Our Local
10 Bands to Watch: Hot Little Hands
Featuring: Hot Little Hands
Written by: Justin Pearsall
Published: Jul 30th '07
Sitting in the spacious one-bedroom apartment – think an 8-by-8 cell – which we call the Wireless Bollinger offices, WB had a chance to chat with James and Tim Harvey of Hot Little Hands, the final band in our 10 Bands to Watch series. Relaxing on a cold Melbourne Saturday before going home to record vocal tracks for their soon-to-be-released debut album, we talk about the diversity of the album and how there are some dangers in escaping categorisation.
“It would be nice to be able to explain to someone who hasn’t heard it, what the fuck it is that we do.” James, the band’s drummer, says. “We are pop, but we’re not pop, we’re electro, but we’re not electro. We have no idea how to classify ourselves and that’s been the bane of our existence.”
In truth the diversity of the Hot Little Hands sound is one of their finest assets. Of the four-demoed tracks from their upcoming record, tentatively titled Dynamite In Black And White, each song exists in its own unique sphere; the updated 80’s sleaze groove of ‘Hott City’ somehow sitting comfortably against the Bowie-esque, spacey dynamics of ‘Lonely Hands’ or the swagger and swing of ‘Dynamite in Black and White’. How does the album manage to balance diversity and uniformity?
“We have two synthesisers, a Wurlitzer and drums, bass and guitar. They’re pretty much across the whole album,” Tim says. “There’s a couple of universal themes, it’s all Tim’s lead vocal, the backing vocals are all pretty lush and it will always sound like our voices” adds James.
While the band lists ‘60s stalwarts such as The Beatles, The Stones, The Doors and The Beach Boys as influences, Tim, the singer/songwriter of the group, draws songwriting inspiration from varied sources: “Lots of the structural influences, the arrangements, are 60s and 70s classic pop. But, melodically, late 70s to 90s influences creep in, like how Blur and The Beatles do disparate and diverse things, but you always know it’s them.”
Another of the band’s stated influences is Crosby Stills Nash and Young, a guiding force which highlights an extra tether to the Hot Little Hands sound: their “lush” harmony-laden vocals. Whether it is the Finn Brothers, the Wilson gang or The Magic Numbers there is something unique about the blend of siblings in harmony, a warm unity that Hot Little Hands exploit:
“Three of us are siblings [the third being sister China], we’ve been singing together forever. [When we started] I didn’t have a four track or anything to expand vocal ideas, so I’d get these guys to sing other vocal harmonies and parts. They can sing their asses off, so it’s great,” Tim remarks.
“There is definitely something there, some weird affinity that’s pretty difficult to reproduce with someone who’s not a sibling. The only other time I’ve heard it sound as convincing is when Claire [Bowditch] and Libby [Chow] sing together, it’s like sisters,” James says.
Another unifying interest of the brothers is that of design. While there is a notoriously thin line between posturising and being image aware, the Harvey brothers both have a strong opinion of the relevance of image in music: “We’re pretty anal about the whole visual thing. I’m a designer and Tim’s an amazing drawer and designer, we do all that ourselves. It kind of makes you feel gross when you see those posing bands shots; we just don’t want to be anything like that.” James says. “We don’t have one vision in mind, but we are conscious of building the band as a brand. Out press shot has taken so long, but it sums up what we are about: it’s kind of grainy and textured, it’s fun, playful and a little surreal – you can’t really jump into outer space.”
“Both our grandparents were graphic designers and our dad’s an illustrator, so we have a fairly strong visual aesthetic. I think it matters, a lot more than it should perhaps,” Tim adds
As much as Tim is correct in saying that image matters, the true test for any serious band is going to be the music, the realisation of this for Hot Little Hands being their album that James assures us is “three to four weeks away”. Originally slated for a March-April release, it has been a longer journey than the band anticipated.
“Initially the demos we did [available on the band’s MySpace] were just going to get mixed properly. Those recordings were the album. But now the guy I was going to get to mix these wanted to co-produce it and do some percussion and drums. It’s been spending time on it and getting better performances,” says Tim.
The support and guidance to take the original demos to the next level can mainly be credited to one main figure, producer Frank Tetaz (Architecture In Helsinki, Lior). A man James has nothing but kind words for: “He’s amazing, working with him on the drums was great, every single song we used a different drum set-up and all the drums were tuned to the song, rather than just playing away.”
Tim agrees: “He’s really sympathetic to a vibe that someone gets going. It’s been an exercise in clarification, reduction and honing, where it can expand, without compromising the vibe we’ve got going.”
Tetaz’s influence extended further than the mixing desk, however, as he provided the band with much needed financial help: “He funded the new recordings and the gear, for which we’ll pay him back. It’s just an amazing deal. We don’t have the money, we are just bums,” Tim reveals.
Outside help has been something Hot Little Hands haven’t been short of. Whether it is Tetaz’s contributions or the tutorage and advice of friends such as Claire Bowditch (of who Tim plays with in Claire Bowditch and The Feeding Set) or Art of Fighting, the band have useful allies:
“I went to school with Claire,” Tim says “We’ve been writing for a similar amount of time and she’d look after me, she was a bit older and tougher. We’ve developed a bit of a dialogue with songwriting and lyrics. Those acts know things about industry and business stuff, that unless you’ve studied it or grown up with it, you don’t know. That’s been a really amazing forum for us, when ‘this record company is saying this, what do we do?’”
When Tim quips about record companies he isn’t just making blasé generalisations, the imminent Hot Little Hands album is anticipated by industry as much as it is by the common punter. While the Harvey brothers weren’t willing to go into particulars, James did admit: “we’ve had some interest from some smaller Melbourne labels with affiliation from the bigger labels. When we almost finished the album last time, we sent it out and got positive feedback, now we’ve re-recorded most things and it’s going to be way better. It’s really exciting, not scary, more ‘oh shit, this is actually happening’.
Actually happening is a fairly accurate way of describing the whole Melbourne indie band scene at the moment -as a central element in this do Hot Little Hands believe that something unique is happening in the Melbourne scene?
“Yeah, it’s got an incredible scene for such a small city. There’s an incredible amount of passion and talent around. Little Red are just great, I really have a lot of respect for what they’re doing. It’s not necessarily re-inventing the wheel, but it takes a lot of guts to play in front of teenagers and uni gigs and play their music. It’s not programmed disco music, but they’re doing great, kicking ass,” James enthuses. “We are really close friends with Plug-In City, Temper Trap and Sub Audible Hum. Everyone is just lovely and comes up and supports, in the front row, dancing; it’s really nice.”
Symptomatic of the current scene, there is a swirl of interest that surrounds Hot Little Hands even before their debut longplayer has reached fruition. The great thing about the band – and there other contemporaries in the 10 Bands special – is that the interest is founded on the right reasons: talent, songwriting nous and passion; three major characteristics which separate a scene from a fad.
