Interview: Husky Tones

The Husky Tones launched their debut LP with a barnstormer of a gig just about a year ago and there have been big developments as they’ve toured Time for a Change across the length and breadth of the country. With the launch of their crowd funding campaign for the second waxing Victoria Bourne (drums n vox) and Chris Harper (guitars and dapper stage wear) took time to bring us up to date.

So word is you’ve got a new management deal, spill the beans?

We’ve been taken on by Robmont Music Promotions whose motto is ‘blues without boundaries’. It’s very exciting, they only have a handful of acts on their roster and it looks like they’ll be a great help in good gig getting and general promotion. It takes a bit of pressure off of us so that we can put more time into the music making, which is a great help.

The band line up has changed, what’s the new set up?

We are now officially a duo adding to the impressively long list of similar lineups like the Black Keys, The Cedric Burnside Project, The Bonnevilles, Cowboy Lovers, there’s loads of them. Guitar, drums, main vocals and backing vocals, it’s all you need!

How do things work as a two piece – logistically, creatively and on stage?

It gives us greater freedom, in every respect. Logistically the fewer people you have in a band the easier it is, from securing gigs to arranging photo shoots to travelling, it’s all cheaper and less complicated. An both creatively and on stage it’s enabled us to focus on just the two of us and our relationship as song writers and performers, it’s more intimate and not only can we rehearse more often, when we’re playing we’re free to go off on tangents if the feeling grabs us.

You’re crowd funding the new recording, what’s on offer for the band’s fans – new and old?

Plenty, from a digital download of the album, a CD (both prior to official release), band T shirts to things like hanging out with us at a rehearsal or in the recording studio and even having us do a private gig. All backers will get their names printed in the album booklet as thanks too. We’re running the campaign through Fundsurfer which is a Bristol based crowd funding company till the end of October.

Where are you recording, and who else is involved – behind the desk and / or adding flavour to the tunes?

We’re going to Platform Studios in Reading with Stuart Dixon as chief knob twiddler. Stuart’s going to be recording, mixing, producing, and generally doing everything that we don’t. He’ll be the one helping us bring our ideas to life. There won’t be any special guests this time, we want to keep it simple and focus on the sound that just the two of us can make.

What’s the musical vibe for the new tunes?

Well we’re still a blues band but we’ve ramped up the punkier elements from our first album. Punk Blues is an exciting sub-genre in itself taking a lot from the grooves of Hill Country Mississippi musicians like R.L Burnside and Junior Kimbrough and emphasising that rawness with a punky edge. We also like to cite very non blues influences too such as Patti Smith, This Mortal Coil and Rage Against the Machine, it all feeds in to make our own Punk Blues sound. And you know our favourite two albums of 2016 are the ones by P.J. Harvey and Iggy Pop so traditional Blues we ain’t. Our focus is on good song writing wrapped up in sexy grooves.

Where are you going with the lyrics on this album?

Quite a few of the tracks have an ‘I’m angry when I read the news’ feel and as musicians sometimes the only way we can process that anger is too sing about it, so there are some dark moments on the album. But we balance that with a bit of cheeky fun and a love song or two. We have one based on an ancestor of Victoria’s who was interred on the Isle of Man in a prisoner of war camp for Germans during the First World War and the song is from his English wife’s point of view who used to travel for ages to see him and smuggle food in under her dress. We feel there’s a good balance to the album, it is all quite intense apparently but that’s what we like.

What’s the timeline for the album?

We’ve set a release date of February 24th with a provisional album launch party on the 25th. That should give us enough time to record, mix, master; design, print and send out all the promo copies. As soon as we secure a venue for the launch we’ll let you know! There’s a lot to do but we’re very excited about this record.

Will you be previewing or rehearsing any of the new material on stage?

We’ve been sneaking new material into our gigs all year often without mentioning it. It’s really good to road test songs before you record them, gives them a chance to get into your bones. We’ve got some cracking gigs around the recording session including Ilfracombe and Tenby Blues festivals and back at the 100 Club again on November 29th. We’re also booked into the Great British Rock and Blues Festival in Skegness in January. Most of the new album material will come out at these gigs bit by bit but we’ll save the whole shebang until the album launch.

Once the recording is done, what are the plans for working the album live?

We’ll have our album launch party and then we’ll play a string of dates around the UK through March and April, there’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes at the moment to get the right venues, this is where Robmont come in. We’re also hoping to stretch over to the continent in the not too distant future.

You can get in on the action here.