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New Music: Humminghouse

I just found out about this great new band. It’s cool, I never would have known about them but they stopped by my blog and liked a post of mine. So I went to check them out. I found out they have some stuff online and a few videos on utube and an album…

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#folk music #guitar #Gypsy Django #harmonica #Humming House #mandolin #music #video

Humming House - Gypsy Django (by HummingHouseTV)

#humming house #gypsy django #music #django reinhardt

Humming House - Gypsy Django

#Gypsy Django #Humming House

Artist Spotlight : Humming House

Humming House are a five-piece collective hailing from Nashville, TN consisting of Justin Wade Tam, Mike Butera, Kristen Rogers, Joshua Wolak, and Ben Jones. Having already released a self-titled debut album, they are quickly making a names for themselves as a feelgood party band with a penchant for crafting memorable tunes. They kindly took some time out today to answer a few questions about their music...

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Can you tell us a bit about your background as a band and how you came together?

Justin had been working on a series of new songs after ending his last project "Quote" and was slowly trying to put a band together. Mike and Kristen were the first on board to start experimenting with those tunes... and incidentally they had also started throwing drunken, impromptu Irish folk jams at his house.

Josh started playing with the band through that and Kristen recruited her friend Ben as the last piece of the puzzle. It's also probably worth noting that Josh, Mike, and Justin have known each other for an entire decade, though only now started playing music with each other.

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For the uninitiated, how would you describe your music?

We all might have different answers to that question, but that's one of the best things about it. It's clearly very folky with a focus on strings, but we stray pretty far from "string band" traditions, adding in more eclectic instrumentation whenever it sounds fun and appropriate to let the songwriting shine. You can also hear a bit of Irish influence as well as swing, rockabilly, bluegrass... but overall, we just want it to sound catchy and honest. And, you know, good!

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What does the rest of 2012 hold in store for you and have you set yourselves any aims or goals?

We've been trying to tour a lot more often, which is a new thing for us - sometimes difficult, but always fun. We've continued writing new songs together as a band and have already recorded some of them . You can actually hear a couple of them on the free live album available on Noisetrade. We won't be releasing a proper follow-up to our debut album until (probably) next year.

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You released your debut album earlier this year. What was it like working with Mitch Dane and Vance Powell and were the songs fully formed before you entered the studio or did they take shape during the recording process?

Justin had completed writing all of the songs and we had spent plenty of time intricately arranging them as a band before setting foot into Sputnik (Mitch and Vance's studio). However, they are both great producers, and great producers come with plenty of great ideas... so we ended up incorporating some of them and even added some additional instrumentation.

Once you involve another strong, creative mind in the process, there are always going to be some changes… and, of course, inevitable discussions and opinions on what works best. But most importantly - and effectively - the studio was a great place for us to be playful and get creative. Both Mitch and Vance were a part of that creative process.

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I'm sure you've probably been asked this before, but I'm curious where the band name came from?

There's a lot of alliteration in our music. It fits the theme and sounds great to the ear!

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And finally could you recommend any music or bands you've been enjoying recently?

We have pretty diverse musical backgrounds, so we'd all have different answers to this question (from the folkiest of folk songwriters to the poppiest of 808 beats). But I think it's safe to say we've been really getting into some of the other artists that we tour or play shows with, like Pokey LaFarge, Carolina Story, and The Vespers.

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(photo taken by Holly Maher)

#humming house #gypsy django #cold chicago