BAND BRAND: HEALTH from LA

I felt compelled to write about only one thing this week: the band HEALTH from LA.

You’ll see them also mentioned today in my other Friday newsletter - the merch focused DRIP DROP, which goes out every Friday at 2pm AEST - but there has been something about this band for me since ever back in 2011 when I first saw them mentioned in this UK magazine named Metal Hammer, sought out their music and landed on what became one of my fav songs of all time (‘Die Slow’) and I’ve feverishly followed them since.

The reason, for the article focused on HEALTH, is not just the band and music themselves, but also the brand they’ve built around themselves.

I attended their sold-out Forum show in Melbourne last Sunday which was another 10/10, and have managed to see them in a number of other unique venues over the years, even including the Odeon Theatre in Hobart as part of Dark Mofo, and they are always unbelievably good. Like life-defining good for so many of the audience. This particular time seemed like there were ever more new fans in attendance, which is always cool.

For those that don’t know HEALTH, they are a hard one to pin down, and an even harder one to explain, which is sort of the point and extremely sadistic of them in a way. Just in a quick summary of who and what HEALTH are:

• If you only had one word, most people might say ‘Industrial?’

• But if you had two words, any of their fans would call them - and yes I’m serious - ‘Cum Metal’ (better if you go down the rabbit hole to investigate why this is so for HEALTH, just be careful with your search history there)

• They’re sort of Nine Inch Nails and sort of Ministry and sort of shoegazey and sort of avant-garde-meets-metal, but they definitely rock heavily, and write tunes you’ll always remember, always surprising new listeners with their ethereal vocals c/o Jake Duzsik

• They can play an indie fest. They could support Turnstile. They could play with Queens of the Stone Age. They could play a festival with Slipknot. They can slot in just about anywhere.
  

  

  A lot changed after doing the soundtrack for this one. especially with the track ‘Tears’

• They write prolifically, it’s sort of hard to keep up. There’s an album, then there’s a remix album fast as anything, then a double album full of collabs, then some additional special editions, then a video game soundtrack, then another album out of the blue, then more remixes, and it just sort of keeps up this pace, constantly

• Their promo method is ‘internet’ - its a non-stop curation of memes consisting of irreverent internet humour, always tapped in, sometimes focused on HEALTH, always crowd-sourced via the bands’ always on discord living fanbase

• And then over and above the music and online presence, there’s this non-stop branding aspect, where numerous slogans and lines can denote HEALTH, and it’s not to be overthought: “You Will Love Each Other” “Don’t Kill Yourself” numerous song titles becoming t-shirts, butt plugs launched as merchandise (seriously, and they always sell out), Jueves (Thursdays) being a thing for announcements and live streams thanks to Johnny Health’s always-on fan engagement, intensely red/black/white aesthetic, constant useage of “interesante” and “dogashitera” in the comments, a silent drummer who loves coffee and weed, afterparties after most shows….it goes on and on, there’s a lot to absorb.

It’s a lot, and yet, it’s not enough for a fanbase that just can’t get enough of them.

So, back to the BAND BRAND thing, I had a little experience with the above when a friend James asked about which gig I was attending on the weekend, and I mentioned HEALTH, someone within earshot was impressed, I explained the ‘cum metal’ thing they’ve been tagged with, I think that got James’ attention, and lo and behold, he’s at the gig the next night, snagging an available ticket from Tixel.

And he loved it. I spent a good 10 minutes probably detailing a lot of the above, and to be honest, I could just keep going.

But its on the branding side that I get pretty fascinated in this scenario with HEALTH - they lean so into this hectic, spasming style of always-on engagement, whilst having some tunes that sound so distinct to that frantic pace. They have some beautiful tunes, truly incredible music with amazing ambience and dynamics. Then some absolute ragers with punishing relentless beats. The head, is not able to resist the nodding/banging.

It’s such an ongoing contradiction, which I really enjoy, as I have plenty of these brand experts in my ear saying “this is the way” and pointing to this personality-less minimalism and advocating that it is beautiful, while over here, I have something that is high quality but also a barrage of sorts, not packaged up nice and clean and sterile, and that is beloved by people all the world over.

I think in this work-world I exists in with people talking about brand and talking about storytelling and being obsessed with how pithy it can be and leaning into simple statements that eXpLaIn EvErYtHiNg, it’s actually quite confusing then when you see a group such as this who have - in the pursuit of experimentation and expression and constant collaboration - build something of high-substance for close to 20 years, emerge from a noise-art scene in LA into something more mainstream, but also do it in absolutely their own way the whole time, with noise and stuff flying everywhere, and somehow become even more popular with every next tour. They’re in Australia at a rate of once a year currently. No overseas bands do that. We love them here, and they only keep upping the ante.

So in summary, I love this hectic nature they’ve curated over time, the way they obfuscate and bend and move and dance around with your assumptions - always playful but with serious strength in the actual music & brand space - truly a band that other bands love - and I’ll never get tired of hearing that they’ve gained a new fan, in whatever strange and bizarre way that came to be. I like to imagine that when the guys watch their infamous Amoeba “What’s In My Bag” segment, where they hammed up their internal conflict, they knew they’d just honeypotted even more HEALTH fans in their own bizarre, very internett’y way.

Love them. Let’s chat HEALTH, if we chat. For now, follow them on Instagram: @_health_

Gaz

A Little Curation For Ya

For those who are uninitiated, I’d probably recommend these two sings by HEALTH (not counting Die Slow above). They have many bangers, but Hateful from 2023’s RAT WARS is a high-energy banger. And then I’d probably go for their dreamier COLORS, their collab with The Soft Moon (RIP) from their 2020 full-collab album DISCO4::PART 1