Both sides of the sound: Hamish Anderson talks ’Winter’
There’s a bluesy sound to your EP. I assume you started with The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, but how far back did you trace this?
The best thing with listening to guys like The Beatles, the Stones and Zeppelin, is that I really like seeing what other people are influenced by, and that took me back to Robert Johnston and Sun House. I’m really interested in blues music, and a lot of really traditional Americana roots music. A lot of Woody Guthrie, old blues stuff, and Hank Williams, old country stuff. To me that’s the root of all popular music.
Is there much of a scene around that in Melbourne?
I think there’s a lot of folk going on at the moment. Blues, not as much. I think a lot of people still think of blues as 12-bar, loose bar music.
Are there plans for a full-length record?
The plan at the moment is to do one more EP, and release that in early 2014, and then plan on recording an album.
What was the first record that got you interested in music?
It was a compilation album: The Rolling Stones – Forty Licks album, looking back at their whole career. I remember listening to that all the time and just getting the whole catalogue of their work. It really made an impact on me.
You play live with a band, and the EP has a lot of band elements to it. What made you decide to go under your name rather than as a band, or a moniker?
In high school I tried putting together a lot of bands, but it would always fall apart, and I was fed up with that happening so I just did everything backwards: I did the recording before I had a band, but I knew I wanted the band sound, so I worked with some guys in Sydney. It happened kinda by accident.
If something picks up your EP, and listens, what do you hope they get from it?
To hear both sides of the sound. The rock sound, and the more acoustic stuff. I enjoy a lot of albums like Stones or Beatles album that aren’t just ten electric stuff, or ten acoustic track – they do a mixture of the two. To me it’s the same.
And conversely, how would you like to avoid people thinking about the EP?
I put out Howl as the first single because I was aware if I went with Winter I might be categorised as just an acoustic artist, whereas all the bands I like have a lof of different things going on. I want people to hear that it’s not just one thing.
Winter is at radio now. Hamish Anderson’s debut EP can be purchased here.
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