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Exclusive Hadouken Interview
Indie | Wednesday 15th August 2012 | Osh
On a scorching hot day in July, the day before their headline show at Ministry of Sound, Hadouken met up with us to talk about piracy, their releases and the breakdown of nutrients in a chicken kebab.
The Guestlist Network: The Video for your latest single Bad Signal is out, it’s a dark song and the visuals work well, can you tell us what the premise of the song is and what the filming process was like?
James Smith: The song is about getting drunk on a Saturday night and texting your ex girlfriend or boyfriend and regretting it instantly the next morning. Also kind of about social networks and status updates and all the things that kind of make you feel more connected to the world but in a sense make you a little bit more lonely.
You guys have started giving away music, how do you feel about piracy and free mp3 sites?
At the end of the day if no one buys music there’s not going to be a lot around but I think that you should support your acts by buying merchandise, coming to the gigs and just generally supporting them by telling your friends and spreading the word so that’s all we can hope for and I wouldn’t criticize anyone if they’ve accidentally stolen our music.
What is your writing process like?
We start off doing demos in the studio and then we just take those out and decide if they’re going to be good or not and then we get them produced up by a dance music producer or anyone that we’re thinking will be good for the record.
Do you guys prefer performing and touring or writing and recording more?
They’re both really good, in the studio its really fun and creative and you get loads of ideas but then out on the road you’re getting to see different places, meet different people and get to play your music to a whole bunch of people so we love going on tour and always have a good time.
What is your standard tour diet?
Its difficult, basically, the thing is, kebab shops, obviously there’s one on every corner in the whole of the country and if you go for a chicken kebab with white pita bread and a bit of salad and don’t go too heavy on the sauces its actually quite nutritious. You’re getting all the food groups, your protein, your carbs, your fiber and you’re getting a bit of vitamin c from the lettuce I’m sure, vitamin b’s from the chicken, vitamin d’s from the bread, vitamin f from the chilly sauce. So you know, that’s fine and also we’ve got a rider and we try and keep it fairly healthy because we’ve got innocent smoothies and everyone knows that if you’re drinking fruit smoothies they are possibly the healthiest thing for you.
What should people expect from a Hadouken show?
We like to have a good time and hopefully anyone that turns up likes to have a good time as well so if you come down, we can both have a good time in each others company.
Rumours are there may be a massive hadouken relese on the horizon, possible early 2013, can you tell us much about this yet?
We’re finishing off the album, putting the final touches to it at the moment and we’re really excited about it. We’re going to go out and tour this material over the next six months. After that hopefully we’ll be able to get a release, but that’s up to the record label not us.
What advice would you give to aspiring bands?
Definitely practice your craft as much as possible, try and be original, if people say you sound like someone else sometimes that’s not a good thing and just keep doing what your doing and believe in yourself and you’ve got to really keep at it if you want to get somewhere.
What is the best way for people to keep up with all things Hadouken?
You can like us on facebook, add us on twitter (@hadoukenuk) and you can find all our links on our website (hadouken.com).
Check out the video interview here:
Johno Donanchie
