With their beautiful recent release Cold House, Hood was given the opportunity
to tour North America for the first time in their musical career. Collaborating
with cLOUDDEAD on their Cold House album enabled Hood to explore new areas
of music, specifically the hip hop scene. I was able to catch two members
of the band prior to their set for a few questions.
Matt: How does it feel to be in North America for the first time?
Richard: It's great! But we're still a little confused though. It's
hard to form an opinion when you've never been here before. I do like America.
I was once here before on business, not with the band and I enjoyed it.
Gaz: It's my first time all together, so I'm a complete virgin. But
I am liking it though, it's really good.
Matt: How do you guys feel about the success of Cold House and the
excellent reviews it's been getting all over the world? It doesn't really
seem like many reviewers have problems with it.
Gaz: Shocked and confused.
Richard: Yeah, we didn't expect it at all. We've made records before,
so we didn't feel like we had done anything special. We didn't think it
was going to be any better than the previous records we had made. It's kind
of amazing in fact, and it's been really great for us. It's been a real
confidence booster. It feels like the day is a bit more worth while now.
Gaz: When you get bad reviews, you have a tendency to say: "Well
what do we care?" But then you are proven a liar when get good reviews.
[Laughter]
Matt: From your early stuff to the most recent, you sound has really
changed from album to album. But it seems that it's the most different now
because the other albums were a little more rock influenced. So would you
say it's more wanting to try something different, or more influence based?
Richard: A bit of both really. We have always been influenced by
other things, and that comes through in the music. And we always want to
progress and do different stuff with our music anyway.
Gaz: We don't want to the make the same album again and again and
again.
Matt: The site I write for is hip hop based, and cLOUDDEAD is one
of the groups mentioned there often. And there is a lot of people who would
even say that cLOUDDEAD isn't even necessarily hip hop to begin with. The
site actually stocks your album for sale, and it is more than likely one
of the first non-hip hop albums to ever be sold there. So the main question
is, how did you get involved with cLOUDDEAD for Cold House?
Richard: Just by fluke really. The actually sent us some records
to listen to, and they've got crazy music. They knew who we were and emailed
us out of the blue asking if they could send us some stuff they were doing.
Gaz: And what's funny is before we ever heard them, Chris [band member]
read an interview with a load of Anticon people and what kind of non-hip
hop bands they were listening to, and we were listed. Obscure bands to say
the least, and it was really nice to see they liked our music. So they sent
us a load of records.
Matt: Did they propose to play on your album, or did you approach
them?
Richard: We cheekily asked them.
Matt: So are you pleased with the results?
Richard: Beyond all of our dreams really. They did just what we wanted
to do.
Matt: cLOUDDEAD is only on three songs. How did you choose which
tracks to put them on?
Richard: We had sections of the songs we wanted to have vocals in.
We've used other vocalists in the past, and we wanted something that was
kind of opposite Chris's vocals too. They were songs that we felt were sort
of unfinished, ones we felt we could do something else with. It's as simple
as that really.
Matt: How do you feel about that fact that some of your albums,
let's say specifically bought from HHI, are bought for the reason that cLOUDDEAD
is on the album, and not because they have heard your music before?
Gaz: Any exposure is good really.
Richard: It's interesting to crossover to a different type of music
altogether. We'll just see what happens, see what people think about the
album.
Matt: Are you looking forward to the tour dates with cLOUDDEAD specifically?
Richard: It'll be interesting. I don't really know what to expect.
I mean we've talked about being on stage and what songs to do, but it's
going to be strange.
Matt: Have you actually even met them before?
Richard and Gaz: no, no we haven't! So it's hard to say what will
happen.
Matt: So what are you plans for the future?
Richard: Well we generally don't play live too often. After this
tour we will more than likely relax for a while. Musically we won't be doing
all that much. We're moving to a house that has a big room so we're hoping
to make it into a studio and practice a lot. We're not really sure what
we will be doing after that.
Matt: I know there are two brothers in the group, yourself [Richard]
and Chris who isn't with us. Is there family tension when being in a band
together?
Richard: I think we both have really big egos. In the recording process
we both want our own way, but we usually meet somewhere in the middle. It's
the same as being in school and fighting over something in the house, a
toy or something. The same kind of tension, it's unspoken. It's very strange.
Matt: Are you looking forward to the other acts you will be playing
with on the tour? I know each night it's something different by the looks
of it.
Gaz: Definitely. Yes.
Richard: Buck65 tomorrow, that should be good. I don't know who booked
it, but we're playing with some really good people. I think the shows will
all be a little different because of that.
Gaz: Some of the groups like Pulseprogramming who we played with
last night are with us for a few more dates, so it should be great seeing
them perform again.
Matt: Last question, what other groups or types of music are you
listening to right now?
Richard: As far as new music is concerning, the new Boards of Canada
album is excellent.
Gaz: Lots of Dub too. Lots and lots of Dub.
Richard: Yeah, I had stop listening to it for a while, but today
on the van we put it on, a box set I have and I was like: "Man! I have
really missed this!"
Thanks to Hood for an excellent set following the interview. Special thanks to Richard and Gaz for taking time from their starving stomachs to sit down and chat for a while. Hood has recently wrapped up their tour and returns home to relax, and hopefully create a masterpiece as moving as Cold House. Thank you.