Q&A Scene: Hound

Q&A

Tell us about your new single/ album/ tour?

G’day. Well the single is named ‘God Is Calling’ and it has gone and gotten itself a rip-snorter of a film clip. At least I think so. Check it out and feel free to tell me I’m wrong, you know, if that’s your kind of thing. The album, ‘Dying in the Sun’, is slowly but surely going to get launched all over the place via smashing out a cheeky tour and flogging it on the internet. So far everyone bar one dude seems to like it, which I am consistently amazed by. Many of the album tracks are among the bands very first finished things, so we felt that if we were going to release something we may as well collect the best old material first up and call it an album.

How would you describe your sound in food form and why? 

[pullquote]Going to the bathroom in Wollongong can be a real form of creative expression. You can really push yourself to limit.[/pullquote]Snags. Because we’re Sensitive, New Age Guys making something that is delicious, reliable and easily accessible that no one knows for sure how it was made. A variety of dead creatures offering up their most useless body parts to an indifferent machine. Can’t argue with the results though. Unless you’re a vegetarian, but I do hear there are some bloody good alternatives about these days.

Which song resonates most strongly and why?

Referring to Hound songs I can only answer for myself, and I’d have to say ‘Something Else’. It was the first one I’d heard all mixed and mastered, on which I must say I was surprised that we’d seemingly pulled it off. I like how naked the vocal track is and, of course, I get to abuse my guitar comprehensively at the end of the song. Referring to songs by everyone else everywhere forever I can speak for all of us, and the answer is ‘Heaven is in the Backseat of My Cadillac’ by Hot Chocolate. That tuba is scandalous.

Any on the road anecdotes?

Going to the bathroom in Wollongong can be a real form of creative expression. You can really push yourself to limit.

Where do you draw inspiration from?

The existential dread of public transport, Mercury Green cider and a blighted, ruinous past. And punk rock music.

What’s next for you?

Always trying to write a better song than the last one, which is bloody hard to quantify some times. Somewhere alongside that ongoing crisis we’ll record the best ones with a speed befitting our fiscal responsibilities and then spend many tortuous months diplomatically trying to settle on an album title.

What’s your scene?

All of the above and more in my shed every Friday night

About Hound

The music written for ‘Dying in the Sun’ dates back to an interesting time, in lieu of bringing down the mood, it could be described simply as “difficult”. But it was never terminal. In fact the whole lot was a reactionary approach at a time that absolutely required Hound listening to Killing Joke, writing some fast pop songs and drinking with mates. Actually a bloody good time, well known after the fact. In next to no time Lucas and

Gray joined Tom and Chris, making a mess in the loudest living room in Toowong. They had a band, a loose sense of direction and the desire to write some post-punk. Or at least an inebriated version of their combined influences.

Despite the obvious ties to the Brisbane climate, ‘Dying in the Sun’ takes a little more of an existential route than the literal “dying in the sun” that you go through whilst attempting to steer clear of preachy, political manifestos. Although the final track, ‘Fair Shake’, touches on some quasipolitical themes, lyrically Hound prefer to tap into ideas that can be connected with on a personable level. ‘God is Calling’, ‘Something Else’, and ‘Gamekeeper’ are good examples of this.

A song like ‘Concrete’ on the other hand indulges in a stronger and more positive theme. The four members got to the point of being happy with the tracks, so they acquired local legend/tone king Sean Cook (Plutonium Studios) who hit record as Hound played around with as many pedals as they could find. What they ended up with are 10 songs that encapsulate a time in their lives that was equally exciting, crushing and dynamic.