“I was listening to a recording by Lamia the other day,” enthused Halogen lead-singer Jasmine Yee. “They were a Perth band who hit a high point a few years back and decided to branch out and reach a bigger audience and, like so many other bands from here have done, they moved to Melbourne. It’s almost a right of passage for a Perth band to head east at some point.  The problem is that many of those bands breakup because they are working crappy jobs and all living in the same house or sleeping on peoples couches and then they are competing with a bunch of established local bands.  That’s what happened to Lamia, which is a real shame.”

While Halogen have been presented with countless opportunities to follow the myriad of Perth bands who have made the trek East, this intriguing quintet have seemingly been content in staying put.  Having first commanded national attention in 2001 when Triple J started blasting Walkaway across the country’s airwaves, Halogen have enjoyed the rather envious position of musically seducing the country without leaving home. And while their successive releases – including the hauntingly beautiful Baby Eyes – have all been Triple J staples, there seems to be a reluctance to venture east.  Which raises the question of whether their sprinkled appearances on the east-coast live circuit has hindered the soliciting of a greater awareness.

“We get national airplay and the people hear our music,” offered Yee. “But because we tend to stay in Perth there seems to be this sense of missed opportunities which I don’t think is the case.  We have toured the east twice.  We have had major label interest in us. But the reality is that if we went with a major it would mean a year of waiting before an album comes out and we don’t want that rigmarole. We want to work on our own timeframe. And that’s why we are on karmic Hit. Our music is getting airplay and it’s in the stores and the people who like it can go out and buy it. What more can we ask for?”

The freedom that teaming up with an independent label affords Halogen is reflected in their music. Having made a resounding debut in 2003 with Save The Ones You Love, the band’s creative core – Jasmine Yee and Frans Bisschops - decided to take an unconventional approach to their follow-up Building From The Edge Of The Sky. Rather than venturing into the studio with the band, Yee and Bisschops turned their recordings over to emerging electronic artists to do with them as they saw fit.  And the result was an eclectic gem that redirected Halogen into the frenetic realm of electronica. 

With the recently released Sirens, Halogen has seemingly turned full circle. Like its predecessors, Sirens is an accomplished and intriguing album that roams the emotional spectrum. While it is flavoured by Halogen trademark sense of melancholic, it isn’t only emotional anguish that the album embraces. It ebbs and flows on a sea of lyrical servitude all-the-while drawing strength from the band’s diverse musical past and enticingly fuses the strengths of their previous recorded ventures. But drawing on the band’s differences has seemingly been Halogen’s charter right from the start and that is something that Yee feels is intrinsic to musical diversity.

“A band is a unique creative entity,” offered Jasmine. “The members of Halogen all have completely different backgrounds, completely different experiences, and even completely different tastes in music. And all that gets channeled into the mix. For that reason, we will never be like another band in the world and no other band will be like us. That’s the beauty of music. And it doesn’t matter what type of music it is as long as its worth stems from the passion of the person who is creating it. I respect anyone who is passionate about their music and it doesn’t matter to me whether its grunge or organ music.” 

The individuality that is so endemic within this dynamic band from Perth seemingly forms the very foundation for Yee’s attraction to music in general.  No matter whether she is tucked away in an inner Perth house with writing partner Bisschops, holed up in a rehearsal studio with the band, or listening to the countless musical entities that have presented her with musical inspiration and intrigue, Yee embraces it all with the same degree of enthusiasm. And while a diverse array of music has molded and shaped her musical evolution, the unifying element is that it has to have something to say.  And say it intelligently . . .

I can’t stand lame rhyming,” laughed Yee.  “Halogen has certainly experimented with writing throw away pop songs.  A song like In The Summer isn’t really exploring the depths of emotional experience.  There’s no real connection to any of my true emotions in that song.  And I actually hate the summers here!  That song aside I think that pop music, whether it’s R&B or hip-hop, still has a tale to tell and still reflects the current culture and the society from which it stems.  No matter whether its influenced by fashion or racial turmoil, it is still reflecting the here and now.  And that’s an important thing.”

Halogen’s Sirens is out now