Set to release their anticipated debut album, Irish duo, Hudson Taylor have spent the last number of years honing their craft, progressing from busking on the streets of Dublin, to signing with Polydor and playing massive venues and festivals across the UK and Ireland.
We caught up with Harry and Alfie to catch up on their Summer plans and what we can expect from the album later this year.
Hi guys, how are you?
Alfie: How’s it goin’!?
Harry: Very well thanks!
You guys played Glastonbury last weekend – how was that for you?
Harry: Ah it was amazing! This thing happened where there was an electrical storm and a big lightning strike hit the Pyramid Stage and caused the whole of Glastonbury to close down. But it happened when we were on stage so after about eight songs in, we were just about to play Weapons and a guy came on and said we had to stop everything. So they turned off all the power. It took 40 minutes in the end so what we did was went out into the middle of the crowd and did a bit of busking!
Alfie: Yeah, we sort of turned a disaster into a moment which was nice!
When I saw you at Sea Sessions, you played with a full band. But then a while back, you did the Coffee House Sessions which was just the two of you. Was it nice to just strip it right back to you two again?
Alfie: Aw it was so nice, yeah!
Harry: Really unofficial. It was lovely to do ’cause we hadn’t done it in a while but it was actually really good for me and Alfie to get back to our roots, back to where we came from.
Alfie: We just went out on the road, just the two of us. And we just travelled to two universities a day, played in the coffee shops in the student unions. Some of them where quiet ’cause it was end of term but a lot had a great turn out and it was so much fun. It was just great for us to be so composed like that again I suppose. ‘Cause when you’ve a band around you, you play a bit differently, much harder. So it was nice to get the feeling of the room and the audience. There was a bit of pressure for the first couple of ones but then we settled into it a bit more and got to try out a lot of new songs. So yeah, brilliant thing for us to do. Then obviously over the Summer, we’re hitting up different festivals and we have a full band for most of them.
You just released Battles II (Battles a dó!). Tell us a bit about the writing or recording process of that EP…
Harry: Well, the recording of ‘Battles’ was obviously something very special to us. The original was kind of what got us signed so it’s really important to us. We’ve always played ‘Battles’ at the end of the set, and it was the first song we noticed people singing the words back to, so it’s always been a really special song. And we were thinking about the singles in the lead up to the album anyway.
Alfie: So, coming into the Summer and all the festivals we were doing coming up to the album, we decided to release it. I think there was a bit of pressure on us as well ’cause we didn’t want to have the same version, so we revamped it a bit and put an EP out along with it as well. They were just the most recent songs we had written.
Harry: The single itself we produced with a longterm friend of ours, Danton Supple, but the other four songs we released were ones we just recorded by ourselves in Alfie’s makeshift home studio, so that was really cool!
Talking about coming towards the release of the début album, what can people expect from it?
Harry: Loads of new songs, but including a lot of stuff that they would see us playing live that we haven’t released yet. It’s gonna be cool for us because for people who’ve been following us for a long time, we’re gonna also have a deluxe version of the album which is cool. It will be great to release the main 12 songs but I’m quite excited to see what the more hardcore people think of our little deluxe thing which we planned again to just produce ourselves. It will mean as well that we’ll get to do lots more touring and that sort of thing, and we’ll get to be back in Ireland.
Yeah, I was just gonna ask if there’s any plan to do some touring after the release, I presume there will be?
Alfie: Hopefully yeah, we’re hoping the album will come out by the end of this year and hopefully we’ll be able to get a couple of dates in before the album and then afterwards it should be busy for us and we’ll be on the road touring. All sorts of stuff really- touring, lots of travelling and hopefully go over to America as well.
How close are you to announcing or deciding on a title and/or an exact date for the album?
Harry: Yeah the date thing has been tricky ’cause we were finished but then we really needed to get one of the songs in particular sorted out properly so the date kept moving around. But, title-wise, we’re pretty much set on the title, we just haven’t 100% decided yet. I presume in the next month or so we’ll be able to announce it, which is really exciting, can’t wait!
Lastly, I know you’ve got a lot of festivals coming up – Indiependence in August for one – where can people see you play over the Summer?
Harry: In Ireland it’s just Longitude and Indiependence. And if we get a chance and are over for longer, we’ll try do some busking. But other than that, we’re playing all over the UK – Reading, Leeds, T In The Park, all sorts of different festivals.
Thank you so much for that interview guys, I’m sure I’ll see you soon.
Harry: No problem!
Alfie: Pleasure Wynona, we’ll see you at Indiependence.
Hudson Taylor play Indiependence (August 1st – 3rd). More details: http://indiependencefestival.com
Check out Hudson Taylor’s latest single, ‘Battles’: