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Hoodoo Scoundrels hail from sunny Dorset and their blend of 70's rock and 90's Britpop is ridiculously infectious. The quartet have already been causing a bit of a stir as track 'Montevetro' from their debut EP was crowned Single Of The Week on Radio 2, and they have had residencies at both The Troubadour and the Notting Hill Arts Club.
Formerly just The Scoundrels, the band added to their title after the legend himself, Brian Eno, started to call them The Hoodoo Scoundrels after seeing them live, and the name has stuck.
The band have now finished their eagerly awaited follow up EP, released on 20 Oct, and are tipped for big things.
Bassist Adam has answered our Same Six Questions. |
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Ned and Josh mucked around in different bands at school, most notably in The Bicycle Repair Men. Adam didn't really get into playing much until he left (a year earlier than the others) and found all he wanted to do was play guitar. Quickly ideas of playing in a band formed and he got in touch with Ned remembering they shared a lot of the same influences, who in turn suggested Josh, both of whom had now also left school and soon the three were jamming at Josh's house. Skip a couple of years of jamming and mucking around with blues and ska and enter Hillbilly, the best bass player we had played with. Then the real song writing started and Hoodoo Scoundrels was formed proper...
Q2 What inspired your latest single?
Our latest single 'The Witch Song' is a bit of a bridge between two sounds - we used to be a lot more bluesy and ska oriented, but we've recently found much more our own sound that's not so obviously influenced by a particular style or genre. So, 'The Witch Song' came out of us naturally going through that process really. We don't think it's the end of the journey, but it's a great start.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
Each track comes about in different ways, but usually Ned will have a couple of riffs or a verse idea, and then Adam may have a chorus or another riff to go with it, and Hillbilly and Josh get their rhythm parts going. All this can either take an hour, or it can take two weeks or sometimes ideas sound great when we start but by the time there's a complete song we decide we don't like it! Recently we've been on a bit of a roll enjoying ourselves and the end product has come out pretty well. It's usually not until all the instrumental parts are arranged that Ned will take it away and work out his vocal melodies and lyrics, but it can happen the other way round.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
The Police, Thin Lizzy, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac, The Meters, a lot of old stuff and there are also some great new bands we love around at the moment so I suppose it all gets in there a bit.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Listen to it, loudly, then tell your friends to do the same, tell them to tell theirs, and then hope everyone enjoys it.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest single, and for the future?
Well this single is just the beginning for us, we like it a lot but we also think we've got a lot more in us as writers and as players. We love playing live and that is getting better all the time - we hope this single will get people's attention and make sure they're watching when we come back with the next thing. And from there, well, we want to become a great band, see all the hard work pay off, and reach as many people as you can as a band both with albums and live shows. We're in it for the long run and have a lot of ambition.
published october 2008
