BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition December 2018

Photo by Shimon
“We were playing all these
shows, trying to be this super
positive indie pop
band, but we were falling apart
on the inside,to be honest.
We were crumbling.”
- Ashleigh Ball (Hey Ocean!)
When Hey Ocean! released their sophomore
record It’s Easier to Be Somebody Else in 2008, they
were thrusted into the limelight as Vancouver’s
indie-pop darlings. Their happy-go-lucky, Summerbeach
vibes gave listeners a hip new artist to
groove to when they wanted to wiggle their woes
away on the carpeted bedroom dancefloor. Hey
Ocean! had a positive and upbeat aura about
them, and that’s what people adored.
Frontwoman Ashleigh Ball certainly fits this
mould. Her down-to-earth, free spirited nature
pumped our conversation with an open energy,
turning what was meant to be a 45 minute
formal interview into a two hour chill-sesh that
hopscotched from stories regarding the band, to
a wild L.S.D. influenced strip-down at her sister’s
wedding, to bizarre and outworldly topics such as
boofing, bronies, and Burning Man. Even outside
of Hey Ocean! her day-job as a voice actor for
animated franchises like Tom and Jerry, Bratz, Care
Bears, and My Little Pony is enough to crack a
smirk upon your face.
But not everything is rainbows and sunshine
all the time for anyone, no matter who you are.
The proverbial black cloud is a natural necessity
in human evolution, it’s the mud that nourishes
the blossoming flower that is our soul. We all face
valleys and pitfalls, even bands like Hey Ocean!
After a grinding several years escalating from a
local Vancouver act to a full-fledged touring and
recording artist, 2015 found the band corroding as
internal struggles began to arise.
“We broke up in a sense,” Ball explains. “We had
that dramatic sort of breakup, like a couple in a
restaurant. It was this weird fallout, but we still had
all these open ended things, like gig obligations,
so we kinda had to keep that going. There’s this
kind of face that you have to put on as a band.
No matter what, you have to go out and perform
every night pretending like everything is fine, but
deep down there’s a pain. We were playing all
these shows, trying to be this super positive indiepop
band, but we were falling apart on the inside,
to be honest. We were crumbling.”
The members of Hey Ocean! found themselves
becoming a facade, plastering porcelain smiles to
mask the thick fog of dismay. It felt as if the band
that had once brought them so much connection,
love and fulfilment, was slowly washing away.
Each member became a caricature of the public’s
expectation, their true selves getting lost in the
dust kicked up by the tires of their tour van.
“We were putting a lot of pressure on ourselves
to take on every single show that came our way,”
Ball explains. “We did Warped Tour and it’s like…
‘what the fuck were we doing on Warped Tour?’
We weren’t paying attention to what our bodies
wanted or what our minds needed. We were
getting pressured by our label at the time to record
and write new music. When you’re so exhausted
and at each other’s throats all the time, then put in
a position where you’re forced to write music, it’s
not coming out of a place of love or joy. It didn’t
feel right. It wasn’t coming from the right place.“
Time spent apart saw each member release
their own solo records. Guitarist/vocalist David
Beckingham released Just When the Light in 2016
and bassist/vocalist David Vertesi dropped Sad
Dad Cruise Ship that same year. Ball, the band’s
lead vocalist, released her solo EP, Gold In You, in
2017. Hey Ocean! spent three years apart. Now
the band has returned with a darker edge and an
evolved sound with their newest album, The Hurt
of Happiness.
The album’s title track is one of the most
interesting of the release. It’s an atmospheric
offering that, though musically angelic, lyrically
feels like a drawing of emotional desperation.
“I think it was a fitting title for us in a lot ways.”
Ball says. “That was one of those songs that we
just sat at my place and worked out. It definitely
has dark undertones. I think it’s about just being
HEY OCEAN!
Indie-Pop Darlings Walk the Edge of Hurt and Happiness
WRITTEN BY JOHNNY PAPAN
a bit broken and trying to fix things. For some
people… it hurts to try and find happiness. It’s not
an easy thing for a lot of people.” Ball continues:
“There have been bouts of depression within the
band, it hasn’t all been easy, especially when you’re
throwing yourself into this very uncertain musical
path. You’re super vulnerable, you’re putting
yourself out there time after time, but it’s all you
really know how to do, or all you really want to do.
I think [the song] definitely stems from the hurt
we were feeling and masking it with this happy-golucky
vibe that people knew and loved us by. Being
this quintessential indie-pop band that people
want us to be. It all extended from this baggage
that we were carrying and needed to clean out.”
After three years apart, three solo albums, and
three individual efforts to cut their own paths
along this topsy-turvy landscape we call the music
industry, what exactly inspired this reunion? Ball
explains:
“I think we all just felt drawn back together,”
she says. “We love each other, we have so much
history. The Daves are like brothers to me. You
become a family when you’ve been in a band
together for 10 years. I dunno, we just kinda talked
about it. We had some of these unfinished songs
and we thought ‘Hey, what would it be like if we
got together for a weekend and tried writing?’ So
the guys came over to my apartment and we just
sort of spent a weekend hanging out and smoking
weed and singing together for the first time in
three years. It was an organic experience, it felt
really good.”
Though a deviation from their old style, it’s clear
that Hey Ocean! still wants to make you dance. If
sound was the sky, the bright sun of Hey Ocean!
has set, and their audio waves have turned into a
celestial roof of blackened-blue complemented
by sprinkles of stars and a disco-ball moon.
There were no pressures from labels, no touring
obligations, no need to wear a mask. It’s music
they wanted to make, a direct representation of
who they are as they stand in this moment in time.
The album may be different, but it’s honest. And
that’s what’s most beautiful about The Hurt of
Happiness.
Ball concludes: “You have to kinda recreate
yourself when you’re trying to make art and trying
to be a band. You can’t just write the same thing all
the time or always try to be this entity that people
think you are. You have to shake things up a bit
and challenge people. I think I’m ready to do more
of that. I’m more comfortable in my skin, we’re less
worried about being a certain thing people expect
us to be.”
Hey Ocean! play the Vogue Theatre (Vancouver) on
December 8.
December 2018 17