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Hood.
 "It's amazing," says Hood's Richard Adams when asked about how it feels to be talking to someone on the other side of the world about his band's recently released sixth record, 'Outside Closer'. "I don't know, it's fantastic. I love talking about music, so it's great to talk to people, especially about what you're doing. I spend every waking moment thinking about it, so it's been great!"
It seems like this could be a big year for the English band. Their ghostly, ambient soundscapes, based on a symbiosis of earthy guitars and digital technology, are attracting a lot of attention. But what interests me most is the fact that this is the band's sixth album - and it took two years to make. Adams tells me the process of making a record has changed significantly since the band's early days.
"We used to rush. We tried to make records on 800 pounds and whatever. Earlier on we were more prolific, but you get to the stage where you can't be prolific. We don't want to drop the standard; it's quality control. We want to make a record that was better than the last one - well, that we think, anyway - or at least as good, you know? You get more professional over time."
Having never heard of Hood before the release of the album, I ask Adams about the band's history outside of their home of the United Kingdom. "We've toured - I mean, the first eight years of the band we didn't really tour, we just did a few shows here and there - but we've now been to America for a tour, and it's been good to see places. It's good, because you get to see places, and you get to play as well!"
Still, after all of the band's many successes, they haven't reached the musician's goal of being able to live solely on the fat of their art. "No, no," he murmurs, and I can picture him raising his eyebrows and shaking his head, knowingly. "We still struggle between having jobs and doing music. We've thought about just going for it, big style, but I mean - doing that entails making career moves, and things like that, and I find that something I don't like. I think it's one of these things where, I don't know whether it's a lack of ambition on our part, but I think if you're going to do it ... there's going to be a lot more pressure, thinking 'where's my paycheck coming from?' I think a lot of people get bitter about it. I'm not sure whether it's the best thing to do. It's just like a job you'd have normally. That's not what it's all been about for us, you know?"
If he's not ambitious within the band, you could be forgiven for thinking Adams might be ambitious outside of the band. But alas, he's not quite got it there, yet, either.
"I've never been able to come up with something, really. I've just flipped from job to job. At the minute, I'm working in a record shop. I find it hard, because at a record shop I'm thinking about selling music, whereas in a band I'm thinking about creating music. I think I've gotten a bit better with it, but when I first started doing both things... Music was the way I got away from my job, but at the minute, my job's music! At work I'm thinking, 'What will sell?' The way we work [as a band], we're not thinking 'what will sell.' We're thinking, 'What do we like? What will we be really interested in?' And that's probably the last thing that will sell!"
Ben Revi
 | 'Outside Closer' is out now through Sensory Projects. |
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