We chat with Hurts about their new album Desire...
Hurts talk new album Desire, self-producing and Depeche Mode with hmv.comâŚ
Manchester pop duo Hurts have had a strange career. Consisting of singer Theo Hutchcraft and multi-instrumentalist Adam Anderson, they formed in 2009 and were only a going concern for a matter of months before they were snapped up by major label Sony, largely thanks to their debut single âWonderful Lifeâ going viral on YouTube.
Their debut album Happiness was a big hit, selling over 25,000 in its first week and over 180,000 in all in the UK alone, the duo looked destined to be a big deal on these shores, but, as time has worn on and two more albums have come and gone, we seem to see less and less of them in the UK. Why? Because Hurts are massive in Europe.
Here they do pretty well and will headline Brixton Academy later this year on a December UK run, but when they visit Latvia next month theyâll play to just under 15,000 people, not bad when only two million people live in the entire country. Add to that a seven-date Russian arena tour and huge shows in Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania, and you get the idea.
Ahead of the release of their new album Desire, their fourth in all, we sat down with Hutchcraft and Anderson to talk about making the album, why they decide to produce it themselves and their own take on their massive European fanbaseâŚ
How did you want Desire to move on from what youâve done in the past?
Theo: âWe just some leads from the last album and found a thread to somewhere new. The albums are just a collection of the best pop songs we write in a year, thereâs no agenda, no vision, we just try to write as many different sounding pop songs as we can and then bring them all together. It takes a route naturally because of our tastes at the time.â
How many songs did you have for this album?
Adam: âOn the last record, we went a bit crazy, I think we ended up with something like 100 songs. This time we were a bit more concise, we had a lot less than that. The first record we had very few, I think we had 13 when we made the album, so it really varies from record to record.â
Theo: âWe tend not to finish things if we havenât got a good feeling about the song. We know ourselves well enough to know when somethingâs not going to work out.â
You produced the album yourselves, was that something you wanted to do?
Theo: âYou gain confidence with every album and then you wake up one day and you believe you can do this.â
Adam: âWeâve got a very strong sensibility. Itâs much more rewarding to take complete control and do it all yourselves.â
A lot of bands need producers for discipline, was that something you struggled with doing it yourselves?
Adam: âWe do struggle to finish things. A lot of artists are great at starting things, being creative, but s**t at actually finishing them off. Thatâs when you need an adult in the room so it was a challenge to force ourselves to get songs finished.â
Theo: âWith this band so much of it is just down to the two of us, our videos, our look, our album covers, we learnt, in the beginning, to be very self-reliant. Thereâs a lot to do and a lot of decisions to make, weâre just lucky thereâs two of us and not one, youâd go insane.â
How easy is it to say to each other âI donât really like thatâ when youâre writing?
Adam: âWe usually know at the same time.â
Theo: âWeâve been writing songs together for 12 years now, most days. So weâve spent a lot of time in each otherâs brain. Even when we write separately weâre thinking about what the other person would think of what weâre doing. If itâs a âYesâ then itâs âYesâ, but if itâs one âNoâ, then itâs just a âNoâ. Thereâs never battles, if one of you doesnât like it, it goes on the shelf.â
What about the lyrics? Do you share them too?
Theo: âWhen we started it was very much a case of Iâd do the vocals and Adam would do the music, but the years thereâs been a lot more crossover. We help each other out a lot more.â
What kind of album is this lyrically?
Theo: âIâve always thought of lyrics as words to songs, sometimes you need something poetic, some songs need more indulgent lyrics, but sometimes thatâs completely inappropriate, some come from one line. Some of these songs are very personal, especially the ballads, but thereâs never a thread.â
When did you settle on the title?
Adam: âWe had it at the beginning. We like the album titles to be short and to have many meanings, desire is a word with a lot of darkness and a lot of light to it, it fits pretty nicely.â
Do you always have the titles there at the start?
Theo: âThereâs never been any doubt about any of our album titles. It was the same for the name of the band. You just feel it, you hear it in the music, you sense the mood.â
Youâre four records deep now, how will you go about choosing your live set?
Theo: âThat will be hard. We write every song to be sung along to in concert and it makes dropping them hard. There are songs weâve been playing on every tour that it might be time to dip out for a bit, or maybe not, maybe weâll just play for longer?â
Youâve got a very established fan base in Europe, but there are any new places youâre looking to get to on this album?
Adam: âWeâre looking at South America, we know weâve got lots of fans there and weâd love to go. Weâre looking to spend some time in North America, weâve only done a handful shows there, so weâd like to dedicate some time there. Likewise Australia. Europe takes up so much of our time and weâd like to keep making music. Hopefully this time weâll get to some new places.â
Itâs been a strange career trajectory, being so huge in Europe and smaller everywhere else, itâs not something you could have planned forâŚ
Theo: âItâs odd, but it is all weâve ever known. We feel like expats, we always have. We got signed in Germany, our first hit was in Greece, weâve got no other reference point. When youâre getting started you never imagine youâll spend less time playing in the UK and more time playing on the continent, but itâs great, we love spending time in those places.â
Is there a band you look to in terms of how you manage your career?
Adam: âDepeche Mode. Thatâs the closest reference weâve got. They tend to be big in the places we go to and theyâre a big inspiration.â
Theo: âYou can never plan for whoâs going to like your music. When we were first starting out we were just amazed people like us in London.â
Finally, are you already planning for what youâll do next?
Theo: âAbsolutely. We can work as we go. Weâve got a little studio to take with us and we wrote a lot of songs on our last tour. Weâre never satisfied, thereâs always more to do and say, we work a lot, but we love it.â
Hurtsâ new album Desire is out now and available here in hmvâs online store.
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