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Hungover Stuntmen spent four weeks last summer recording their debut album, ‘Blame The BBC’, with former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor. While there they played a rapturously received headline gig at Manumission’s Ibiza Rocks.
Closer to home, the boys have supported The Subways, The Kooks and Paul Weller, who personally invited them to support him at Newcastle Arena, after hearing their demo at a party. ‘Blame The BBC’ is due for release on 28 Apr. |
Q1 How did you start out making music?
Oxy (drums/vocals): Iain and James have known each other since they were kids. I was in my first band with Stu when we were about 15. Later I met Iain and James and the three of us started jamming together.
James (guitar/vocals): We all wanted to write and we started to play our own songs. After a couple of years of playing, Oxy got back in touch with Stu and Hungover Stuntmen fell into place.
Stu (guitar/vocals): We wanted to make some music that wasn't just about cliques and haircuts.
Iain (bass/vocals): We wanted a band that was four singers and four songwriters.
Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Oxy: Love, life and lamplights blinking.
Iain: We've all been writing and playing together for a long time. The album's really a coming together of all the best songs we've written in that time.
Stu: The title ‘Blame The BBC’ was Andy [Taylor]'s idea. It's from the song ‘Ballad Of The Hungover Stuntman’. The stuntman in the song blames the BBC for his problems. It's really about the fact he can't accept his own stupidity.
Q3 What process do you go through in creating an album?
James: You write it. You record it. You put it in the shops.
Iain: Once we got to the studio we hit the ground running. We'd been touring the songs for so long that we knew pretty much what we wanted to record.
Oxy: Most of the songs on the album had been around for a while. In the studio we had to sit back and take the producer's advice on putting our sound on record, which wasn't easy at first. But Andy had a great technique for recording our guitars and that put the rubber stamp on the Hungover Stuntmen sound.
Q4 Which artists influence your work?
Oxy: Great songwriters through history from Bach to Benny Hill.
Iain: Our influences aren't just musical, a lot of the songwriting process is observational.
Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Iain: I wouldn't want to say anything to them. I'd rather they formed their own opinions - that would be more important than anything I could say.
James: We wouldn't want to taint anyone's opinion.
Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album/single, and for the future?
Iain: Simply to have people appreciate what we've worked on for the last few years would be a nice start.
Stu: Making a living out of our music would be a dream.
Oxy: On the road we're striving for survival, but we don't ever want to let that make us lose sight of our ambitions. After every gig and after every recording session we're just looking forward to the next one.
published april 2008
