Hooked On Music
January 30th, 2009 by sparky
Hooked On Music have run fortnightly Tuesday nights at The Big Chill House since September 2008. Now they are about to embark on a new project. Starting on Tuesday 3rd of February they’ll be inviting some very special bands to curate the shows.
The Hooked On Music Residency gives some of the UK’s best up and coming artists the chance to play four showcases across two months. Not only do they get to play, they also curate the whole show. They are given complete freedom on choosing support & are encouraged to stamp as much of their personality on the shows as possible.
The first two artists/bands to take up the residency are Tim & Sam’s Tim & the Sam Band with Tim & Sam and Jono McCleery.
“Like listening to Sigur Rós, without the worry of deciphering Hopelandic” Henry Barnes, The Guardian
Tim and Sam (photo by Nichola Chipman)
Tim & Sam’s music is best described as pastoral indie-folk. They have even been described as inventing the new musical genre of “Post Folk”. The band are purely instrumental and play beautiful inter-winding melodies that can’t help but put a smile on your face.
On Feb 3rd, Tim & Sam will be playing alongside Rod Thomas, and had this to say about him:
“Rod’s been a MySpace friend of ours for quite a while now. We met briefly when we shared the stage at Latitude Festival. Recently, he did a remix of our song Join the Dots, which we gave away free to everyone who pre-ordered our EP. He’s a really nice guy, and it’s great to finally play with him at a gig.”
The Olympic Symphonium
The Olympic Symphonium is a unique collaboration between three accomplished Canadian Maritime musicians. With the hopes of forming a quiet escape from their accustomed high-energy rock/pop projects, the idea of this group was to focus more on the subtle, gentler side of music. The group released their stunning debut, Chapter 1, in early 2007. The album has been distributed, reviewed and sold all over the world and is now out of print.
An interview with Tim & Sam…
Who’s in the band & what are your roles?
Tim McIver - Acoustic Guitar/ Glockenspiel
Adam Crawford - Electric Guitar/ Bass
Rebecca Palin - Clarinet/ Piano
Richard Ford - Drums
We also get help from extra musicians from time to time. We’re going to try and bring different people along to each of our shows to help make them all a little different. Other instruments we’ll utilise include harmoniums, violins, cellos and flutes.
How would you describe your music?
We like to try to make music that celebrates the nice things about life. I tend to think other people are much better at describing our music than we are though. I think my favourite press quote is: “Tim and Sam make music for the entrance foyer of heaven.” The words “pastoral” and “beautiful” crop up a lot, too.
Who are your musical and non-musical influences?
Musically, I’d say a lot of music where the acoustic guitar is prominent. Things like Nick Drake, Adem, M. Ward and James Yorkston. I also really appreciate attention to little details in music; the subtelties that you only notice when listening closely. I think Radiohead, Board of Canada and Elbow records are always full those details.
Otherwise, our influences come from all different things. I think friends & family are really important to us, so that has a bearing on our music. Also the inevitable things like the experiences we share as a band, and the seasons. Oh, and tea. Lots and lots of tea.
What are you listening to at the moment?
One of the good things about doing lots of gigs means that we get to listen to a lot of music in our tour car (yes, car!). At the moment we’re listening to a lot of the records that people have been recommending on their end of year lists. Things like Frightened Rabbit, Fleet Foxes, Why? and Bon Iver.
What are your plans over the next year?
We’re planning to re-release our EP Put Your Slippers on in April. We’ll be doing a bit of a tour in support of it around that time too. Beyond that, we’ll be releasing a single in June & should be playing a couple of festivals over the summer, and then fingers crossed we’ll have an album out September/ October time.
If you could share the stage with anyone, who would it be?
Hmm, this is a difficult one. There are so many really great musicians out there. We’ve always liked the idea of not just sharing a stage, but also sharing a performance too. It would be great to play a song or two with someone really influencial. Robert Smith would probably sound quite interesting!
What is the best experience that you’ve had in your career to date?
I’d say it was probably playing Latitude Festival. It’s by far the biggest gig we’ve done so far, and it was amazing to play in front of so many people. I just hope we get to do it again someday!
Have you supported any large acts to date? If so, who?
We’ve been lucky enough to play with quite a few reasonably big bands so far. The most notable ones include Shady Bard, Tiny Dancers, Slow Club, Scouting for Girls, Troubles, Adem and Polytechnic.
What was going through your mind when booking support for the residency?
I think we wanted to make sure each night was a little different, and also put on acts that complimented our music in some way. We really enjoyed choosing the supports though, it’s not often we get to book acts that we play with. As you can imagine, you get to know quite a lot of bands through touring, so it’s nice to be able to invite them to play.
The next Hooked On Music takes place on Tuesday 3rd February and entry is free all night!
Big Chill House
257-259 Pentonville Road
Kings Cross
London
