INTERVIEW: Hurtling

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Hi guys, welcome to VENTS! How have you been?

Very well thanks, not as miserable as we look!

Can you talk to us more about your latest single “Summer”?

It’s a sun-kissed song of two halves, the first part quite sweet like the first lick of an ice cream on a hot day, the second distorts into a noisy riff led stomper that kicks in like brain freeze.

Did any event in particular inspire you to write this song?

Not really, the riff just fell out of the ether when we were practising other songs and grew from there.

How was the filming process and experience behind the video?

It was my first foray into video making, although I did do the storyboard for our previous video ‘Feel It’. I filmed us as we recorded the song in Jon’s studio where we recorded the album, for each take I set up the camera to point at a different member of the band. I wanted to create a personal, informal feel. I inter-cut those black and white, ‘inside’ shots with colour, exterior footage of sunny scenes that had caught my eye.

The second part of the video, we’ve escaped the studio for the stage. Over a couple of gigs I’d asked audience members to film the second half of the song on their phones and then send it to us, I’d had this ambitious idea to edit them all together. Unfortunately, my editing skills are very basic, and it was a stretch too far, so I stuck with the video Andrew Duffy took of us at The Green Door Store in Brighton, as we were lucky enough to be lit by amazing visual artist Innerstrings that night.

The single comes off your new album Future From Here – what’s the story behind the title?

It’s actually a lyric from one of the other songs on the album ‘Memory Cassette’, a dejected little number about putting all your emotional eggs in one basket only to find there’s a hole in the bottom. I guess for me ‘Future From Here’ sort of conjures up an idea of getting far enough that you can stand and look back at where you’ve been, but then turn around and face what’s coming head on.

How was the recording and writing process?

There are a mixture of songs on the album, some were initiated while I was on tour in America, I bought a second hand acoustic guitar at the beginning of the tour in Minnesota and traded it in in New York after the final show. It was my first time in the USA, I think some of the wonderment of being there, coupled with a lot of time being ‘confined’ to the tour bus shaped some of those songs – others were developed by all of us together from spontaneous riffage in rehearsals. Jon learnt to play drums for this band, and Simon usually plays guitar, but traded six strings for four to take up bass duties in Hurtling.

Recording wise, the album was tracked over two separate, but very focused weekends in late 2017/early 2018 in downtime at our drummer Jon Clayton’s OneCat studio in Brixton. It’s where we write and rehearse too so we were in very comfortable, familiar surroundings – those few days were a culmination of having worked on the songs over a couple of years from their initial state, to demoing them, to gigging them, to rearranging structures and parts, to finally committing them to tape, well, WAV file. Adding vocals and mixing took another few months due to work and life getting in the way.

Would you call this a departure from your previous musical work?

Not in spirit, but we tried to stick to our manifesto of keeping the song arrangements restricted to the four instruments we have (drums, bass, guitar, vocal), mainly so we could replicate them live, however, through the process, we realised we had to work harder to make things interesting dynamically, learning to leave space, as much as fill it.

How has Sonic Youth and The Breeders influenced your writing?

Well, songs like Cannonball and Kool Thing have been playlist regulars for years. There is an authenticity to their songs, a second nature to their playing that really chimes with us. I think all three of us are interested in bands that make guitar led music that thinks outside the box, structurally, melodically and dynamically. We get inspired by other things too, from Minimalism to noise-punk to Japanese ‘80s pop to Debussy.

What aspect of loss and hope did you get to explore on this record?

I’m not sure explore is the right word, but the writing process coincided with the end of a long term relationship and the death of a parent, so the grieving process, including the part where you start to feel stronger and more hopeful, influenced a lot of the lyrics.

Where else did you find the inspiration for the songs and lyrics?

There are themes of isolation and discomfort in some songs, some which draw on personal experience, some are bolstered by things I’d seen on TV/film. Lines sometimes hit me when I’m walking round a gallery or see something happen in the street. I have a very messy ‘Lyrics’ file in my notes on my iPhone that makes little sense, but is a pot of ideas to go to when I’m trying to put a song together. There is an outlier track on the album, ‘Don’t Know Us’ which is a reaction to the Brexit balls up and political corruption.

Any plans to hit the road?

Lots, and we’re open to offers, if you want to see us in your town get in touch.

Aug 30 Primadonna Festival, Suffolk

Sep 14 Loud Women Festival, London

Oct 17 Album launch gig, The Islington, London

Oct 24 Half Moon, Bishop’s Stortford

Nov 1 JT Soar, Nottingham w/Hellebore

Nov 16 The Pipeline, Brighton

Jan 10 Get In Her Ears at The Finsbury, London w/Personal Best

What else is happening next in Hurtling’s world?

Demoing new songs, gigs, making more videos, loving life.