Hull quintet Low Hummer (formed by members of La Bête Blooms, Late Night Fiction, Shipping Forecast) emerged in September with their post-punk-pop debut ‘Don’t You Ever Sleep’, now followed by new single ‘I Choose Live News’, available via Leeds label, Dance To The Radio.
Who are you?
I’m Daniel Mawer. I play guitar and sing. Aimee Duncan (an amazing solo artist and East Yorkshire’s coolest cowgirl) sings and plays a mean sample pad. Stephanie (Hull’s answer to Emily Brontë) Hebdon plays guitar and keys. John Copley plays guitar (and is addicted to the pizza show on youtube), Jack Gallagher plays bass (also the North’s regional postman and spokesman, blame him for your parcel being late). And finally, our mate Joe Gray is currently on drums, we steal him from a fellow Hull band called Fever in between their touring schedule.
Tell us something about yourself and how you came to be where you are today.
We all met thanks to music nights in Hull! I’d met John and Jack years ago through gigs and we’ve played a ton of music together over the years.
I work as a promoter at The Polar Bear and Welly venues in the city, so when we started Low Hummer, I met Steph purely because she’d booked a ticket for every show we had at the venues and got chatting. Aimee I’d booked for lots of gigs as a solo musician and quickly realised she was amazing. Without really knowing what anyone would play I asked individually if they’d all like to be in a band with me and managed to trick them into a practise room to start making music
Give us an idea of your musical style and influences.
We all love Pixies, that’s sort of a golden rule! We’re Northern, so that plays a huge part in who we are and how we sound, we own a load of old synths we don’t know how to use, and we love making a racket, so those three things combined merge into a budget LCD Soundsystem/Talking Heads/ Elastica from ‘ULL. I saw Fonda 500 play this year’s Humber Street Sesh on Hull’s Marina, if we can get even half as good as that lot I’ll be forever happy.
Explain the production and writing process behind your songs.
Generally, I’ll demo a song, and then the band will completely butcher it, make me cry and then make it their own. We work with Matt Peel, a producer in Leeds who will rewrite the song all over again, tell us off for turning up with our out of tune guitars, and help flesh out parts. He’s been a revelation really, he’s really helped us write differently and more effectively.
Tell us a little about your new single.
We’ve come straight off ‘Don’t You Ever Sleep’ which is pretty synth dominated and Bowie’s ‘Fashion’ sounding, and now we’ve released ‘I Choose Live News’, which is as raw and angsty as we probably get. It’s been great releasing two different styles of what we do in quick succession and seeing the reaction. I wrote ‘I Choose Live News’ on a piano - which is rare for me! I tried to write about the daily pain of a commuter travelling to monotonous work for little pay and how that slowly drives them crackers. I think 99% of my friends can relate.
Can we catch up with you at any forthcoming live shows?
We support FEET at Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds on the 5th November, before returning to our spiritual home, The Adelphi on Friday 20th December.
How's the rest of the year looking, plans-wise?
We’ve got two more singles ready to go with more studio time booked. We want to keep releasing as much music as possible and learn how to play all of this new stuff live!
Where can we hear more of your music?
Both our singles are out now on all streaming platforms, if you want CD to play in your old Renault Clio then soz’ard those times have been and gone, get over it (plans for that stuff later).
What social media platforms can we find you on?
Facebook // Instagram // Twitter
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