Hooton Tennis Club are set to toast an anniversary of sorts this weekend.
The band signed their contract with Heavenly Recordings just 12 months ago, backstage at London's On Blackheath festival.
Returning to the scene of the crime, the Wirral troupe will be able to toast a life-changing year – a year that has seen them tour across Europe and beyond, release a string of killer sevens and acclaimed debut full length 'Highest Point In Clifftown'.
Clash writer Emma Finamore tracked down singer/guitarist Ryan Murphy for a quick chat.
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We’re just getting to the end of the festival season, what have you guys managed to catch this year?
We literally just played End of the Road, on the Garden Stage – it was amazing, looking out over all the trees. Then we actually got to hang out and experience the festival properly, and catch lots of bands too, like Tame Impala – such a good festival.
Somehow I ended up in a parade thing with Grace Jones at Festival No. 6 last week too. The people I live with are all involved in stage stuff – costumes, puppeteers, set design – so I sometimes just end up being part of these weird projects they’re involved with. I’ve been the arse-end of a Chinese dragon before. For the Grace Jones thing I was wearing this long white cloak and make up, it was crazy.
You’ve been signed to Heavenly Records for almost a year now, how’s it going?
When I was studying music we were taught that record labels would just sign you, and then try and get as much out of you as they could. But when Heavenly came along as an opportunity we looked at their roster of bands and were like, “Wow”…people like Mark Lanegan, and then newer stuff like Kid Wave and Stealing Sheep – Becky the keyboard player actually lives next door to me – really impressive.
They’re not how we imagined a label to be: they’re great, always giving us tips about bands we should listen to, saying “Oh you should check this out, you’d really like it” – everyone’s so passionate about music, and it’s all just really supportive.
A lot of the reviews of your album have compared you to USA bands rather than UK ones, was that a sound you set out to create?
That’s just how it happened really, we didn’t consciously decide to sound like a US band and not like a Merseyside band.
The weird thing is some of the bands we’ve been compared to I’ve not even listened to before – though obviously I’ve heard Pavement and some of the bigger ones. I read something comparing us to Guided By Voices, and when I looked them up they’ve got such a huge back catalogue that I realised I’m gonna have to make some real time to listen to their stuff properly. Then there was something about us sounding like Teenage Fanclub, and when I listened to them I really didn’t like it – it’s quite soft. I thought we were more rock and roll, more Velvet Undergound or something, but we’ve obviously become a shiny pop band without meaning to! So I don’t know what we’ll do about that.
How did you write the songs?
We looked at people like Deerhunter, Animal Collective and Ariel Pink – not for their sounds but the way they work: getting together in a bedroom and playing around, seeing what happens. At first that’s they only way we could do it anyway – we didn’t have the money for big recording studios.
We tend try and write in EPs rather than singles, so collections of three or four songs, and then choose the best of them to make the record. And each EP will have a “rule”, so one was that all the songs have be poppy and have a girl’s name in the title – that’s why there are so many of those of the record! Then you could have a punk one, and whatever, and when it comes to putting the album together you have loads to choose from. We’ll definitely use that method for the next record.
For a bit James would stand in front of a painting with a guitar – this sounds so pretentious – and try to play a sound that reflected what the painting looked like. We didn’t really get any songs from that, just a lot of noise… well, maybe one or two songs.
Has growing up around the Wirrel had any impact on your music?
It was probably more that there was nothing to do that had the biggest impact on us. The area’s not exactly your holiday destination of choice or anything, mainly just council estates, so it meant all we did was sit around playing music.
We did all go off and do our own things – went to uni, got jobs and stuff. I randomly went on tour with Robbie Williams doing sound and roadie-ing, because while I was studying music I had a placement with a company who kept me on, and one of the jobs was Robbie. But when that was finished I found myself back in Chester, and we were all back there not really knowing what to do with ourselves – so we started making music again.
Who did the album artwork?
That’s by James – he was drawing us as a group quite a bit and we liked this one, then he went away and painted some of it – we thought it looked cool because it’s all in primary colours, a bit like the Love album cover, 'Forever Changes'. He also did the blue sleeve for the ‘P.O.W.E.R.F.U.L. P.I.E.R.R.E.’ single. We originally thought it’d be cool to leave the sleeve white and give away a set of watercolours with it, so people that bought the record could go away and paint it themselves however they wanted, but that was looking pretty pricey! Maybe for the next one.
What’s the band up to this week?
We’re playing a Rough Trade in-store on Brick Lane this Thursday – we played there a while back and it was packed. I wish we lived near places that did things like that – we played HMV in Liverpool last week but it’s a different vibe in there, with One Direction posters on the walls and racks of Harry Potter DVDs.
After Rough Trade in London we’re playing a show in Brussels – it sounds crazy to say we’re flying somewhere just for one night! – then back to London for the On Blackheath festival this Saturday. That’s actually where we signed the contract with Heavenly last year – it all seemed like such a “pirate” set-up that we printed out a copy of the contract at home to take with us, like an emergency back-up in case they didn’t have enough copies of it. So yeah, this weekend we’ll be back where the album sort of began.
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'Highest Point In Clifftown' is out now.
Words: Emma Finamore
Catch Hooton Tennis Club at the following shows:
October
19 Bristol Louisiana
20 Guildford Boiler Room
21 Bedford Esquires
22 Stoke Sugarmill
23 Newcastle Think Tank
24 Nottingham Chameleon
25 Tunbridge Wells Forum
26 Southampton Joiners
27 Brighton Green Door
28 Birmingham Hare & Hounds
29 London Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
30 Manchester Soup Kitchen
31 Glasgow The Glad Café
November
1 Leeds Brudenell Games Room
2 York Duchess
3 Hull Adelphi
4 Sheffield Harley
7 Cardiff SWN
