Melbourne’s HAVE/HOLD are reinvigorated, wide-eyed and raring to thrive with their sophomore album
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Melbourne’s HAVE/HOLD are reinvigorated, wide-eyed and raring to thrive with their sophomore album

Powered by impassioned vocals, soaring guitars and a rhythmic pulse that remains strong at its core, the new album from Melbourne’s HAVE/HOLD presents itself as a fitting snapshot of the band today: reinvigorated, wide-eyed and raring to thrive.
WE ARE A GHOST NOW, YOU & I – as a sophomore album – stirs instantly. There is a sense of yearning and desire within the lyrics, while musically, the band inject intense emotion into each riff, progression and melody. Have/Hold’s sound has been refined over the last two years of touring, writing and laying down new ideas; the development of their creative output shines with this record. Emerging triumphant from their studio sessions last year, Have/Hold have rewritten their own rule book and in We Are A Ghost Now, You & I they stand strong behind some powerful moments of music that flits easily between the indie and post rock worlds.
Here’s a little snippet…


To celebrate, we sit down with HAVE/HOLD for a few minutes to get the low down on the top five artists that inspired the record.
Thursday
The mantra, ‘What would Thursday do?’ was often our guiding light in times when writers block and indecision would transpire during the writing of this record. Few bands have made us feel the ground shake beneath our feet and unbounding emotion like Thursday have and that is something we found ourselves time and time again hoping to achieve in the writing process. But, it would be hubris to think that we could ever come close.
PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey features a lot on the radio in the van, particularly when Luke has the aux chord. There is a very rich sense of drama that definitely filtered onto the record, mostly as a result of listening to records like Uh Huh Her, of which Harvey is an absolute conjurer. Nobody hisses the word “throat” in that shivers-through-your-very-soul quite like her.
Manchester Orchestra
Manchester Orchestra records have always had the ability to open these vast soundscapes that make the world around you dissolve until it’s just you and the noise and that noise just so happens to be a time and place you think you’ve been before. So diverse, so raw. As much as we could, we wanted to take you to these types of places with our record.
Pianos Become The Teeth
Pianos Become the Teeth wield such devastating power in dealing with themes of grief and bereavement. With such unchecked, almost innocent expelling of emotion, they speak our language as we, ourselves purged many things in the writing process of this record.
Radiohead
Yeah, you guessed it – another sad band. Radiohead have been a constant in our influences from day dot. They exemplify a seemingly whimsical genius in the songwriting craft that may take many life times for us to achieve, but we try. A Radiohead song will empty you of what you thought you knew and fill you up instead with colours.
You can catch them on Saturday 5th January The Gasometer in Melbourne.
We Are A Ghost Now, You & I is out now and you can check it out below.