In our latest Band Spotlight, Dom chats to Leeds-based band, HITLIST about their creativity, musical inspirations and much more!
Hi guys, thanks so much for the time – how are you all doing today?
Henrik: Tired
Jake: Productive
Maddy: Chilling!
Isaac: Also tired
I absolutely loved your show the other day in Leeds – can you tell me a little bit about your writing process, and sonic influences, because there’s a fantastic mix in there?
Henrik: In terms of writing process we started out with Maddy writing the first few tracks and myself coming up with the drums. As we carried on though, we branched out into other members bringing in ideas and working on them together.
Jake: For writing it’s as Henrik said – at this point we all bring in ideas and work on them as a band, occasionally we jam something out from scratch together. In terms of influences it’s a pretty mixed bag, Nu-metal, Jazz, Post-punk… I think Maddy and Henrik have been pretty key in defining our sound and Isaac and I do our best to match that with our own ideas.
Maddy: Thank you! These days a lot of the songs are written more collaboratively than we used to, which I really like. I’m super into post-punk but no one else really listens to it, which is funny cos that’s probably the most fitting genre to describe us, and it means we have a super unique approach to making that kind of music. Recently, we’ve been inspired by Gut Health, Incubus, Suicidal Tendencies and Lime Garden when writing and recording our upcoming single.
Isaac: Similarly to what everyone else said, it is a collaborative process where someone would come in with something they like and as a band we will all build around that initial idea. As I am a newby to the band I have only been around for the writing of songs this year. I can only speak for songs post Human Cereal however, from that I have seen how new material formulates pretty organically without trying to have direct correlations to any specific genre or sound world which I like.
Can you talk me through the overriding influences on ‘Human Cereal’, and particularly the ideas that went into ‘Marriage Is Hard’ and ‘Girlfriends’?
Henrik: The idea behind Marriage Is Hard was simple, the simplicity of nu-metal riffs, like ‘Break Stuff’ by Limp Bizkit. I was (and still am) massively into Korn, so I wanted to see how we could implement that into Hitlist.
Jake: Since I didn’t write any of the songs on this EP, for me, bass-wise, I just did my best to match the sound of the songs that were brought into the practice room.
Maddy: Human Cereal was kind of our starting manifesto for the band – all of our heavier songs telling a bunch of different stories, super fun and super energetic – but also just our first forays into recording music, could we actually pull this off? ‘Marriage Is Hard’ is what it says on the tin – usually metal songs are about serious stuff but we really wanted to subvert that by having a totally unserious Limp Bizkit style argument over like, who did the dishes. ‘Girlfriends’ is a bit more sincere exploring my own feelings of comparison and inadequacy, but still has a lot of playful and interesting post-punk-inspired bits – Shame, Interpol, Machines of Loving Grace were all in the reference tracks for that.
A terrible question to ask a group of musicians, but…how do you define success as people, and as artists – you get a lot of streams, and a lot of gigs, but is there more to it than that for all of you?
Henrik: Success for me is just being able to gig every now and then and write and record music with my mates, which is a privilege I’ll always acknowledge. I actively don’t engage with the numbers game because in my opinion it’s an uphill battle and there will always be someone else with more, so I just enjoy what we’ve got right now.
Jake: Henrik has a much more wise and tempered answer than me. Success for me would be being able to play internationally, being able to make my living from music. As Henrik says with the numbers – it’s always an uphill battle, but it is very satisfying to see some metric of growth in return for your efforts.
Maddy: It’s funny you say we get a lot of gigs and streams because we’re still firmly in the mindset of relative anonymity! Yes, there is more to it than that – someone we don’t know saying they’ve really got into our music still blows my mind and means a hell of a lot more than a number or a metric. As a band there are obviously things we would like to achieve, and some of that can only come from external validation, but I think personal success can only come from within as Henrik’s saying. If you’re proud of yourself, you will feel successful at any stage, and hopefully we all are/do. But equally, I do wanna be a bit famous, sorry guys.
Isaac: Henrik hit the nail on the head with his answer if success was defined as people. To be growing as a bunch of mates rather than a band is something to be cherished, however, to have success as an artist means something different to me in the sense that we are all running into the stage of life where schedules are busy and careers take priority. So I guess to be successful as an artist is to be at a point where that is the sole thing I could do as a job.
Another one to make you cringe – you’ll all have different answers to this as well, what do you want your legacy to be as a band, and as artists individually?
Henrik: I would like the legacy of the band to be that it was always clear that these people had fun doing what they do. As a musician? I guess it would be that my musical inspirations are clear and even better if my musicianship inspired others.
Jake: When I first started learning bass, I always used to think how cool it would be for someone to go onto songsterr or ultimate guitar and see my bass lines on there, and want to learn them. On a broader scope, I would love to be able to get to a point where I have a large enough platform to do something good in the world, to leave a positive impact.
Maddy: I hope the band’s legacy is that we always stayed true to ourselves – we made bangers and stopped as soon as we ran out of innovation (which is hopefully never). I couldn’t think of anything worse than stagnating or trying to jump on trends to stay popular or dragging the band on after it’s run its course, you end up just invalidating your own artistic integrity you worked so hard to build. I think making music that makes people feel something is always what I’ve wanted to do, so I’d be happy if my legacy was that. And that I was remembered for having cool hair of course.
Isaac: It would be cool to have people in the next generations to be appreciative of the music that has come from this band. It would be even cooler to have bands that say they are influenced by us. I don’t really care too much to be known as a virtuosic guitar player in Hitlist. I write for the music and for people to enjoy it.
Is there anyone (family, friends, bands) you’d like to shout out on the Leeds scene, or beyond?
Henrik: Big up Lucy Dodd (former bassist of Normal Village), she gives me new ways to appreciate music all the time because her knowledge of music is out of this world. So a lot of credit to her. ALSO big up Clive, what an amazing band, omg, Aaron Hunt, what a drummer.
Jake: Shout out to Ben Sauce. Also I love Lime Garden (they don’t know who I am).
Maddy: I’ve got to shout out our label Monomyth and everyone on the team who has helped us immeasurably. I love feeling like everyone’s bringing everyone up together – we’ve met so many awesome musicians & creatives in the Leeds scene and further afield, far too many to list here! I’m constantly surprised by how unbelievably generous and supportive the music community is, and incredibly grateful for all the opportunities we’ve been given so far. Gotta plug my other band Fetsoc here as well, cos otherwise they might shout at me.
Isaac:Big up Doug Security, legend (first name Doug, last name Security)
You have a new single ‘Dirtbrain’ coming out – is there anything you’d like to plug and promote before we finish up today?
Henrik: Fuck Dirtbrain listen to the B-side Alliser Thorne, best song ever
Maddy: This is because Henrik wrote the b-side…
Jake: We are playing Wardrobe on the 25th September #pleasecome Ben Sauce will be there. ALSO, I’m plugging James Mirfield’s instagram @jamesmirfieldphoto, absolute hero photographer.
Maddy: We’re playing in Manchester on October 14th with M/X which I’m so excited about. If you’re out west at all please come and hang, it’ll be so epic.
Isaac: These guys know it. Come to a gig, keep grassroots alive.
For more on the band visit: https://www.instagram.com/hitlist.band