Angus Stuart, one half of New South Wales’ Hermitude speaks to JAI CHOUHAN before the release of their upcoming album, Dark Night Sweet Light, and a national tour which takes them to Metropolis Fremantle on Friday, June 12.
Drawing on a successful run of shows in the US, Hermitude have made some big strides overseas lately, just in time for Dark Night Sweet Light, the band’s fourth studio-album and follow up to 2012’s Hyperparadise.
“We got to play in some amazing rooms in some classic cities; New York, LA, San Fran and got to play on a paddle steamer on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, which was amazing. We just had generally really great reception over there for the shows, so it was really nice.”
Hermitude also featured on the bills of a few festivals whilst in America, notably South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.
“It was incredible. I think there are over 9,000 bands that descend upon Austin, Texas and it’s just a crazy atmosphere. There’s just so much music and so many people everywhere. The whole city basically turns into a venue, every second door you walk down there’s an event and a band playing. We had some really great showcases and I was really happy with the turnouts. We had packed houses which was amazing considering that there are so many bands and also some really big bands playing there. I was really happy that we had great shows.”
Their knack for live performance must have turned some heads with the duo recently signing a new deal despite still working closely with their long-time partner in Elefant Traks.
“We’ve actually just signed a deal with a label in the US called Network. That’s a really big thing for us, it’s a worldwide deal and it’s going to be super great to have Dark Night Sweet Light come out around the rest of the world as well, but we’re still releasing this record in New Zealand and Australia on Elefant Traks. I guess for us, Elefant Traks has been a family. They’ve been with us since day dot, they’ve helped us put out our music and helped us develop as an act in Australia and we’ve had a really close relationship with them.”
Speaking on the album, Stuart seems confident with their fourth full-length, favouring a simplistic approach as opposed to the aural complexity so commonly found in contemporary electronic music.
“We’ve kind of been writing it over the last couple years, in between touring with a lot of ideas written on planes or in tour vans. I feel it’s a bit more of a stripped back record than Hyperparadise. We tried to hone in on the focus of the tunes rather than filling up the sound bank. We really tried to keep the focus on the most important elements and I think in that way it has turned out like a really stripped back record, which I quite like.”
