This year’s Mercury Prize was, generally, something of a success. (Here’s me saying as much, in rather more words.) Yes, terrifically boring critics at national newspapers giving less of a shit about music than they do blindly perpetuating the careers of columnists who wouldn’t know a brilliant new album if it turned itself up beyond 110db and set up camp in their ear canals did turn on winners Young Fathers, and did make an illogical fuss over apparently popular LPs not making the shortlist cut, presenting ineligible examples in their argument. But let’s not talk about those people any more, shall we?
Last year, things were rather different. The Mercury copped considerably more flak, and a fair amount of it was born of a frustration that one album in particular hadn’t been recognised as a contender: Hookworms’ ‘Pearl Mystic’. Clash highlighted the Yorkshire-formed psych-rock five-piece in our mid-2013 Most Underrated Albums Of The Year So Far feature, writing that the then-Gringo-signed outfit had the potential to “become one of the country’s only truly essential guitar bands”, summarising the set as “one of the most perfectly formed debuts we’ve heard in yonks”. As it turned out, ‘Pearl Mystic’ didn’t even enter the Mercury race (as reported in this Clash piece wondering just what the point of 2013’s Prize was) – nobody in band or at the label considered the £200-and-a-bit entry fee a worthwhile expense.
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‘Away / Towards’, from ‘Pearl Mystic’
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Nevertheless, critics and fans and blogs alike rallied behind ‘Pearl Mystic’, and it topped Drowned in Sound’s best albums of 2013 list, also winning that site’s ‘alternative Mercury’ Neptune Prize. Praise-spilling reviews at The Quietus, The Line Of Best Fit, NME, the BBC and Uncut reinforced the impression that, yes, this was a special band – and one that could surpass its first-record achievements, given half a chance.
“It was weird, having these end-of-year lists,” says keyboard player, vocalist and in-band producer MJ – band members go by initials only, the outfit completed by MB on bass, SS and JW on guitars, and drummer JN. “Weird, but humbling. But you have to put that [press attention] to the back of your mind when making a new record. You can’t afford to start second-guessing yourself.”
Said new record is ‘The Hum’, a sprawling yet time-wise compact collection that positions six strongly psychedelic compositions within a nine-track framework, connections made by captured-live (and often improvised) interludes. It’s a record designed, from the very outset, to be played live, its makers eager to avoid the relative mistakes of their previous album project.
“On ‘Pearl Mystic’, we couldn’t play it all live,” says MJ. “We wrote a lot of that in the studio, and were never able to satisfyingly play the songs live. But with ‘The Hum’, we can play it from start to finish, if we wanted to. It was super important to us to make a record that had this coherent dynamic to it, and that wasn’t just a collection of songs.”
Many a band’s debut is just that: a not exactly arbitrary array of arrangements, assembled just to build a running time, but certainly a series of songs lacking a definite group mentality, a consistent atmosphere. This is what ‘The Hum’ achieves, its music never breaking into silence, each song becoming the next, transitions telegraphed but never once jarring. It is, in a sense, ‘Pearl Mystic’ remastered: the qualities of that first album refined and brought into a better focus, edges sharpened and intentions clearer.
“It’s not a dissimilar record,” MJ states. “But we’ve definitely honed what we did before with this one. With the first album, we did whatever we wanted because we didn’t really know what we were doing. On ‘The Hum’, we had a stronger focus on how it would sound – we’ve realised our strengths.”
One of those strengths is the ability to absorb the listener in the mix, a deep and welcoming sound of warm keys and fuzzy riffs, juxtaposed against MJ’s sometimes shrieked vocal additions – at other times, as on ‘Off Screen’, his presence is a calmer one, and the effect is to slip into a glossy-eyed state of hypnosis. It’s a perfect escapist LP, then: pop it on during a commute and watch the outside world blur into a forgettable fug as you’re transported to a plane of reflective relaxation.
But, hang on: aren’t Hookworms a rock band, primarily? Relaxation? That’s how the record works for me, anyway. Perhaps its that warmth, evident across every second; or maybe the feeling it engenders in me that, despite the world continuing to tear itself apart, somehow we’ll all be okay. ‘The Hum’ manifests a palpable positive-mindset mood. MJ calls this a “more minimal” affair than its forerunner, and that may be a factor. But, live, the quintet can be quite the fiery proposition.
“We were actually freaking out that ‘Pearl Mystic’ didn’t have enough rock songs on it, after people had seen us live,” says MJ. “We worried that it had too many quiet moments on it. There’s a better balance now. I wanted this to be a ‘band record’, not a studio one. And it feels like that, to me. Hopefully it gives the impression of a band playing, rather than coming over like an obnoxious studio record.”
