eMusic Selects: Hands on Heads
Featured Album
“Hands on heads!” That’s what the teacher at my primary school would yell when our class got out of hand. The rallying cry was supposed to make us focus in on a single activity, to stop us from fooling around and hitting each other and, hopefully, shut us up for a second. It worked. Kind of. Thirty pairs of small hands would clasp to 30 overexcited heads and we’d hold in our giggles until it almost hurt.
London four-piece Hands On Heads evoke those memories of suppressed hysteria in the 10 brief, chaotic blasts of angular noise-pop on their debut. Queasy carnival organs fight it out with skronky guitars and tumbling drums; vocals jump from urgent call-and-response missives to breathless and heartfelt monologues. Crucially, the lo-fi energy is balanced by a busy head for tunes — a lightning dash through Hands On Heads’collective musical brain turns up ersatz Eastern European jigs, showtunes, girl-group romance, nursery rhymes and those bittersweet melody lines of bands like Young Marble Giants and Josef K.
Hands On Heads double up as key members of the Upset! The Rhythm collective, whose shows are pretty much the first port of call for any noise or DIY artist passing through London. Their schedule is as frantic as any HoH song, with bands playing most nights in various London venues — and as I catch up with the band, it turns out that, “Right this second we are packing to go to SXSW for our Upset! The Rhythm showcase with foggy heads of excess from last night’s Casiotone for the Painfully Alone party…” As befits a collective enterprise — and a gang of close friends — the band responded en masse to my questions via e-mail, in true DIY style.
On the band members and HoH’s formation:
Luke Nava plays bass and sings, and writes half the songs. He’s quiet and intense, some say brooding. Christopher Tipton plays guitar and sings; he is very enthusiastic and often overthinks things. Chris writes the other half of the songs. Claire Titley plays organ and samples. She is the aesthetic intellect of the group, and she’s also very funny. Andrew Hickson plays the drums and percussion. His approach to life is raw and primal — much like his drumming. He’s also very superstitious. A few years ago Chris went to Peterborough to record Andrew’s other band, the Youth Of America. During the downtime, Chris and Andrew started to work on a combustion of ADD guitar riffs and explosive drumming, then on returning to London Chris enlisted Luke and Claire, whom he’d met at college, to jump into the new outfit.
On reference points:
You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever by Orange Juice, Architecture & Morality by OMD, The Getty Address by Dirty Projectors, Steve McQueen by Prefab Sprout, Fabulous Muscles by Xiu Xiu, Speaking in Tongues by Talking Heads. We’re all also big fans of Japan, Henry Flynt, the Wipers, Soft Cell — we’re really inspired by music that’s melodic and experimental. We all have a shared passion for the articulate and succinct nature of groups like XBXRX, Swell Maps and the Yummy Fur.
On their chaotic live shows [keyboardist Claire typically roughs up her keyboard]:
I’d probably say we’re passionate rather than angry — this often bubbles up as obsession, violence, extreme positivity and frustration. I think our live shows are very much an outpouring — which goes some way to explaining Claire’s rather physical technique! I’d say a lot of our songs are born from the idea of being alienated from dreams, lives not lived, lost potential, heartbroken promises, obligation, recklessness and taking chances.
On people’s reactions:
The Wire said we had a repulsive contempt for our music through making the songs shift in an “unrelenting and arguably impenetrable manner.” [On the other extreme is] our friend Tanith, who came to our first show and ended up marrying our drummer!
On where they’re headed:
We’ve also moved into the next phase of our songwriting plan: moving away from the abrupt shock-and-awe tactics of our first record, we want to reinvent the everyday surprise and power of pop music, in an attempt to express ourselves universally and make more of a connection with our audience. I think pop music has always had the most revolutionary potential. We want to be able to communicate our ideas to everyone in a way that is familiar, spontaneous and as a result alarming and surprising at the same time.
