An Interview With The Hunchbacks
By Andy N
1. How are you and what's happening at the moment?
JO: We're all great cheers. Still having fun and looking forward to shows in Brum and Southampton this weekend. And then in early July we've got a 14 date UK tour booked supporting Panic, so we'll be trundling across England, Ireland and Scotland packed into a van with those lads, hopefully getting some showers along the way! I'm looking forward to the road trip, just as a change of scenery, even if we do get cabin fever and DVT. Excuse the plug, but I can't let that pass without mentioning the dates are on our website... Shameless, I know.
Apart from that we're enjoying the presence of new guitarist Sammy Valens (Paul is travelling round the world), looking forward to more time in the studio, and keeping our fingers crossed about a tour of Germany with the Accelerators in October
2. Now I know I have been speaking to you for a little bit, but as I always say there are people who won't have probably heard off you, so can you also tell us a little bit about the history of the Hunchbacks and who started it all off etc?
DAVEY: The Hunchbacks was one of two bands formed from the ashes of 3 1/2" Floppy.
3 former members, Jo (guitar/vox), Pete (drummer) and myself (bass) were living in the same house with Paul who became the second guitarist. Jo had some songs she wanted to play and so in the late summer/early autumn of 2002 we had our first
practices in the uppermost room of our shared house. The room had a pretty low ceiling and so we had to kinda "hunch" ourselves over our instruments... I'm sure you can guess where the band name came from now.
We played some local gigs and then went into the studio to record four songs, these allowed us to get our music to venues and promoters in other towns, and countries even, so we started playing further afield.
Recently Paul has left us to travel the world, so we've stolen a guitarist from the other band spawned from 3 1/2" Floppy, the Zatopeks. Sammy came out with us to Holland just after the Easter holidays and will be joining us on the upcoming tour.
3. What have you proved your influences so far for the Hunchbacks and what music have you been listening to recently?
DAVEY: Hmmm, personally I guess bass playing wise I'm influenced by Matt Freeman of Rancid fame, some people compare some of my bass playing to his, which is nice of them to say but I wouldn't say I'm anywhere near that myself.
Recently I've been listening to a mix of stuff. I just download stuff from peoples sites and then just listen to them like they're on a juke box. Some favourite music at the moment includes the 20 Belows from Copenhagen, Peawees from Italy, and Apers from Rotterdam as well as some Clash and Riverdales songs.
Jo writes the songs. I'd say musically she's influenced by the Ramones, Pogues, MxPx and possibly the Peawees a little. Lyrically she tends to just write about things that mean a lot to her - her old car, places she's been, hanging out and drinking with friends. If she has an influence on how she writes lyrics then I guess she'll have to pipe up and shout out about it....
JO: Lyrically I'm influenced by loads of people, cos I'm the sort of person who loves to read into the words to songs too. Any good song I ever heard makes me want to go and write something myself.
Pete has started to get into jazz drumming and practices these drum beats in between our songs at practice, so maybe we'll be taking a new, Glenn Miller-style direction soon.
4. And what have you released to date also?
JO: We recorded our first 4 tracks a little over a year ago and All-Nite Records decided to release that. It's been a bit delayed but I'm told the finished cd's are due to arrive in just 1 more week. I'm looking forward to seeing the final result and seeing how the artwork turned out! All I know about that is it'll feature some photo collage of the Hunchbacks, the Waukees (ITA) and the Battledykes (GER). It's a split cd between the 3 bands in the girl-fronted, punk-pop vein.
5. I think my favourite song of yours has been "My Car is so cool". What is the story behind that song? Is it anything to do with Jo's Car which a really touching picture was taken just before she sold it....
JO: My car *sob*... now that's opening old wounds ;o) I had this old banger with viper 
stripes down the middle of the chassis - it was fookin beautiful. And I just love driving. There's something about getting into your car and driving wherever you feel like with your music playing. I know thats not exactly eco-friendly, but it's the nicest escapism. So after I lost my licence (not from drinking - I had a fit at the wheel), I wrote the song thinking about how much I was looking forward to getting my car back again and being able to go for a spin again. The DVLA make you wait for 12 months problem-free before they'll consider you fit to drive (excuse the pun). But as you say, I had to sell it in the end. I got my licence back, but 5 days later I had a fit (doh!) So the car was getting past its best waiting for me to sort myself out, and had to go. I'm glad it wasn't scrapped though, like we thought it'd have to be. Some bloke gave me 350 for it to do up, and recently my mum saw a girl about my age driving round Crewe in it. So now I'm ready to renew my licence I might have to pay her a visit...
In the meantime I've been working on a song called "Public transport is so Cool".
6. I know you have been doing a fair few gigs and also had a few line up changes, since your demo. How do you feel your sound has developed since? How do you feel your live work compares to your more studio-based work? Is there one you prefer the over?
JO: Strangely I don't think our sound has changed much. I'd hope we improve over time of course, but then we're not a band that gets to practice too much, so I don't think I've got bored of the style of songs. Our audience probably has, but we haven't! I suppose the next recording will be telling really.
The studio stuff we've done so far has the advantage of us being able to add backing vocals and harmonies, and I get to go all self-indulgent and have double-tracked vocals and 2 different backing vocal lines if it sounds right for the song. That sounds like I like the sound of my own voice too much! But I love harmonies - I'd love to try to arrange a Beach Boys style set-up. My voice doesn't do the baritone stuff though! Perhaps if I took some steroids... I've heard it can cause some interesting changes to a lady...
Having said all that I wouldn't say we're overly polished on record though. I think it can be tempting to make everything sound perfect and actually end up detracting from the sound. Or maybe that's just my excuse...
I love recording or playing live. When we're live we're just faster, sweatier, sloppier and drunker.
7. If my memory is correct, don't you come from the Birmingham / Midlands sort of area? If so, what's the live scene like up there? Have you seen any good gigs lately?
DAVEY: It can be good and it can be bad. People tend to come out en mass for the larger gigs at the academy, like NOFX or Bad Religion but it's hard to get the same people to come out to the smaller gigs. Although last week another band I'm in played with P.A.I.N. and the Cracked Actors at the Royal George and the place was packed! I don't think they could have fit any more people in there to be honest!
Pictures from www.thehunchbacks.com