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The polls you get on websites, and bands posting on Facebook for likes so that fans can win a pair of shoes or something, that’s shit. I find that embarrassing. I’m so lucky, to make music with my friends. I’m just happy with what I’ve got…
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What’s been an ever-present characteristic of Hookworms, when it comes to translating the live experience into a recorded form, is MJ’s attitude to editing. There’s always the risk with psychedelic rock that motifs can echo on for days, that a single refrain can dance about itself and forget the attention span of its audience. But Hookworms make sure they’re as easy with taking elements of their music out as they are laying them down in the first place.
“We do actually spend a long time taking stuff out,” admits MJ. “When we first wrote ‘Beginners’, which opens side B of ‘The Hum’, that was very long, and its structure felt lost. In the end, that was one of the last songs we finished up. But we have a clearer idea now of what each member brings to the band. Each instrument and each person has their place in the palette of sound.”
While the turnaround time between albums one and two might feel slight – ‘Pearl Mystic’ was released in March 2013, and ‘The Hum’ on November 10th– the band was already hard at work on the sequel when their first attempt was blowing up online.
“‘The Hum’ was pretty much finished by the end of last year,” says MJ. “It’s been about 18 months between album releases, but there was actually quite a long time between finishing ‘Pearl Mystic’ and starting this one. We finished the first album in November or December of 2012, and started this new one in August 2013. But because I’ve got my studio, we can work when we want, and we recorded as we went along.”
‘The Hum’ marks a label change for the band, as they leave behind the smaller Gringo for Weird World, a subsidiary of Domino Records. The move’s been a friendly one, with Matt Newnham, the founder of Nottingham’s Gringo, acknowledging that his set-up can’t manage the needs of a band with so many more eyes and ears on them now, compared to the beginning of 2013. For their part, Hookworms have tried to ensure their previous label’s other acts get the attention they deserve.
“It’d be nice if someone who likes our band then goes to check out what else Gringo has put out,” says MJ, “because there’s some great stuff – Cold Pumas, or Vision Fortune, or Sauna Youth. We got Bilge Pump in the NME the other week.”
On signing to a Domino-associated imprint, though, he couldn’t be happier. “It’s definitely my dream label. All of last year was really strange. We never anticipated any of the attention we’d get for doing ‘Pearl Mystic’ – we just made it without a label, in my studio, and then sent it to Matt at Gringo, who said yes to putting it out. We thought that was the most exciting thing that would happen to us. We were so happy about it. Everything that came afterwards just felt like a massive bonus.
“The way that the music industry is, success is expected from a first record. But one of the biggest selling points of Domino, to us, is that artists on Domino tend to stay on the label for a long time, and maintain careers. Even when they put out records that aren’t their best, the label sticks by them.”
If that sounds like a disclaimer, that MJ’s saying up front that ‘The Hum’ might not be Hookworms at their best, park that impression immediately: the album builds on the foundations of its predecessor in all the right ways. Although, it should be noted that if you didn’t dig Hookworms then, then you probably won’t now. “We’re the same band, after all,” says MJ, accepting that the progression from debut to follow-up is more core-strengths studied than aesthetically divergent.
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‘On Leaving’, from ‘The Hum’
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The move to a bigger label hasn’t changed one of Hookworm’s at-the-outset attitudes: that members would not go for this gig full-time, preserving day jobs so as not to rely on band-exclusive income.
“When we started, we made the decision to not do this full time,” confirmed MJ. “We could have made that move by now, but we’ve decided to carry on as we are. This way, it means the band is a release from the rest of our lives. We’re happy with that balance. Obviously I’m a bit different, and a bit privileged, because I do music full time anyway. But we’re all comfortable with how things are, and I don’t think that’s going to change. Domino were okay with that – they were happy with us not quitting our jobs.
“You see bands come off tour, and they’re complaining that their hobby has become their livelihood, and when they have time off, they don’t know what to do with themselves. They have no hobby anymore. I guess, we’re all a bit older than some bands, and I’ve worked since I was 18. I’m used to being able to buy takeaway pizza, and video games, and records, and I like having that balance – I don’t have to worry about the income I make from the band. I see the new Assassin’s Creed is out the same day as our record. I really like that series, so I want to be able to buy that.”
With that Domino money behind them, though, one thing Hookworms could realise in 2015 is a place on the Mercury Prize shortlist – or, at least, they could have their album entered. Just what would that mean to the band, after their previous LP was so widely referenced as a collection that could have, maybe, really contested for the top prize itself?
“I couldn’t really care less about stuff like the Mercury,” comes the straightforward reply. “If we were nominated, I’d say that was really kind, but I wouldn’t care if we won or not. I just like making music with my friends – I don’t want it to be a case of having to be better than anyone else. I don’t want that competitive element. The polls you get on websites, and bands posting on Facebook for likes so that fans can win a pair of shoes or something, that’s shit. I find that embarrassing. I’m so lucky, to make music with my friends. I’m just happy with what I’ve got.”
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Words: Mike Diver
Photos: Steve Gullick
‘The Hum’ is released on November 10th through Weird World. Find Hookworms online here. See the band live as follows:
November
15th– Rough Trade East, London
19th– Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
20th– The Forum, London (with Slowdive)
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