Some say that patience is a virtue.
Others still say that determination and hard work will always get you where you want to be. Australian electronic veterans Hermitude are a combination of the two, both patient and determined, and as time has passed, it proved only inevitable that the duo would finally find themselves cracking the nut they’ve always wanted to crack – the United States. Returning from a huge world tour, the band is more than chuffed about its recent shows overseas, and as one half of the trippy electronic duo, Angus Stuart (El Gusto) says it’s hard not to admit that the band is making quite a stir around the globe, particularly with the recent release of their single ‘The Buzz’.
“The tours been really amazing,” says Stuart. “America, Indonesia, Europe as well – it still amazes me that we get to go and play these places. It’s truly special. We did a lot of festivals over in America, which was super fun. The crowds were huge: there were good vibes all round. It’s been a crazy summer. We’ve got a really good buzz going on there at the moment, especially in the States, and we’ve shared a lot of amazing moments with amazing people. Something I’ll never forget.”
Hermitude are no strangers to the festival circuit. Name any festival in Australia, and nine times out of ten they have played it over the span of their almost 15-year career. Some might say the novelty would wear off, but the band remains committed.
“Festivals are super fun because you play to a lot of people, some of which may not have heard your music before, so it can open you up to a lot of new fans,” Stuart says. “The general vibe’s always good: extremely hard to beat. Club shows are much more intimate, personal, and you get more of that hot and sweaty vibe. We generally play a lot longer sets in a club show environment, so you can normally take people on much more of a journey. They both have their own merits: we just love performing either way.”
Their most recent album, 2015’s Dark Night Sweet Light saw the duo take a different approach to songwriting and most interestingly, their whole production stencil. While experimenting with samples early on in their career, after being heavily influenced by a hip hop background, they decided to experiment and create their own samples.
“We used to do a lot of sampling, but these days we tend to lean more on synths and recording our own stuff,” he says. “Mainly because of licensing, but we’ve also found that it’s much more of a challenge. Every now and then we’ll throw in something, but we normally try and chop it up and make it our own sound, but that comes through experimentation.
“Even for Dark Night Sweet Light, we went out into different urban areas and hid microphones in like storm-water drains and old abandoned silos, and we found that it produced these amazing reverbs and other effects that we ended up using on the album. It gave our tracks such a different atmosphere, so we’ll be definitely doing that again for the next one.”
While the band’s touring has been relentless in the last two years, it hasn’t stopped the boys from planning a new album, incorporating more features and guests than they’d ever collaborated with before, including up-and-coming Australian electronic acts like Yeo.
“It’s still pretty early days, so I guess I can’t really drop any names yet,” Stuart says. “But we’re definitely looking to get in some more awesome Australian local talent. There’s so much good stuff going on in the Australian music scene at the moment that it would be silly not to. And the States as well: the last tour really opened us up to a lot of incredible musicians, so we’re scoping that out as well.”
While the Australian electronic scene seems to be thriving locally and overseas, with more Australian exports than the country has ever seen creating waves, Stuart claims that the community is under threat. The current lockout laws have hit him hard on a personal level, and he argues the restrictions strangling the life out of a city so dear to his heart.
“It’s horrible what’s happening in Sydney right now,” he says. “It’s really sad. All these venues have provided platforms for us, and even festival headliners like Flume. We need those platforms to come up on, try different things and gain new fans. The lockout laws have really diminished that. You go and experience places around the world, like America, where they don’t have these laws and people are responsible.
“It’s sad when you’re over there and in places like New Orleans, you can just hop to different bars and venues and see amazing acts way past 2am, and it’s not an issue. When I was there, it made me really sad thinking about what’s happened to our city. I’m gutted.”
Despite the ever-altering scene, Hermitude still have at least one pretty massive Sydney date lined up: the group is going to play Field Day, a perfect opportunity to show off the talents they have been honing after the last year of playing dates. But, despite the draw of NSW, it does feel like Stuart is shifting his alliances over towards Sydney’s greatest nemesis: Melbourne. “We’ve always had really good support down in Melbourne, and all of Victoria really,” says Stuart. “It’s the music capital of Australia.” Hmm.
‘The Buzz’ out now through Elefant Traks and Hermitude playField Day at The Domain on Sunday January 1.
