I had the opportunity to sit down and chat to Scottish electro-pop duo HYYTS, Adam Hunter and Sam Hunter (strangely no relation). The band have recently released their latest single ‘Singing Your Name,’ and had previously released an EP in June, titled ‘helluvatime.’ They have been on tour supporting Griff and now Daði Freyr, before embarking on their own six date headline tour.
What is it like to be back on tour and back performing in front of live audiences again?
Adam: ‘It’s amazing after a year and a half of basically no outward validation from people, not being able to feel people’s energy from the songs you’re releasing. When we signed our record deal [with Warner Records] we went away and made a bunch of songs and then the first one was released on the day lockdown happened, so basically, we’ve only been releasing music since lockdown happened. So, releasing songs, kinda just counting the numbers is a bit soulless, so getting out in front of people, especially when support tours are sometimes a bit hot and cold because obviously the people there aren’t there to see you, they don’t know any of your songs, so it can be tricky sometimes, but this tour has been the best one ever. The audiences have been so up for it, they don’t care [that] they don’t know the songs and us and Daði’s [Freyr] music kinda matches a bit so it makes us so good to be out there and doing it.’
I think we’re more of a live band, which is a little more kinda old school
When asked about how useful it is to be getting feedback, rather than just from streaming services, Adam noted: ‘Definitely. Especially for us. We find that us on record is one thing but then when you see us live it’s kinda a different proposition and most people when they see us live, they get it. I think we’re more of a live band, which is a little more kinda old school. A lot of people tend to be the other way round these days but we like doing what we do.’
Sam added: ‘It’s not really a healthy way to play, playing live is a healthy way for us to soundboard our music. I think that we can write a song that we’re both super passionate about, that we love and play it to a room full of people, and none of them like it at all, and then we can write something that we’re okay with and play it to a room and everyone absolutely smashes it. So that playing live can dictate future releases or like a release plan of ourselves. That’s always super helpful, and also reaffirms that we have no idea what we think or what we’re talking about when it comes to music.’
What’s it been like supporting Daði Freyr on his first few tour dates?
Sam: ‘Unbelievable man. It’s been perfect. Sometimes it feels like when you’re a support slot, it feels like there’s a hierarchy there, like you know you have to bend the knee a little bit, but with these guys [Daði and his band], like first of all they’re such sweet people, like they’re very very from the off just wanting to be our friends first and foremost. But it’s so lovely and nice to see super humble, real people and also like an amazing thing about this support is that I feel the music is paired perfectly, ours and theirs. Neither of us take ourselves too seriously, the music kinda shows that, but it’s also super fun, upbeat and positive, and the crowd kinda reflects that, like all the crowds are full of super nice people, and it’s a really nice place to be in, for us anyway.’
What artists inspired your music and the music style you’ve created?
What we really love is the people who kinda take older influences […] like The 1975
Adam: ‘I don’t know to be honest, there’s loads of stuff kinda older and newer. I think what we really love is the people who kinda take older influences and put a modern twist or production on them, like The 1975 obviously. I don’t think you can really talk about being a pop band without mentioning them. The way they use 80s, 90s, like almost modify things that aren’t cool and make them cool in the modern day, and I think that’s like Kanye’s a massive person that does that too, like takes something that might be cheesy, and he makes it cool for everyone. They’re definitely massive modern inspirations and even in more recent stuff, we just tend to take that approach, and find a bunch of records that we love, like on the last record ‘Singing Your Name,’ we were really listening to a lot of those old yacht rock records, like George Benson, Toto, all those old big cheesy 80s fucking bands. A lot of it we tried to ‘1975 this’ and make it a bit more modern, add some production techniques and songwriting, and so that’s kinda the approach we try to take, but honestly, it would take us hours to name all the people that inspired us. There’s so much music being released today and the way that streaming services work, and still I’m finding stuff from thirty years ago that blows my mind, so loads of stuff.’
Can you tell me about how the band started?
Adam: ‘Well we just met when we were ten years old at a [Celtic] football game, and ever since we’ve just been best friends. Basically, our whole life has just been us trying to work out ways of spending as much time together as possible. I went and kinda started in musical theatre, Sam went into the clubbing scene, DJing and nightlife and stuff, and as soon as we had the chance to live together, we moved to Dundee, where I got a job, and we started writing songs together. Sam and I at the time hadn’t really had a musical background, but he started making stuff on his laptop, and then I just couldn’t believe it when I heard it, I was so inspired. And ever since, we’ve been making music together and trying to make a life out of it. So basically, we feel like we’ve won the lottery, because it was just us two being idiots in front of people and making our stupid chats, we have anyway [when] doing shit we do for free but making money off it and doing it as a job it’s just a dream.’
When they mentioned they met a Celtic match, I asked the guys who they support. They told me they support Partick Thistle, a smaller team in Glasgow, to avoid getting involved with the deep rivalry between Rangers and Celtic.
So how long ago did you start the band?
Sam: ‘We get asked this quite a lot and we always give a different answer, but we don’t actually know to be honest. It was like ages ago, but I feel like it was only nearly three-and-a-half/four years ago maybe.’
Adam: ‘This band [HYYTS] as it’s called, and everything was around two and a half years ago that we started releasing stuff like that. We’ve known each other for like 16/17 years and we’ve always kinda been like zapping each other up and creating stuff even before we had our band. As soon as we started making music together it was kinda like we’ve been working at this for years without knowing.’
On having time to develop their music style over time, Adam added: ‘It’s because we grew up together, so like I was a wee bit older than Sam so I remember him showing me records like Blue Man which changed my life when I was twelve, and I did the same with him, and it kinda went backwards and forwards, and grew up musically together, and we both always had such a passion, and we have so many memories of music together, that we kinda grew up with a symbiotic brain.’
