How Andy Hull Becoming A Father For The First Time Shaped Manchester Orchestra's Latest Album

American Indie/alt-rock act Manchester Orchestra are to release their fifth album in late July. A Black Mile To The Surface is being hailed as a reinvention of the band's sound by some fans and critics, however frontman and founding member Andy Hull, speaking from his home north of Atlanta, Georgia, feels that his band are on more of a constant, ongoing voyage of development and refinement.

"I feel that we try to reinvent what we do on every record that we make… this is the hardest one we've done," he states, "and I think the next one will be even harder. It never gets easier trying to make something different every time, that you feel is better than the last thing you did and is worthy to be in our discography."

The album's enigmatic title comes from a rough theme and the characterisation that runs through some of the album's lyrics and imagery. "It took me a long time to come up with the record title," he recalls. "It went back and forth through a bunch of different options. Some parts of the record are talking about certain characters involved in this town that has a gold mine.

"In this one particular song: it's about a journey, and the circle of life, and what family is all about and all that stuff. It's about this guy who goes down into this mine every day to work for his family, and a lyric from the song is, "The gold was a black mile to the surface," and I thought that lyric summed up the journey that is the whole record."

In fact, the theme of family played a massive role in the writing of this record, with Hull recently going through a major life-changing moment, and several other such non-musical influences played their part in the album's evolution.

"A huge influence on this record was me being a father for the first time," he says. "I'm starting a whole new life, it's a total rebirth as a person, so that had a massive effect. Another influence on this record was the weather, a place that is cyclically cold; that gets dreadfully cold every year. I really loved the idea of parts of the record taking place in somewhere like [a] Fargo-type place played in my mind."

In the 13 years of the band's existence, they have graced Australia's shores several times and Hull is extremely confident that, while the rest of 2017 is booked solid for them in other regions across the planet, come 2018 Manchester Orchestra will be seeing their Aussie fans once more. "Most definitely, yeah, we never forget you guys," he says when asked about the probability of an Australian tour. "It'll probably be at the beginning of next year. Somewhere around then is what we're hoping for. We've been coming to Australia since 2007. We love it. We toured England for so long we had no idea that you could go tour somewhere else and it would be beautiful!" he laughs.