Belle Haven Get Deep In New Update

5 July 2016 | 9:58 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

Belle Haven have gotten pretty deep in a recent statement about the band's accomplishments and tribulations over the past year, and what's going down in their future.

Belle Haven have gone real deep in a recent statement about the past year or so of the band's career and what will be going down in their future.

From their US tour in 2015 with Norma Jean and Sleepwave, their now fired manager, issues with getting a music video released, and to writing and releasing new music, this statement is a doozy. But honestly, with the first couple paragraphs, I was dreading that this was a break-up post. It wasn't, but I was sweating there for a second!

You can read the full update from below. It's long, but a good and informative one.

"Attention. We have something to say.

It’s becoming increasingly common to hear about bands having financial issues. Ranging from gear being stolen which puts them into financial crisis or just general tour costs starting to swallow every penny the band has. Sometimes this leads to crowd funding campaigns. Sometimes this leads to bands breaking up.

So, how often do we see bands come forward talking about how they’re not having financial issues? How they’re managing to get by? It doesn’t really happen. Maybe it's because it’s not really supposed to be exciting, or maybe it’s because the bands that are getting by feel guilty about it.

How is any of this relevant to Belle Haven?

Last year we played roughly 70 shows, a large portion of which were in the US. Despite our tour in the US being incredibly successful (measured by our own happiness) and all of the shows being unrealistically good, by the end of 2015 we were broke. Completely broke. This was just due to standard tour costs and such, but also courtesy of a few people trying to take advantage of us. We’d flown our old manager over to the US with us only to have him cause multiple issues with many of the people involved on the tour (we eventually fired him). We paid thousands of dollars to a well-known videographer to have him create a music video for Closet, which was never completed (we eventually took legal action and won). Things were grim. But then 2016 happened.

This year, for the first time ever as a band, Belle Haven is making enough money to survive. We’re not turning any personal profit and we’re still working hard at our day jobs, but we’re not pouring half of our personal pay into the band just to keep it afloat. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted from our shoulders and we can finally start chipping away at money we owe to various family and friends who have been so generous before in helping Belle Haven stay alive.

However, the most important thing to note here is that we have you, our Belle Haven family, to thank. To all the people who have been coming to see us jam and sing with us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To all the people who have been kind enough to pick up some merch to help keep us on the road, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To all the people who have been spinning our jams on iTunes/Spotify or what have you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It all helps so, so much. You really are the reason we can keep going. That isn’t just something we say to try and keep you involved, that is 100% truth. We couldn’t do this without you, and we are infinitely grateful. Thank you so much.

So, we have something to say. A promise. Thanks to you, we’ve been able to write new music. It is nearly done and we can’t wait to share it with you. Our promise to you is that it is worth the wait. It is worth the time and the money you have put into this band. We promise that we have written the absolute best music that we are capable of writing, and that we wrote it for you, our family.

You’ll hear more from us on this topic soon. Until then, let's continue to congregate. Spread the word. We are a family and we're in this together. We are all Belle Haven.

Love from,

Chris, Tom, Mara, Jake and David. x"

Phew, so it's not a break-up announcement, but rather a great update to hear from on one of Melbourne's best up and coming bands.

I for one am very keen to see what the band do next with their chaotic brand of post-hardcore. If it's anything like 'Everything Ablaze', things will be very good indeed...


Belle Haven will also be the main supports for Rolo Tomassi on their headline tour this September. For tickets & info go here.

RT:BH TOu