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Hamish Anderson Announces New Single 'Winter': Interview

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by Leona (Devaz) Fensome (subscribe)
Savour | Capture | Write www.leonadevaz.com
Published December 10th 2013


Vocal maturity is being found in some young and surprising places lately. Melbourne's own Hamish Anderson, is a sure fire remedy at invoking emotion. If you're looking for sultry blues, rock and folk style connection, then this 22 year old needs to be top of your rotation list.

With the Australian music scene taking off a bit more now, solo emerging artists like Hamish are breaking through and giving punters a real insight into their worlds. "It's funny, I kind of did everything backwards. I tried being in bands, but everything used to always just fall apart. People were less serious about it or didn't turn up to rehearsals."

Hot off the gigging circuit, Hamish played at Melbourne's iconic Revolver in late November, followed by Tabac Bar in Auckland and Brighton Up Bar in Sydney, to promote his new single 'Winter', a mesmerising song that encapsulates Hamish's strengths as an evocative singer and talented writer.



Having played in Sydney a few times, Hamish always gets a good reaction from the crowd, who are feeding off his excitement to be playing in different places. For those in other states, Hamish will do a tour around Australia next year." I've got stuff overseas next year, I want to try and put out another EP in the first half of next year. I'm in and out of the studio at the moment to get another EP's worth of material."

The songwriting process is about "personal experiences, just general friendships and relationships. This year in particular has been really good, this is the first year I've released music in physical form. I'm trying to play as many different places, like New Zealand and the aim is to go to other countries and test the waters."

By supporting good bands from New Zealand, his melodic music is able to reach other fans of folk and pop bands. "I think the overall word that I generally use for the EP is rock or folk, rock is an umbrella term for everything - it's a bit more genre spanning."

"There's no real set way to do the EP, it always seems to change. You hear something in your head and you write lyrics and stuff.I couldn't sit down and write a song - it has to happen by accident and if you have to stay focused and write it."

He cites his musical taste as lying with classic artists like Neil Young. "I enjoy that acoustic one man guitar thing, but also with the band as well. I've got a band that plays with me, but that happened after the recording thing. It is nice to be able to do both, I'll do songs myself on the acoustic - but it's nice to open up with the band and show the two sides'

"For a long time I was just a guitar player. I played since I was 12 and it was all about the guitar, then towards the later part of my teens I got into singing and songwriting as well. Now it is a combination of the three."

"I'm Influenced by a lot of people and bands 'especially the ones that play a lot of guitar, The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, also their influences and stuff. A lot of old blues music. Songwriting, I am always listening to Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell - I like older music. I'm really interested in the roots of music (folk music)."

Even though he may love the old classics, Hamish is still young at heart. You'll catch him enjoying Melbourne's rooftop bars in his downtime: he told me his favourites are Siglo's and the Toff, as well as listening to the Alabama Shakes and seeing as much live music as he can "Melbourne is such a good place, we are spoiled."

If you're into Hamish music it may well be worth frequenting those places as the video clip for 'Winter' was shot by friends! "It worked really well, we talked to our friends told them to bring their friends, it was a really nice vibe to have drinks and play in front of friends. I'm really happy with the production."

When I asked about any downtime Hamish may have coming up, that maturity that's seen him go places kicked in, "you can't sit around doing nothing, you need to keep writing and you'll have a whole bunch of new songs. I think there is a lot of really great Australian music. I've been talking to people from overseas and it's amazing how many people talk about Tame Impala. Australia very much has a reputation around the world for great music." And it seems Hamish is on that road too.

You can check out Hamish Anderson at:

www.hamishanderson.com.au
www.facebook.com/hamishandersonmusic
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Where: Anderson's self-titled EP released earlier this year.
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