Is it a
source of pride that very rarely anyone manages to spell the bands
name correctly? Is there any weird and wonderful versions that you
read and wonder how they could get it so wrong?
Ah, the
name.
Its a
double edged sword sometimes.
On the
one hand we're not too precious about folk getting it right,
particularly if they've made the effort to come and see us play.
It's a
memorable name, if a little hard to pronounce for some people.
I do get
a wee bit annoyed when someone’s booked us and they cant be arsed
spelling it right on a poster or promo. We live in a world of 'copy
and paste' so there's no excuse really.
On the
other hand we got booked to play the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow a
couple of years ago and the promoter had us down as The BallaHELLISH
HOLEhounds. That tickled us, even thought about changing it
permanently, for about ten seconds...
I hear
you received an interview request due to the band being young and up
and coming. Do you want to share with us when you actually formed?
Yeah,
that was funny and a bit sad really. Symptomatic of the lazy amateurs
running about today’s music scene, but that’s another
conversation altogether.
We
actually played our first gig in 1989 as a psychedelic blues rock
band, complete with a harmonica playing army deserter as our front
man (seriously!) and a drum machine.
We played
like that for a couple of years, then life got in the way.
Myself
and Zander met up in Glasgow 7-8 years ago and started jamming again,
played a few gigs as a duo and discovered that folk seemed to like
what we were about. The turning point was getting booking for The
Wickerman Festival in 2007, things seemed to take off after that.
Since
then, we played the length and breadth of the UK, put out 2 well
received albums and an EP and amassed over 300 gigs and counting.
So it's
been a rapid ascendency in popularity for you all?
You could
say we're an overnight success, if a night lasted 25 years...
To be
serious though you guys have been pushing a hard bluegrass sound for
a while now.
Do you
feel that sometimes the americana/folk scene can be accused of being
a bit clean and your sound could be described as a tad more
authentic, as apart from it having a frayed blue collar there's a
great deal of dirt under its nails?
We're
kinda outsiders on the scene, but that’s ok with us, we like it
that way.
It can be
too 'clean' as you suggest, our roots are in noisy rock and punk, so
I think that comes across in our live shows. Sometimes I think you
can give roots music too much respect, we like to mix it up and play
it with a bit of edge, particularly at our live shows.
We have
more of an 'up and at em' approach, which isn’t really how a lot of
UK Americana bands do it.
We're the
real deal though, anyone that comes to see the Hellhounds will know
they've been to see a band that’s honest about what they do,
hopefully they'll think we can play a bit as well and come back for
more.
Where we
come from in the Highlands, Kinlochleven and Glencoe, used to have an
Aluminium factory right smack in the middle of the mountains, so we
grew up in a curiously odd place. Heavy industry and everything that
comes with that, set to a back drop of mountains and a small village
lifestyle.
I worked
for ten years there stacking Aluminium ingots and working shifts, my
collars are still frayed and blue and I can still remember the dirt
and the grime from working there, Zander was the same. I think has
given us a good work ethic along with a bit of a fuck you to the man
attitude. Nothing worse than some middle class boy or girl singing
about 'working on the rail-road' 'drinking moonshine' or how bad it
is in jail.
I usually
find it pretty crass and think to myself “if that fella/lady ever
seen a hard days work, then My name is Johnny Cash....”
What do
you think about the rise in popularity of roots music over the last
few years? Pros and cons?
Personally,
I think its great.
As with
any genre, if you stick to playing well and honestly, you last the
course. We play what we like and if folk like it, that's grand. We've
been doing it for a few years now and it comes and goes. The first
wave in recent years was when the soundtracks for O Brother Where Art
Thou and Brokeback Mountain came out.
That
piqued some interest.
If I'm
being honest, I don’t really see any cons, anything that can get
folk listening to some music they might not have discovered otherwise
is fine with me.
Any genre
specific music always attracts scensters, Americana music isn’t any
different.
If it
means they buy a tickets to see us and maybe even a CD, that's cool.