Your latest track ‘Singing Your Name’ came out recently and was played on Radio 1, that must have been really exciting for you guys?
Adam: ‘Yeah that’s mental man. Sam always says any kind of outward validation really helps you get along because sometimes you release things and nothing happens, and it’ll be something you’re really proud of that you’ve taken months over. You feel like you’re without a big part of yourself. You know you do it because that’s what you wanna say but also in the pop world, you also feed off the energy of people picking it up and really vibing off it, so when the people on Radio 1 [pick it up], it’s like the biggest thing. We both grew up listening to it. It’s still like always weird when we get the notification of someone’s message saying that ‘we heard you on Radio 1,’ it never fails to blow our minds and makes us feel like we’re in a simulation, so it’s dead dead cool.
‘Like when we were releasing stuff and no one was listening, it was a lot easier, there was no pressure,’ Adam chuckles. ‘So now when people are listening, it’s like ‘oh no the next one has to actually be good, we can’t just do what we want!’’
You released your most recent EP, ‘helluvatime’ back in June, could you tell me about what it was like producing and making that record?
Sam: ‘Yeah man. It was a weird one. That EP and collection of music have been built over a couple years. You know we had songs that were recorded like two or three years ago [like ‘Blue and White’], and then songs that were written to spec with that thing. But kinda through collecting some songs that we were really really proud of and hadn’t yet had the chance to release, we realised we were kinda writing these songs when we were both at the same time falling in and out of love. I went through a really horrible breakup and Adam was kinda like firming up a love thing [Adam chuckles in the background]. And we decided that was a very interesting narrative. We obviously told that story over the course of one fictional person, like falling out of love but reversed. But yeah man, it was a surprisingly organic way to get about that body of music.’
From listening to the EP, you can really capture the sense that Sam described, and ‘Blue and White’ in particular stands out to me in epitomising this feeling. It’s probably my favourite track of theirs, and Adam agreed.
He added: ‘That’s so kind of you to say that we love that one. That’s one of my favourites as well. I remember when Sam sent me the little voice note of it and it was basically all written. It’s really beautiful because it shows the sadness and the happiness, and sometimes breaking up with someone is as hard as being broken up with, and nobody talks about that, so it’s nice.” You can definitely feel the ‘sad-happy’ vibes in the song, with the downbeat lyrics juxtaposing with the upbeat, energetic track, especially from a live version of the song.’
You’ve got your headline tour coming up (it has concluded since this interview was conducted), you must be excited, how many dates are you playing?
We don’t care if it’s five people there or fifty or whatever, it’s just gonna be fun
Adam: ‘Six dates in seven days, so we’ve only got one day off, which is quite big.’ A very hectic week was in store for the HYYTS guys for sure! ‘Pretty hectic yeah! But we’re super excited. Most of the places we’ve now been to on the last tour with Daði Freyr, but some places we’ve only been to once and when you’re playing a gig somewhere, you don’t often get to see the place that much. You’re there for maybe three or four hours, then you drive off. So we’re really excited to get back to these places, and play shows. It’s our first ever headline tour. So I think as well, a lot of artists kinda put so much importance on ‘we’re not gonna do a tour until we sell out,’ but we just want to get into rooms with people. We don’t care if it’s five people there or fifty or whatever, it’s just gonna be fun to go to a random city and play our songs. If one person there sings along and has a boogie, that’s the best thing ever.’ The excitement of being able to play in front of crowds again is so evident in the HYYTS guys’ voices and it proves that live music will always be the pinnacle for musicians.
So, Adam, I heard you used to be a music therapist in a prison of all places, tell me about that experience?
Adam: ‘Yes I absolutely love talking about it [Sam chuckles in the background]. Any time I meet a new person I manage to bring it up and Sam always finds it funny! I worked as a music therapist for a charity called Centre Stage in Scotland, in a place with a lot of problems, or at least somewhere the world forgot about. There’s a big prison just five minutes down the road, and so there’s a recovery centre for people with mental health issues and addiction issues, and that was there as a kind of a drop-in for people. We went to the jail once a week and we did a choir and I taught guitar, song writing and then when the guys came out of the jail, we took them to the drop-in centre for weekly or daily therapy sessions. Music therapy sounds quite complicated, it’s basically just singing songs to them, getting a guitar, getting them a book full of songs, and I really had some of the weirdest experiences of my life, because there were literally murderers who there for life in a prison and all they want to do is sing Ed Sheeran songs, they’re crying over the lyrics to ‘Photograph’ by Ed Sheeran, and I’m like what’s going on here. It was amazing. I would definitely love to go back there.’
How long did you do that for?
Adam: ‘Just about a year. I was in the prison once a week, in the drop-in centre and also things like dementia wards, and working with kids in schools, who maybe had their own difficulties or behavioural problems, all kinds of things. The charity is honestly amazing, anyone who is reading and wants to check it out it’s called Centre Stage and they do amazing stuff.’
Do you think that experience has had an effect on your music?
Adam: ‘I think so. I think seeing how universal music can be, I’m like a wee kinda arty, arts student guy, and all my pals are like that and so you’re in a little bit of an echo chamber and you think everyone’s like you. Going to meet people who’ve had completely different experiences from yourself and seeing that you both still love this random song from the 80s. You kinda learn what songs surpass any kinda cultural ideal or any kinda background, what songs are just universal and then we kinda try to write ones that sound like that or ones that connect to everyone so generally it did help us writing music. And just the way that I see things, talking to different people. That’s the one way that you can get smarter, by talking to people that are entirely different to yourself, and humanising them, not just blocking them out and thinking ‘oh this person thinks differently from you, they must be wrong.”
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