Ben Hall breaks down The Butterfly Effect's boundless album Begins Here.
21 years on from the release of their album Begins Here, The Butterfly Effect are about to embark upon a nationwide regional tour to celebrate its emergence into the world. They are set to play a handful of shows in major cities too despite the premise of the tour being about sharing music with places often excluded from Australian tours.
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With shows in Torquay on Saturday 21 February, Melbourne on Sunday 22 February and in Castlemaine on Thursday 6 March, The Butterfly Effect who don’t usually spend a great deal of time together are excited to be showcasing how Begins Here has evolved over the years.
Drummer Ben Hall joked of how this lack of consistent contact might actually be the reasoning for the band’s longevity.
“Begins Here was released in August 2003,” says Hall. “It’s been a long while. A long time hanging out with those jerks, that’s for sure. I hardly ever see those guys, I’m sure there’s probably a few bands that could have stuck together if they’d had the kind of separation that we have had at points.”
But all jokes aside and upon reflection of how The Butterfly Effect came to be, Hall recognises that so much has changed since the early 2000’s, leaning into the perspective of the band’s ability to stick at it.
“When I look back at that time,” he says. “I don’t remember certain parts of the process. Like I remember living 100 metres from our rehearsal room, and not really doing anything else, but still thinking this whole thing was a lot of fun. We were broke, and Optus, Vodafone and Telstra would be the first people to say that’s correct.”
“And yet retrospectively looking back at the record, it was received really well. There were obvious influences, like bands such as Deftones, which came out with clarity in the sound but there were also points in the record where you could actually start to see a genuine relationship forming with us as a band.”
But it’s the time between the release of the album, and how it is that The Butterfly Effect have evolved and developed, as well as the budget increasing over time, that has allowed for the opportunity to add extra flavour to the songs that were written for Begins Here.
“Looking back on our lives, how we were recording, as well as playing, to now going out to perform and being able to have all the instrumental components to each song being played live and as a whole is so excellent. It’s very refreshing, and quite nice, we’re not going out to play the same old songs again and again, because you’ve got all the instrumentation there.”
Another favourable aspect of being a band that is still recording and performing 20 years on is the very notion that returning to towns and venues to perform allows for the continuation of relationships made during a time when the band was touring prolifically.
“We used to play live in any venue that had a PA system and so that meant we went to some pretty regional areas,” says Hall. “Albury was always a favorite. Some people would say that’s not as regional as Mount Isa though, but all in all it’s just so nice to be returning to these places.”
“We are now getting to see in these places we haven’t been to for a while that fans are bringing their children along. We have these types of lives as band members ourselves, we all have families and full-time commitments so it can be harder to go on these types of tours, but it’s excellent to be able to have the new collide with the old and recreate this music we released 20 years ago.”
The Butterfly Effect are also very excited to be able to share the experience of reconnecting with dear fans with Hands Like Houses, the band who are supporting them on the entirety of their tour.
“We’re taking Hands Like Houses, they’re a great band, with us on tour. They’re fun Aussie blokes. We’ve just been having conversations about the type of tools they use and that sort of stuff.”
This celebratory 20-year anniversary tour from The Butterfly Effect is set to be a spectacle.
Tickets are now available to all the shows for The Butterfly Effect Begins Here regional tour and can be purchased here.
