After Hunch Power‘s performance at Call Of The Wild, I approached singer and guitarist Harvey Springfield to see if I could have a chat with him to get the low down on the band who had impressed me when they played the tent at the festival. I loved their sound and their thoughtful lyrics and wanted to know more. Here is what he had to say:
CGCM: Thank you for taking time to chat with me on behalf of CGCM. You just played a great set earlier so can I ask you a bit about the band and the background to you guys?
Starting A New Band:
Harvey: Well, we pretty much met online, you know on one of those websites that you look for band mates, seems everybody seems to do that these days. We were in Nottingham, I was fresh from London. I relocated and was discovering a new music scene in Nottingham which was great. So I was trying to start a new band to basically play my songs, pretty much inspired by melodic punk rock. Bands like The Gaslight Anthem, Frank Turner and The Menzingers along with some emo as well like My Chemical Romance and I love of course Bruce Springsteen and things like that. So many things which hopefully make the music more interesting influence-wise. My bandmates also listen to different things as well. This is, of course, more of a hard rock festival, the new generation of hard rock bands, our new bass player Ollie is into that scene, so again that means even more types of influences.
CGCM: He is a young lad isn’t he? Mind I am getting older so (laughing)
Forming The Band:
Harvey: Yes he is quite young. Initially, we had another bassist but he couldn’t carry on sadly due to personal issues. Ollie joined us recently, he has been recording with us, we record here in England with a producer called Sam Cook who was there down the front along with a drummer called Jack Gregory from the band Hell’s Ditch who is our session drummer. When we started the band we couldn’t find a drummer so… I actually had to find a bass player and a drummer, and we got in touch with this producer who is local here and he was quite accommodating as we didn’t have a drummer but still wanted to go for, we didn’t want to waste time. So Sam got in touch with Jack who is in the band Northern Captives with him along with the other band I mentioned in Hell’s Ditch who play a lot even overseas in places like Germany. He was available to help so we recorded tracks with him as a session drummer, he is still recording with us actually. We have this German guy called Pete who played with us today and for gigs whilst we are using the same team for recording. We also have Deano on lead guitar, he is amazing. When we started the band there were just the 2 of us and he doesn’t sing and I wanted some harmonizing whilst I sing so he found this way of playing in a melodic way that harmonizes with what I do. He can play some fantastic ideas that you hear on the singles. Our plan is to keep recording singles until we complete enough for an album. Hopefully some point next year we can release a physical album.
CGCM: At one point today you mentioned Extinction Rebellion, so would you consider yourself politically aware, or say socially conscious? Things like caring for the planet which I agree with. Are a number of your songs in the same vein?
A Look At Lyrical Themes:
Harvey: The way I see it is that is not quite political in a partisan way, we are not here to help any political party to achieve their goals. We do want to channel what is going on around us, you know being aware of the environment, we aren’t interested in writing cheeky or catchy songs about love or break-ups. It’s just not enough for me that. I have always liked writers who write in a topical way like Bob Dylan, Springsteen or Neil Young and so many others. I think it makes the music more interesting, possibly more dimension, more depth. So we are I suppose are “socially conscious” as they say these days. So not political, more giving your music more context. Some of the songs are about personal things as I think it is good to be open about things like mental health issues which hopefully resonates with people, they can relate to those lyrics. It is good to make a social connection with people. Music is or should be an emotional language and so the lyrics shouldn’t sound like reading a newspaper, people already know what is going on in the world so it is a case of showing folks your view of the world.
CGCM: Nicely put. I think the idea of not preaching but getting people to think about things, perhaps not right away, more surreptitiously within the songs which are fun to listen to, and the message so to speak is there for those interested.
Harvey: For me, I don’t want to come across other than talking about what interests me, channel what’s going on. There are some people who would say that by writing songs that kind of have an expiry date, but I feel many of the topics are recurring, you know wars and stuff like that. It just keeps happening you know?
