Cruelly on their new EP ‘Ugly Behaviour’
Emerging Grungegaze four piece from Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Cruelly delivers unfiltered emotion, visceral energy and torrents of unrestrained power with their new project. Dive in and prepare to be moved and utterly absorbed as they pull you into their universe.
HM: Hey Cruelly! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat to us about your new music! First of all, we'd love to know a bit about your background in music as well as when you first started making your own music together?
Haylee: I grew up in a very musical household. My dad was a musician, my mum & sister sang and my brother played the drums. I found my way to guitar at 14 after discovering classic rock and grunge, never looking back, knowing I needed to be a musician. I tried and failed to form bands throughout my teen years, meeting Sam sometime in my late teens. We would go to parties together but never knew we would end up being musical soul mates. Sam and I ended up back in each others lives in 2021 and began making music together, forming projects that failed, and so out of pure frustration, I formed Cruelly with passionate intent on playing shows.
Sam has been a lover of music for his whole life with heavy influence from his parents alternative music tastes. As a teenager, he became influenced by niche genres on SoundCloud, allowing him to pursue his passion of music production and getting serious about the guitar having picked it up earlier in life. When we started making music together, we already had similar tastes and thrived off of mutual inspirations, aspirations and desires for what our musical kinship could be.
Amber has had a lifelong love for music of all kinds and knows more about it than anyone I know. She taught herself how to play the guitar and eventually moved onto bass as a teenager where she connected with her love for playing music. After a history of musicianship with Rock Quest bands and being in a band with her friends as a teenager, Amber moved to the city and because I had known her over social media, I asked her to audition for Cruelly.
Milan was supported in his pursuit to play the drums from a young age by his parents and has been following the passion throughout the years playing in a range of genres and all kinds of bands. At 19, he joined a Post-Punk band and realised that loud, abrasive music was his thing. After moving to the city Milan saw Cruelly play at CubaDupa in 2024 and was blown away, unaware that later that year, he would be auditioning to be the new drummer for Cruelly.
HM: Awesome! Who were your main musical and creative influences growing up?
Haylee: We all had pretty similar tastes growing up, Grunge is an obvious one alongside Post-Punk. Deftones, Nirvana, The Cure, Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland but that doesn't even scratch the surface. I guess musical influences are still more than the music for us, but also the drive, ambition and passion that those people had as individuals. As artists, we want to push ourselves towards fulfilment and a lot of the time it comes from drawing upon our idols who never gave up, that kept on going in the face of adversity.
HM: Amazing! Congrats on your latest EP 'Ugly Behaviour'! What themes were important for you to write about lyrically for this project?
Haylee: As a woman, it's been a journey towards figuring out how to deal with my anger, so I write a lot about it. I have found that confronting my anger head on with people who trigger it can be a fruitless pursuit. But when I write about it I can speak my truth, I can express how things made me feel without it being dismissed. It allows me to take back my power and have a voice. I write about spirituality too, breaking habits and repeating cycles that can often perpetuate anger. I write about getting better despite the challenges life brings, freeing myself and accepting who I am, emotions and all.
HM: "Better Off Dead" is an absolutely captivating track that showcases the energy that comes with your live gigs! Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind this track and what it means to you?
Haylee: This song was directly inspired by ex band members. I think being in a band should be fun and everyone should be on the same page morally and since we have all experienced being in bands that haven't worked due to bad band members, we've kind of stopped at nothing to nurture a healthy space for us to grow together as musicians and continue to respect each other and what we do. I don't think it's too much to ask and I don't think anyone should put up with bad band members just to keep the dream alive. I say, if you have to start again, do it.
HM: Plus we LOVE the raw emotion in "Snuff It Out" - an enthralling and cathartic performance. What was the writing process like for this song?
Haylee: That song was originally written back in 2021 before Cruelly was a thing. I brought it to the band and we reworked the track in late 2022 preparing for our first ever show as Cruelly. I remember everyone really liked it but was confused by the unconventional song structure. I'll always love what Sam, our guitarist, did for the track - he's great at attention to detail and a lead guitarist to the stars. It's amazing how the song blossomed from a demo I made in my room to a song that was full of life and detail.
HM: What were some of your main highlights creating this EP?
Haylee: Well, I think the last two years can be highlighted entirely. We worked our butts off, perhaps a lot more than we needed to. Every milestone we hit was a confidence boost towards the EP, as small of a milestone as playing our first venue show. Arran Cargill-Brown & River Hann-Ellen came along offering to record us in early 2024. We had met for coffee to discuss recording and I remember leaving that meeting feeling incredibly excited. Goose Garden jumped in to pioneer the PR and the rest is history! Making the EP felt so great I think because we had such great people supporting us and offering their services to help make it happen. I think we are all just super stoked that we get to keep the memory of the last two years as the best and at times most stressful time of our lives.
HM: Who are some of your favourite NZ artists right now and are there any songs in particular that you especially love?
Haylee: We all love Office Dog, any Office Dog song because they are all incredible. Other NZ bands we love, Dale Kerrigan (their song 'Fascia' is great), Pearly*, Church of Goya, E.U.G, Fouler (check out the song 'Health'), School Fair ('Propped Up'), Trust Punks, Awning ('Souvenir'), Night Lunch, Soft Bait and seriously so many more. We are very lucky that all of us in Cruelly are big fans of the local scene in the country and have followed it for years now. It has had great influence on us as artists!
HM: A great selection there! What have you got planned for 2025?
Haylee: Well, we are trying to take it a bit easier this year and focus solely on hitting some new milestones and in saying that, we have a pretty big one planned for this year. We love to keep things a surprise for our audience. Big adventures await Cruelly!
HM: Lastly, if you could say one thing to every person in the world, what would it be?
Haylee: "Your life is happening now. You have to reach for what you love. Reach for what you love with abandon, with hope in your heart, with fragility, without knowing exactly what comes next. Reach and never, ever stop reaching." - Heather Havrilesky
Thanks so much! Make sure to keep up with Cruelly on Instagram, Spotify and Apple Music.
