The Nottingham based quartet give us the low down on their new album
PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
We are Good Hustles, we're a four-piece band currently in Nottingham, England, and we write catchy, energetic rock music! We have Harvey on drums, Nathan on lead guitar, Will on bass and Mort on guitar and vocals.
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM OR SINGLE?
Our new EP is called APES, it's an 8 track collection of songs that we've been working on over the last two years. Genre-wise it's a complete platter, with everything from acoustic folk duets to rock with hip-hop inspired beats.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM OR SINGLE?
The title track, Apes, was written during lockdown and when the global conversation shifted towards highlighting how unbelievably imbalanced the world is. The pandemic highlighted a great deal of inequality across race and class, and ended up with the richest people on the planet making tonnes of money off the backs of people who are being paid pennies. The track was written around that spirit of protest, being unable to remain apathetic about the situation, and taking a stand. The main message is that we're all human and should be treated as such.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
Exciting, addictive, emotional, drunk.
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
Harv - Hot Fuss by The Killers - Got me into playing drums in the first place and was one of the first albums I played from start to finish. Seeing that tour made me fall in love with performing live.
Nath - Kid A by Radiohead - It straddles the line between being experimental and expectational. There’s a lot of honesty in the music. It also went on to inspire some of my favourite musicians and albums.
Will - Lonerism by Tame Impala. I was a punk and metal-only guy before and it's safe to say it opened my mind to the concept of total creative freedom back in 2012. That, or Flash Flood by Enter Shikari which had the same effect. Music shouldn't be formulaic.
Mort - White Lighter by Typhoon. It's a concept album and tiny little melodies in the earlier tracks are major parts of later ones, the band are literally geniuses and this album is one that has been on repeat in my head since 2014. I always feel inspired listening to it, and it got me out of a massive writer's block slump.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER ARTIST?
I think the video for our track Waking Up In Your Clothes is pretty special, we got together with Kerrin Connolly (Boston, MA) to work on the track and then collaborated on the video. It's basically Mort wearing every shirt he owns while trying to perform, and Kerrin doing the same, it's super cute and really suits the song.
Favorite from another artist would probably have to be Tribute by Tenacious D. The track was already going to be great but the goofy comedy video to back it up with the dancing and the demon grandma is just perfect.
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
Thankfully we were all mates before joining the band, so when we're not performing we're most likely hanging out playing video games, or annoying each other with dreadful rhyming puns.
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
Always. I think we all struggled with it at some point, but it's gotten easier over time. Knowing that I can rely on the lads to back me up makes everything easier to deal with.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
We met through the open mic scene in Nottingham and things developed from there. Harvey on drums joined later after he left his old band and we just welcomed him with open arms, having tried to steal him for about a year prior!
HOW DO YOU WRITE?
Mort usually writes the melodies and lyrics, but our ideas come from all over. The best work we have is from us just being in a room and jamming ideas together, it's so much easier to build on a song when there's that immediate feedback and collaboration.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
I think we take inspiration from everything, the APES EP was written about everything from dreadful hangovers, to sitcom romances to social injustice.
WHAT IS NEXT?
We're about to go on tour with Slackrr next month and after that, who knows. Plenty more tracks in the bank that are just waiting to be recorded and released ;)
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
Everything you need to track us down is here:
https://linktr.ee/Goodhustles