Hadouken burst on to the music scene five years ago with their innovative musical combinations and incredible live performances instantly finding the band a home.
Now the band return with their third album Every Weekend, which will hit store shelves next week and we talked to bassist Christopher about the new album and the band’s genre hopping style.
The album Every Weekend comes out next week, what can you tell us about it?
It’s kind of the next chapter of Hadouken really. I think we’ve always had an attitude of never making the same album twice, and pushing our sound forward every time. This is the next natural step, still got the essence of Hadouken in it, but pushing us in a slightly different direction.
How do you guys keep pushing yourself onwards?
We’re very inspired by everything that’s going on in UK dance and bass music. That world has always been about constantly pushing yourself forwards and reinventing yourself. Even artists will move from genre to genre as they develop and I think that’s always inspired us and hearing those new sounds coming out of that scene what helps us keep bringing something new and original to the table each time.
You guys always hope around genres too. Is that a conscious decision?
Yeah, certainly but I think it’s always been a natural thing, it’s not like we sat down and actively tried to fuse different things together. I think we just naturally had very different influences and as you said, we kind of sit across genres.
We don’t consider ourselves a part of the dance music scene, we don’t consider ourselves a rock band, we’ve always been a bit between the two worlds. That’s really cool and we hope we’ve got our own little niche that our fans like. That’s somewhat of a challenge as a band though, as you don’t really fit with other artists and that can be quite helpful.
You worked with Ministry Of Sound on this record, what was that like?
Ministry were great, especially helping put us together with different producers on the record like Noisia and Lonestar. We had a really good time working with them and they brought that 10% extra magic to the sound of the tracks. It’s was really good in that way.
It must be good when Zane Lowe makes all pretty much every song you put out his hottest record in the world.
We’re always massively grateful for that and we’re such big fans of his show. It’s always been one that’ll happily play everything. He’ll happily play drum and bass, rock stuff and just a real mix of music. It’s a natural fit for us as well and we really appreciate the support.
You guys do a lot of remixes too. How does that process compare to making your own stuff?
I think just take whatever comes natural. We haven’t been able to do that much of it lately with us finishing the album, James did a Don Broco remix recently, they knew each other personally and they reached out to each other. It’s always just a case of looking for songs that are a bit outside of what we usually do so it’s a bit of challenge to play with the parts and bring something new to the table hopefully.
You’ve got a big old tour lined up for April, how are preparations going for that?
Good, we’re just really excited by it and can’t wait to get out there. Last year we played a couple of the new tracks and they were getting a massive response which is really exciting as you never really know what to expect when you’re playing new stuff.
Everything’s going down really well, it’s fun to play and it all felt good, so we’re looking forward to getting more new tracks in the set. The album will have been out for a couple of months, so hopefully everyone will be more familiar with the stuff.
The question’s got to be asked with a name like Hadouken, are you a Ryu or Ken guy?
I would probably vote Ken.
What’s next for you guys then?
We’ll certainly be hoping to be playing a lot of the festivals over the UK, Europe, maybe further afield too. We’ve always been a great festival band, what we do translates quite well to the festival environment and we enjoy playing them so our focus over the summer is getting out the and doing as many festivals as we can.
Why do you think you guys suit the festival scene so well?
We’re a band that’s about having a good time and our live shows pretty energetic and about getting that euphoric atmosphere going. At festivals, that’s what people are there for; to have a good time and lose yourself, which hopefully is what we offer people
Hadouken’s new album Every Weekend comes out March 18th.
Click here to buy Hadouken’s new album Every Weekend
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