5 Minutes With........Hooton Tennis Club

Liverpool has the habit of producing lots of brilliant bands, from The Beatles to Echo and The Bunnymen from The Coral to The Teardrop Explodes. The latest batch of hopefuls wishing to follow in the footsteps of these greats are Hooton Tennis Club. The band took some time out to answer some questions on signing to Heavenly records, influences and working with Bill Ryder-Jones.

1. What was it like signing to Heavenly, a label with such rich history and diversity?

Honestly, It felt like the best thing in the world. Heavenly have supported so many brilliant bands and the recent signings of NOTS and Britain are maintaining a really strong roster. It's such a privilege to be working with the guys from Heavenly.

2. Do you find that your sound perfectly sums up the lo-fi scene not only in Liverpool but across the UK?

The sound didn't really come from listening to other bands and thinking we'd try and fit into a particular scene. We just hit record on our Tascam 8-track and tried to make the songs sound as good as we could, we didn't really think about trying to make them lo-fi.

3. What was it like working with Bill Ryder -ones when making your first album? Did he have any input musically, or did he just leave you to it?

Working with Bill was great. He understood exactly where we were coming from and how we wanted to record. In the studio Bill helped with a lot of the musical aspects; he showed us some nice chords, gave suggestions for when we wanted to change structures, and he also played some super-sweet casio keyboard and helped out with some backing vocals.

4. What up and coming bands from in and around Liverpool are you fans of at the moment?

There are lots and lots of incredible bands in Liverpool at the minute, from staples such as Stealing Sheep and All We Are, Strange Collective are really great.

5. What thrills you most about playing live?

There's a point in the set where you look over at each other and know you are in some weird, groove space. Its super cheesy to say but totally true.

6. Were there any particular influences when writing your first album?

We just try to do what we want to do. There's never been a focus on trying to get a particular sound. We all listen to lots and lots of different stuff, from Ween to The Flying Burrito Borthers to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. So it's tough to pin exactly what influenced the album.

7. What band would you love to support on a national tour?

We're not sure who we'd want to support. There are bands that we love, but maybe they'd be dicks, who knows? We recently toured with The Parrots and Beach Baby, and they were both great. So as long as a band are nice people and they're willing to share the backstage houmous then we'll be fine.

8. Can we expect you to appear at some festivals in 2016?

I'm sure we'll be playing at some festivals over the summer. Nothing we're allowed to confirm yet, but keep checking the line-ups.

9. Is there any song that you wished you had written?

Umm. That's a toughy. But it'd definitely have to be 'Bee Gees - More Than A Woman'. That tight Groove that just don't move! Your constantly waiting for it to explode and it just don't. Unreal.

Check out their video for track 'Jasper'

Visit Hooton Tennis Clubs Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/hootontennisclub
Visit Their Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/HootonTennisClub/?fref=ts

Tuesday, 22 December 2015