Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: I started out playing drums at the tender age of about eleven, with the sole aim of forming a band. As such reading dots on a page wasn’t really of interest to me and it kind of still isn’t. There’s bits around the mechanics of theory that are useful but on the whole it’s all about using the ears. At some point I got more of a kick from writing and recording songs myself than playing the drums, and here we are.
Q: How are you planning on growing your fan base and sharing your music with the world? What message do you have for anyone who is about to discover “Hauspoints”?
A: We’ve just put a single out, it’s the first one from our debut album ‘Eel Feeling’ which due for release 21st September on Crackedankles Records. I’m just truly grateful for anyone who does listen to our music and connects to it, but if that doesn’t happen for whatever reason, it doesn’t mean we’ll stop making it.
Q: Who is the most inspiring artist for you right now? And where do you find inspiration for making music?
A: We’ve been compared to Squid, The Fall and LCD Soundsystem. All great bands that I love. I really like bands like The Cool Greenhouse and The Bug Club, what they do is a huge inspiration to me right now, but also stuff from the 70s like Roxy Music, Marc Bolan and krautrock bands like NEU! and Can.
Q: Can you tell us about the story or message behind the song, “Hear No, See No.”?
A: The concept in a nutshell is to do with art and intellectual property, exploring the concept of owning an actual idea, and how far you can feasibly take that. And who ultimately benefits from that exchange.
Q: How would you describe your sound in one word for potential listeners?
A: Legit.
Q: Did you face any challenges while writing or recording “Hear No, See No”?
A: It was the first song we wrote for this project, post-lockdown, when myself and Rob who plays guitar were just messing around in the studio. And it’s the only one so far we’ve actually come back to and reimagined to include on the album. The rest is new material. Every song is a challenge, it’s like a puzzle to solve and get all the right bits sitting in the right place. This one is no exception.
Q: What is the message of your music? And what are your goals as an artist?
A: I could say there’s some really deep and meaningful message, litter a load of metaphor around and how the music comes to me like a spiritual experience, like communing with some kind of higher spirit, but that wouldn’t be necessarily true. They’re all just small observations about the absurdity I find in everyday life, mixed with some personal experiences that serves as examples of these observations.
The goal has always been to just keep going. If we’re able become self-sufficient and in a position to keep working on our artistic output without making a loss then that would be incredible. There’s no real end goal, fame or fortune doesn’t really appeal too much to me. I’d just like to keep working, and keep enjoying the work. Which I do. I really, really do.
Q: Who is your dream artist to collaborate with? (dead or alive)
A: I would love to work with either Dan Carey, or Dangermouse in a production capacity. I love both of their work in very different ways, and I think that what they could respectively bring to our proverbial table would be a completely fresh and unexpected perspective. If you were to remove the inconvenient barrier of death, then I would love to just talk to Chris Sievey (who may be more well known as the man with the enormous papier-mâché head, Frank Sidebottom). I genuinely think he is one of the most individual, innovative and most under appreciated artists this country has ever produced.
Q: What is your advice for people interested in pursuing music as a career or for those trying to enter the industry?
A: If you don’t have a problem with working really hard, and committing a large part of yourself to something which is probably going to lose you money, and where just to break even is a win, but gain a great amount of personal satisfaction and have loads of fun along the way, then yeah, start a band.
Q: If you could go back in time and give a younger you some words of wisdom, what would they be?
A: Man, if only. If I had to limit it to one piece of advice, it would be to try to resolve any inner conflict by accepting all the different aspects of myself, my shortcomings and the parts of me that I actually like. You find a lot of the time that you’re standing in your own way. Accepting that you are who you are, not trying to alter or change yourself to fit a certain bill, or to match up to what you perceive to be acceptable (which in of itself is subjective), and being truly honest about that, can help you achieve so much more than you ever thought you were capable of.
