curve - to hell and back again Curve's sonic landscapes and monolith production have influenced numerous esteemed acts from Garbage to several other hard-hitting acts in the last 10 years, yet Curve has never achieved the commercial success of those who emulate them. No one said life was fair, just ask Curve vocalist Toni Halliday, who alongside bassist Dean Garcia, have forged an iron-clad musical alliance that continues to push boundaries. Displaying an equal love of heavy guitars and electro-production, Britain's Curve can never be accused of not doing exactly what they want to do. Just listen to their gripping, critically haled major label debut from 1998, Come Clean (Universal) and you'll know. The duo's latest hard-driving album, Gift (Hip-O/Universal), was birthed after three years of career turmoil caused by record company chaos, which the band chose to channel into a flurry of unauthorized MP3s compiled under the name Open Day at the Hate Fest. Sure the uber-respected and groundbreaking act were infuriated, but so what? Agreeing that it's not what happens to you, it's what you do with it, Garcia and Halliday then set out to make what may be the most sophisticated album of their career. But don't think for a minute that Gift is lacking in true grit. Just because it's pretty on the outside doesn't mean that's what you get inside. Gift's aural assault and brutally honest and personal lyrics are softened by Halliday's gorgeous voice – the kind Madonna wishes she had – as well as being enhanced by superb collective production offered up by Halliday, Garcia and Ben Grosse (Filter). Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine plays on the forceful “Want More Need Less" and "Perish," a song Curve claims is their favorite. The album's first fierce single, “Hell Above Water,” can now be heard on modern rock stations from Ohio to Toronto. Maybe now Curve will get the respect they so deserve. Virginmega.com: What can you tell us about the album title, Gift? Toni Halliday: What's behind the title? It's kind of hard, especially because at the time there was a lot of stuff going on. The past few years have been quite tough for me because I lost my father-in-law and I lost my mother as well, both to cancer. Basically I stopped making music for a while. I went and looked after my mother all the way through her treatment for six months and watched her die right in front of me – quite literally. When that happened I realized there is no dignity in death. But then what happened is that I didn't really analyze things anymore. I'm just a lot more lightweight now with everything. And so Gift to me was how I tried to sum up something kind of positive and good instead of focusing on the dark that came out of it all. So the name and meaning is the complete opposite of Open Day at the Hate Fest? Yes it is, which is what we wanted. The approach behind Gift was to give off a more serene feeling that says we actually have a life and we're not obsessing just on music. Music is great and it's fantastic, but you know what? It's not the be-all-and-end-all of life. We live and die by music, but I'm married and really happy. Dean's married and has two f**king brilliant kids and he's really happy. There are all these other things, our life is more than one thing. Where as when we first started doing music it was like everything else could f**k off. We were so intense about it. It's a lightening of our mind, because life's too short really to churn over tiny little details that don't matter - they just don't. Even in the recording process of the record and the way we put it together, everything was a lot less microscopic. It was more like, “Oh that sounds good, that's great. Let's do it,” which is more reflective of who we are now as people. Before, we were like anal sonic architects and now we're just sonic architects. That's why it's called “gift.” How were you able to get through such a dark period? I think that I've always been an optimist at heart. I had a pretty disastrous upbringing. Stuff that would pull most people down where they would just float around being massive f**k-ups using excuses like, “Well it's my mom's fault.” I didn't do that. Basically from a very young age I learned that unbelievable, s**t things happen. And I learned that I could either just f**king learn how to make this stuff work for me, or I could let it eat me up. I think you're either born with the skills or you're not and I was lucky to be born with the skills to actually be able to suffer that out from quite a young age and say, “Right, okay you can go down the bad path or the good path, which one are you doing?” I think that I'm a very determined person - I refuse to become bitter and twisted about music or the industry or anything because I love it so much. And I wouldn't let anyone or anything take that away from me, even a bad experience with a record label. They're not going to stop me adoring music and absolutely loving it. New songs, although refined, seem to possess a grittiness you had in your early work. Would you agree? It has come back around to that because we like that, that's how we sound. I think a lot of bands go through these journeys with their music, trying to not to sound like they sound. Look at U2, they've been around for years and years. They denied what they sound like and eventually U2 on this last album went, “Hey f**king that sounds like U2! And that's not bad is it?” It's the same with us, we've kind of moved along, but we like that gritty kind of dirty, not-very-polished, quite latex sound. It's very under produced. What are your expectations for this album? We would love to expand and bring new people into listen to Curve. On the last few records we've just maintained our fan base and haven't really increased it, which to us is a shame, really, because we feel if there was more opportunity to hear Curve, then a lot more people would come in. It hasn't really been given any attention, which is fine … climates change and you don't fit in with a certain scene, like the nu-metal scene or something like that. Then you don't get on the radio … in America there's the problem with getting a female voice on rock radio. My god, you don't hear it at 2 o'clock in the morning, you don't hear it on a backing vocal, you rarely hear any women's voices. Fair enough we don't get played because of that, okay fine, but it's a shame. So obviously on this record we want to try to increase what we already have by exploring new mediums like the Internet and films and who knows to get people to hear us. How do you explain your ten-year connection with Dean? There's just something very primal about the way that Dean plays bass that just connects with me. He's such a great bass player that something happens when we sit in a room together. He always loved my voice and I've always loved his playing so it's a mutual respect.