Interview with Theo by phone - Cheese on Toast (bad sound)

[bad word] /www.cheeseontoast.co.nz/interviews.htm
INTERVIEW WITH THEO FROM HURTS
The other week Cheese on Toast spoke with Theor from Manchester electro-pop duo Hurts.

Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson met outside a nightclub, one thinking the other was in a band; turned out they both just wanted to be. After much to-ing and fro-ing they met musically on Prince.

“…the one thing that’s best about him is his he has got creative control of every aspect of what Prince is …he’s in control of the visual side of what he wants to say with his music.” Theo explains, going on to talk about how he feels pop music is better when total creative control is allowed to sit with the artists : “…that’s when the nature of pop music thrives – it thrives on individuality and the uniqueness of vision. That’s some thing that’s been diluted; it’s a very American thing to dilute it. There’s no harm in having the ambition of some of these big American acts, but if you can try and do it on your own terms it makes for a better output, I think, and it’s more believable and less patronizing.”

But they didn’t become Hurts immediately, having played in bands together for a while before decided to strip it all back down to the just the two of them in early 2009 :

“We had a couple of bands before, the two of us assembled a couple bands around us, but in hindsight they were the best kind of apprenticeship we could have asked for… we learned what to do and what not to do, most importantly… and then we eventually decided to keep it as the two of us, because democracy is overrated in the music industry – you can’t have too many cooks….”

Listen to the full interview here, where Theo also talks about recording their debut self titled album whch is due out in August.

[June 21, 2010]