Although, I’m a wee bit pissed off about the amount of checked
shirts on the go these days,
I used to
wear them because they were cheap, now every fuckers got one...
You are a
self released band. Is that through choice or necessity?
Its a bit
of both really. There's another band on our label called Dixie Fried,
I've played in bands and been friends with their drummer John Murphy
for years. Both of us have been working in and around music for a
while running gigs and helping our other bands. We decided that the
best way to go was to set up our own wee label called Big Rock Candy
Records and self release our own music.
Its been
a good learning experience, but very worthwhile.
There's 4
acts on the label now and we wont have any more than that on it. The
best thing is that we have complete control over what we do. Everyone
involved in the label does a proper shift when they have to, its a
pretty good collective of like minded people. It goes back to the
work ethos I spoke about earlier, there's far too many really
talented folk that aren’t prepared to put in the extra work to get
themselves to the next stage.
We have
the label at a level we're comfortable with, playing music is our
priority, but running our own label makes us to push ourselves a bit
more.
And apart
from anything else, being in control of our own destiny has made us
find out more about the pond we swim in. I’m sure you won't be
surprised about the amount of musicians that don’t actually have a
clue how the business works.
We're no
experts, but we have a bit of a clue...
You
played recently as part of the No Mean City festival in Glasgow. It
was a far reaching run of dates and you played the opening night. How
did that go?
That was
a great gig for us, although I’ve played there in a couple of other
bands, this was the first time The Hellhounds had played the ABC and
to be playing as part of No Mean City was great.
We got a
cracking reception, always nice to be invited to these sort of
things.
We played
King Tuts for the first time this year as well, never too old and all
that...
While
some acts seem to be rooted to one geographical location you appear
to do as many gigs in the north of Scotland as you do on the west
coast if not more. Are the audiences quite different as I have this
idea in my head that the further north we go the more they would get
what you guys are all about. Is that a fair view?
That's
true to a certain extent. When we play up north folk seem to be right
up for the night out and usually get right on board with the craic.
That’s
not to say we don't enjoy playing in our home town (Glasgow), there
are just far more opportunities for a band like us to actually get
paid and looked after by travelling to far flung places outside our
comfort zone.
Definitely
sharpens your tools by hitting the road, that's for sure.
We're a
bit old school in our approach, we sell most of our CD's at gigs, so
it makes good sense to play in as many different places as we can.
I get
bored really quickly playing the same venues in Glasgow, in fact over
the last 2-3 years, we've only played 2 or 3 gigs a year in Glasgow.
Festivals.
Of course I was there at Eden this year and I had a ball, as you all
obviously did to, as we bumped into each other often enough in
ongoing degrees of intoxication. Was that one of your favourites and
what others did you play and how did they measure up to it?
Eden was
great! That was our 3rd year in a row there, top festival and always
a grand gig for us. Proper party people.
This year
we also played Belladrum amongst others, headlining The Potting Shed
Stage for the 2nd time, that’s a right home gig for us and always a
good weekend.
The
crowds there are mental, in a good way.
Probably,
playing festivals is when we really thrive. We can play a 45-60min
set and really go for it. Not forgetting we're usually playing to a
crowd that in the most part, haven't heard us before.
That's a
challenge we like, bringing a bit of mayhem to the uninitiated,
always fun.
And
finally what's next for the band. Have you more recording plans, live
dates, supports?
Well.
We've just finished a run a dates from April-September which included
a pile of festivals, King Tuts, No Mean City and a whole heap of
places in between including our first gig in Mull, which was a lot of
fun.
At the
moment we have a couple of gigs in November and that's us for the
live stuff for the year, unless we get a decent offer for something
good.
In 2014
we're celebrating 25 years of The Ballachulish Hellhounds, so we're
making plans for that.
I can
say, there will be an album simply called The Ballachulish Hellhounds
with all original songs. Along with a big party in Glasgow and one in
the Highlands.
I cant
say much more than that at the minute, but if you follow us on
Facebook, that's the place to watch. We also have our website
www.thehellhounds.co.uk where you can keep up to speed with any news
and stream all our music to.
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