By Rod Whitfield
The career of Melbourne female fronted alternative rock outfit Bellusira has been an unbelievable journey so far, and it’s really only just beginning. They were already pursuing a rather respectable career here in Australia, however things have kicked up several gears for the band since they received interest from The States and subsequently re-located operations to Los Angeles a year ago.
People who follow the Australian heavy alternative rock scene will be familiar with their story, however for the benefit of those that don’t, feisty frontwoman Crystal Ignite, speaking from LA, is happy to speak of how everything has unfolded for them since their relocation.
“Our film clip got noticed by a management group,” she begin the story, “we ended up getting signed and coming over. So we got our visas, which was really hard work, but we got it. We had to prove that we were the top of our field in our genre, which we were able to do, which was awesome.
“We’ve had a tough time too, we didn’t just come over here and bang bang bang, some things happened and it all sucked out for six months,” she continues, “we were really stressed, and doing it really tough financially. But we did a pledge campaign, all of our supporters, and we have amazing supporters, we raised in US dollars $34,000. And that saved us and covered our recording.”
Those recordings were to have been released as a six track EP late last year, however the big news that they have recently received has caused a re-think and a change of plan.
“We have signed a record deal with Pavement Entertainment,” she announced with justifiable pride, “they’re really passionate, into our band, and believe in us a lot. They have a great relationship with our booking agent as well, which is great because we have a great team of people who all really believe in us, and think we’ve got what it takes, and just putting their neck on the line for us.
“We showed them our new stuff, and we got the offer from our new stuff, which is great, and then they heard the old stuff and they were like ‘alright, you’ve got six new tracks, we want to release an album. You haven’t released your old stuff in America yet’, which is true…so what we’re going to do is take four of the best tracks (from the last album), add them to the six and make an album release. That will be coming out mid year.”
In the meantime, the band are actually coming back very shortly for a homecoming tour, their first time playing live in Australia since 2013. So fans are urged to get out and check them out while they can, not only since it is unknown when they will be back again, but they will also be cranking out some of their new tunes for Aussie audiences for the first time.
“Oh, I can’t wait!” She says, with excitement flowing out of her, “we didn’t know that we’d be back so soon, it actually happened by accident. We had some visa complications which we sorted out, but one of the conditions was that we had to go back to Australia to collect it. So we just thought we’d book an Australian tour while we’re there. So it’s actually turned out awesome.
“And new songs!” She states definitively, “five new songs in the set, out of the six. We’ve been playing them over here, and everyone in the audience and the other bands all told which ones they liked and they were all the new tracks.”
And there will be no rest for the band after the Aussie tour either, as another American tour beckons upon their return. And then possibly beyond.
“You’re not going to believe this, but we fly back on the 22nd of March to America, and then we go straight on the road. Our first show is in Dallas Texas on the 24th. That tour is an eight week tour.
“By the looks of it, we’ll just be out on the road all year. Our label’s got affiliates in Europe, so Europe is definitely on the cards at some stage too.”
Tour Dates
February 27 – Melbourne Acoustic BBQ pledge show
March 6 – Brisbane Acoustic pledge show
March 7 – Miami Tavern (Gold Coast, QLD),
March 8 – Crowbar (Brisbane, QLD)
March 12 – Sydney Acoustic pledge show
March 13 – The Bald Faced Stag – (Sydney, NSW)
March 14 – Adelaide Acoustic Pledge
March 14 – Enigma Bar – (Adelaide SA)
March 17 – The Barwon Club (Geelong, VIC)
March 19 – Musicman – (Bendigo VIC)
March 20 – The Prince Bandroom – (Melbourne, VIC)
March 21 – Melbourne Acoustic BBQ pledge show
