Interviews: Hypophora



In this new occassion we have had the opportunity to interview the  Alternative Rock/Post-Hardcore band Hypophora, from UK. Check out this band and give them a like on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

One of the first songs we wrote as a musical entity (during 2012 when we still had no band name) was called Hypophora. It was named as such due to the first line in the chorus: “Answering your own questions, as pointless as it seems” ((Basically a Hypophora is a rhetorical device used by writers/journalists in which a writer raises a question and then immediately provides an answer to that question. Usually a question is asked in the first paragraph and then the paragraph is used to answer the question. ))

Back in early 2013 we played a little ‘Music For Youth’ festival, opened with our song ‘Hypophora’ and the judges enjoyed the song itself as well as the name/lyrical themes so much that they recommended we change the band name to it! We thought that was a pretty sweet idea so we took it on board!

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

You just kind of fall into it - we could never say we are any one ‘genre’ or ‘style’, it’s just a crazy amalgamation of all of our influences meshed onto some occasionally heavy rock backdrop and mixed up. 

Obviously there’s a lot of bands that we all mutually love (Red Hot Chili Peppers/Foo Fighters/Lower Than Atlantis/Nirvana) and they all kind of pushed us vaguely in some kind of musical direction, but there’s no one reason that made us play this kind of music, it’s quite natural for us.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Katie and Karum were friends throughout secondary school and formed the band together. Then met Lewis and Jim at Truro college as we all studied music there. Lewis and Jim were playing in a band called CROSS at the time, and we did a few gigs together; hung out and such. Sam and Josh (ex rhythm section) went their seperate ways and we stole Lewis and Jim from Cross because we’re cheeky like that! Both were only meant to be temporary but a year down the line and they’re still here.

4. Each band member favourite bands?

Karum: (Of all time: Red Hot Chili Peppers // The Fall Of Troy // Lower Than Atlantis) 
(Right now: Hiatus Kaiyote // CHON)

Katie: (of all time: Biffy Clyro // Foo Fighters // Queens Of The Stone Age)
(right now: DZ Deathrays // Marmozets // Rag n Bone man)

Lewis: (Of all time: Nirvana // Smashing Pumpkins // Alice In Chains)
(Right now: Tigercub // Justice // Type O Negative)

Jim: (Of all time: Bruce Springstein // Coldplay // The Beatles)
(Right now: Big Wreck)

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

A lot of our songs come out of listening to new/interesting music as well as all of the bands we know and love; sometimes we hear a really cool musical idea in a song that we’ve been listening to and we just sit in our music room and jam out some stuff in response to that - pretty simple.

Movies/soundtracks also play a big part in inspiring us in terms of concepts and themes (especially Katie as she loves to create really cinematic type piano pieces for her lyrics as well.)

Emotional garbage is probably one of the main inspirations - feeling overwhelmingly happy/sad/lost/excited etc. males for some good songs. This is probably the main reason we wrote so many of our songs in our final years of school, those were pretty intense times and so writing music seemed to help a lot -  they just so happened to be half decent songs.

6. Where was your last gig?

Our gig last night was at the really chill Stag and Hounds in Bristol, which had some awesome decor, it was like playing in someone’s living room! The previous two gigs though we actually did play in someone’s living room! Friday we co-hosted an event called ‘Flat Packed’ in a lovely student flat in Falmouth - a really amazing turn out actually, it was absolutely packed out - probably one of the best shows we’ve ever played. Katie got a nosebleed, glasses were smashed and everybody loved it. Rock n Roll. 
 
The night after that we played in Dom from Cousin Buzz’s barn which was again a really great show, and although it was freezing, it was like Cornwall’s own little Cousin Buzz festival.

7. Where would you like to act?

We’d absolutely love to play in London! The new year will hopefully see our first few London shows!

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

We’d love to gig with Marmozets and particularly some of Karum’s favourite bands at the moment Signals & Orchards!

A collab/feature from more female vocalists in the world of alt rock would be really cool. Trading verses with Becca Mac from Marmozets or Ellie from Signals would be very cute and really cool.

We’d love to have a tonne of guitar features on our next album too. Maybe even some of the slightly techier dudes from the world of prog and math would be awesome for nice n tasteful guitar solo.  

9. Whom not?

We tried having screamed vocal futures in the past and it just did not work. Maybe it was the song, or the vocalists…. But we’re not too sure about trying that again haha. Maybe one day though.

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

We used to be really awful at a talking to the crowd a few years back. But it just takes getting used to - laughing/joking and being an absolute idiot usually helps. Or talking about something that the crowd actually care about is pretty good. Karum usually just screams or makes odd noises into the microphone followed by the odd coherent sentence.

Katie is never too sure of what to do with myself when she isn’t singing - but she usually focuses on the people in the crowd that are having a really good time and vibes off of that. The rest happens naturally.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

Generally speaking, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foo Fighters and Nirvana have probably inspired us all the most out of any bands on the planet. Lower Than Atlantis also come a close 2nd position. But that whole 90s alt rock scene was quite a big factor in what pushed us to form bands and write music.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

At a crazy little venue in Penzance called Studio Bar - an older lady grabbed a ‘handful’ of Karum and Lewis which was horrifying in itself - she then asked if we could touch her labia and put a CD inside of her so she could ‘Make sweet, sweet music’.

13. What do you think of your fans?

On thing we’ve noticed is that people are always keen to travel distances to come and see us which is always really cool! Whenever we play in Cornwall, even when the bus services are utter shite, people will always find a way to get to our shows (even if it means cramming 7 people into a 5 seater Peugeot 406) they always make that effort!

They’re always really diverse groups of people too which is great, we’ve seen all kinds of people at our gigs of all different ages, backgrounds and areas. Its great.

14. What do you think of our site?

We’re always big fans of music blogs that give chances to the littler bands like us! We’re also aware that we aren’t nearly as ‘heavy’ as some of the other bands on here. So thanks for existing! Thanks for giving an alt rock band the chance to reach a slightly different audience, we love that :) 

15. Something to add?

Much, much love to Carlton Sandercock for everything he’s done and is doing xxxx

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