CGCM: It is funny that some of my favourite bands from years ago, for instance, Marillion when they had Fish as singer have songs on those early albums that when I listened now could have been written yesterday. Heck even going back to some of Dylan‘s stuff it still rings true. Bloody sad in a way.
Harvey: I do think that you aren’t able to change the world, at least not overnight, but you can raise awareness.
CGCM: Which is a good thing to do. Can I ask without being rude where you are from? You have an accent that I am not sure of?
His Background:
Harvey: Oh I am originally from the north of Portugal, but my family has lived in other places as well, I have family in the US as well. It is important for me as well that I am aware of my legacy and ancestry, but with moving so much I don’t have that feeling of belonging, I respect that. All of that adds to my story, my songs I guess.
CGCM: Thank you. I find it interesting to hear about the background of folks and how or what they go through to get to where they are. For instance, did you start playing in Portugal?
How The Local Scenes Help Form Music:
Harvey: Yeah, yeah. Initially, I got into the local scene, it’s kind of near the border with Spain, so it’s an interesting place as it draws from both cultures and languages as well, but personally, I have always been quite influenced by American and UK music as well. I mainly got into alternative or underground music in the 90s, I was like awakened. I was still young enough to be discovering the classics whilst grunge took over which was interesting for me. I couldn’t say no to anything, everything was interesting for me. (starts laughing) There was a kind of Celtic music going on for me, like in the local scene. I also got into Irish music and then country music. I mean I love jazz… I love so many kinds of music. One day for some reason I just got back into punk rock through odd routes, Springsteen, Gaslight Anthem, and then Social Distortion whilst taking in the Dropkick Murphys and things like that. I realized that when I was 13 I had been into punk rock and hadn’t realized it (laughing). There had been so many local bands playing punk rock.
CGCM: I thought there were elements of things like the Buzzcocks in what you were doing…
Harvey: Yeah, I love them as well.
CGCM: There was also a bit of edge like the SLF had (Stiff Little Fingers for those unsure)…
Harvey: Yeah I love all that old-school punk rock. The late 70s. It was kind of when I was born.
CGCM: Do you come from a musical family?
Harvey: Not really. I know my dad used to sing in a duo like the Everly Brothers in the 60s (CGCM: Nice…), but he didn’t pursue it as a career. I suppose it is kind of a mystery to me, who knows? (lots of laughing)
CGCM: So what is next? More singles obviously…
Going Forward:
Harvey: Yeah, I mean when you are a new band there are many uncertainties to deal with, even your budget is quite limited and you don’t get much back when you play unless selling enough merch and things like that so you don’t want to blow it all. Also, these days you have to rely so much on followers on social media if you put out too much too early it is very likely to go under the radar. You really want to build up gradually until you have a decent amount of fan base who might be ready to listen to an entire album of material. Also more releases more media and press coverage it helping, so we are being cautious at the moment.
CGCM: If I can go back a bit, I was wondering about the situation of having 2 drummers. How does that work for you?
How Many Drummers?
Harvey: It is not ideal of course but to be honest many bands have to do things like this. There are only so many drummers and for them obviously having the space and capacity to practice, its not like being a singer or guitarist, and with that and perhaps families etc again practice and rehearsals can be difficult for them to fully commit to a project, not at this level, we are not professionals, least not yet and we cannot afford to pay a professional drummer to play every single gig so we have to find ways to carry on until that changes. It works for just now though.
At this point, I thanked him for his time and we had a general chat about gigs etc. It was a pleasure to chat about music with him. On behalf of CGCM, we wish him and the band all the very best going forward.
The band play:
Right To Roam Festival In Bolton July 7 – 8
D H Lawrence Festival Eastwoods Notts September 9
HUNCH POWER OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / BANDCAMP
COTW OFFICIAL WEBSITE / FACEBOOK
The CGCM Rock Radio Call Of The Wild 2023 Coverage: LINK
Check out my other reviews and interviews here. Tom
