversations are always about making the band better. It helps that everyone in the band is the kindest people that you will ever meet. That’s a big deal for us. We are all about kindness, respect and looking out for each other.
Review Fix: What are your live performances like?
Iraheta: Initially, we were doing our best to recreate the recordings that we had made when we wrote the songs. Over time, we have added a lot of energy and aggression as we have played more and developed a following. Getting thousands of people who come to see you play on their feet is hard. Getting 20 people on their feet at midnight in a bar when they all came to see some other band is even harder. We’ve played more bars with 20 people than we have played the bigger venues, and that’s really where the aggression started. Those are the things that have changed me as a performer and has changed the music as a band. It’s not far off from a circus.
Review Fix: Why should someone come check you out at the The Hotel Café?  What can they expect from the shows?
Iraheta: First of all, it’s only $6 so how could you possibly go wrong? Seriously, we give everything at our shows. We want you to have an amazing and memorable time. We’ve been very fortunate that every time we play we have drawn bigger crowds. I hope that’s because we just keep getting better. Since we are playing every Friday for a month, we plan on making every show a little different with some special guests, new songs, and more. The Hotel Cafe has the best sound in Los Angeles and I’ve never regretted seeing any show there. If you have a terrible time, I’ll give you your $6 back.
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