Welcome to our first introductory interview of 2021.
Hounds Haul are a Milton Keynes-based four-piece who kicked off their music careers in late 2019 with an avant-garde approach to indie rock and synth wave. We caught up with frontman Adam Bosworth on the back of their latest single ‘The Roamer’.
Between the release of September 2020’s ‘Riviera’ and ‘The Roamer’, the band had the joys of lockdown to get their heads around recording the single and the departure of their drummer, Kenny Cook, left them in a bit of a pickle.
Adam explains: “We had a lot of obstacles to overcome this time around, the main one being that we could not go to the studio as Covid had prevented us going anywhere.
“So we all home recorded ourselves and sent everything to our fantastic music producer ‘Faz’ at Damaged Audio, who stitched everything together making it sound as incredible as it does.
“Our drummer also had another baby at the same time and decided to leave, so ‘Faz’ also sorted the help of a friend ‘Colm’ who turned our synthesized humanly unplayable drums into something capable and amazing, all from the comfort of his home.”
The end product is yet another high-octane pumping anthem, that does not slow down one bit.
“We love the ending, which sounds strange because we never want it to end,” comments Adam. “We played the song at a socially distanced gig last year, and we got so into it we improvised an extended ending that just turned into something enormous, something that would really get the crowd going at Reading and Glasto!”
But not being able to let fans enjoy their music live has been a real kick in the teeth. Not just for them, but just about every musician going. As the UK shows no sign of letting us return to music venues anytime soon, it has dampened spirits a little, however Adam tells me there’s been some interest on their tracks in a different way.
He said: “It’s been such a lost year, and we hate not playing live as we feel that is where our strengths are.
“We create the songs to be seen and heard live, we’re always in the studio saying things like ‘imagine when that part drops, what it’s going to sound like live’ so we miss showing how much fun we have playing gigs.
“As the UK has no site of the plague ending until the end of the year, our plans have been pushed back dramatically, but we’re hoping to get out and about again to start working on something very ambitious nearing release in Autumn time, but for this year, we’re working with some music producers and DJs who are interested in creating some remixes of our tracks, which we’re very excited about! And hopefully when lockdown is lifted we can go and play at some festivals and gigs across the seas, we have been offered a handful so far, but they’re all in the air due to restrictions.”
When it comes to influences there’s a clear tone to bands like Depeche Mode, Joy Division and Editors in Adams vocal presence and the mysterious synth pop sheen and electrical sounding elements congealing together.
Understandably all with their own unique influences and tastes, Adam said they are “mainly indie focused” right now. With comparisons made to Foals, Tame Imapala and even Coldplay, Adam added “it’s safe to say these comparisons are relatively accurate in our influences”.
In their down time, Adam explained it’s hard to say what we do to chill out because they are “almost always doing Hounds Haul or working!”
He added: “We all do very different things in our spare time, with Jamie watching films and playing video games, Alex runs a clothing business where he creates designs, Rien is an avid bird watcher and does a lot of piano playing as well, and I love film and outdoor activities at the moment.”
Describing themselves in three words as “Electro Indie Wave”, Hounds Haul will captivate you with a striking smokescreen of indie rock and synth. Keep your eyes peeled for new tunes!
An introduction to… is a new interview series which puts the undiscovered centre stage. If you would like to be featured, email getintouch [at] indiecentralmusic.com with ‘An introduction to’ and the name of your band in the subject headline to be considered for a feature.
