The Hushtones are one our favorite band at the moment, with some cracking tracks like the Birds Are Coming, this is a band to get in your ears!
Hushtones’ take on pop music has been described as punchy and powerful with nods to Fleetwood Mac and Sunflower Bean, nostalgic feels, soaring melodies and a smooth blend of female and male voices.
Their brand new cover EP “On Bricks” features 3 songs produced by Steve Levine in his Liverpool studio. This adventurous, acoustic compilation of cover songs is a pre-release to their upcoming debut LP featuring all original material.
On Bricks EP is now available to stream on all platforms.
Who are Hushtones?
Hushtones are one of Liverpool’s finest new live acts, their take on pop music has been
described as punchy and powerful with nods to Fleetwood Mac and Sunflower Bean.
Fronted by Martha Goddard and Mick Campbell, the two lead songwriters, alongside
Caitlin McPaul on bass and backing vocals, Joe Dillon, guitar and backing vocals, and
Abraham Tesfachristos on drums. The band creates varied, harmonious music often with a
sense of uplift.
How did you get Together?
It all began in a small plates restaurant on Bold Street, frustrated pot washer Mick brushed
paths with fed-up waitress Martha. Heady times were to follow as the two decided to form
a musical relationship.
They quickly realised they had no band members and urgently set about to find willing
participants.
It was Christmas eve when Mick ran into an old acquaintance from school “I forgot how tall
you were”, he declared as he greeted Caitlin, then remembering she was a capable bass
player and singer, she became the next member of Hushtones.
After months of aimlessly writing and learning songs together they realised there was no
drummer, and that’s why it sounded like there were no drums.
To set the record straight they asked Abe, the manager of the bar they played in on
Thursdays, and known drummer if he wanted in. He did.
The last piece of the puzzle was to find another guitarist who could sing and play at the
same time. Joe was playing ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ at an open mic night, shortly
thereafter falling off his chair drunk. “You’re in” thought the rest of the band.
Who are your Biggest influences? From what I've listened to you remind me a little of the
magic numbers.
I always find this to be one of the more difficult questions to answer, it could be argued that
our families are the biggest influences as they are the ones that encouraged us earlier in
life that music was a good idea and that we have to pursue what makes us happy, and not
to give up when things don’t seem too groovy.
In terms of musical influences though we are big fans of music old and new, Beatles,
Fleetwood Mac, Kate bush, T-Rex, but also Sunflower Bean, Courtney Barnett, Mac
Demarco and things of that ilk.
What is your writing process like?
It has grown and changed over the years. Myself and Martha write songs separately and
together but generally the formula for this band is co-writing, either one of us will bring an
idea then we finish it together or we start from scratch. There aren’t any rules to how we
do this though, sometimes we don’t intend to write anything and a song will just happen.
This year you released your latest tracks in April, the birds are coming and my favourite
keep running. How did you come up with these tracks?
(Martha)The birds are coming was written in bed after a sleepless night. I could hear the
birds outside to signify it was morning. Keep running is about our disdain for working
endless mind numbing shifts in jobs we don’t care about when we really just want to write
music.
(Mick) Normally when we have new songs we make a demo for the rest of the band to
listen to before they play it, just to give them an idea of the structure more than anything.
These two tunes are unique in that we didn’t do that, we brought them in as finished
pieces and let nature take its course.
What has been the best venue you have played at so far?
Two of our favourites, Sound and Kellys have sadly fallen victim to the pandemic, it is grim
times for the indie venues. Who knows what it’s going to look like when we are eventually
allowed to get back out there.
There is a very uncomfortable reality here in Liverpool, venues seem to be going under all
the time now as trade hasn’t happened in 6 months, even The Zanzibar which is seen as
being responsible for nurturing some of our success stories hasn’t made it through.
We are hopeful that in their places come new venues to play in, or better still more (empty)
student accommodation!
How would you change the music Industry?
Make it less top down, give new talents more of a footing. Take away the politics.
There are undeniable problems with young, talented and working class people trying to get
a leg up in the industry and it is only through determination and refusal to bend to social
norms that people from these backgrounds occasionally succeed, unfortunately though it
is those with financial support who tend to be afforded the time it takes to grow as an artist
and make something meaningful.
What we need is greater support from the industry for what seems to me to be a very
obvious problem, we need to invest in the young artists who have something interesting to
say before they become so broke that they have to go to work in Starbucks.
Being from Liverpool are you Beatles fans? What are your favourite tracks from the
boys?
We are all Beatles fans, some of us more than others but I feel as they are omnipresent in
the city it is inescapable for musicians, we are all influenced by them in some way whether
we are fans of the music or not.
For me it’s Abbey Road, but it’s a close run thing with the latter albums, Revolver, Pepper
and The white album.
What has lockdown been like for you?
Productive, but through the necessity to do something with our time. As with most jobs in
the arts performance is a huge part of the bigger picture and without it our lives are very
different. It is important to try to stay level headed in these insane times and try to focus on
what it was you were looking to achieve in the first place.
Whats Next for You?
We have been one of the lucky ones in that we have been able to keep recording, before
the second lockdown was imposed on us we were putting the finishing touches to our
debut album and had also recorded a covers EP to get us used to working in the studio
again. This has been in no small part down to having Steve Levine looking out for us, if we
didn’t have the studio time and something to focus on we really have no idea what would
have ended up happening.
Our lockdown covers EP On Bricks is now out as a taster of bigger things to come
this year.
