Each month, we will pick a band to listen to and give our thoughts on so for our first Spotlight Artists, we chose Hudson Taylor out of a hat (or, to be more accurate, a pencilcase); so Niamh and I sat down and had a nice long chat about the lads (that we recorded) and here it is.
Niamh: That has to be mentioned.
Emma: Yeah, Niamh wore the hat; that had to be mentioned.
The Usual Stuff
With their new single, ‘Back To You’, and the accompanying video freshly released on Friday the 6th of September, Hudson Taylor were a wonderful choice to sit down and discuss as our first Spotlight Artists. Hudson Taylor is a folk/Americana duo comprised of brothers, Harry and Alfie Hudson-Taylor, and signed to Rubyworks Records. Their releases include EPs, Battles, Cinematic Lifestyle, Osea, and Feel It Again, and two studio albums, Singing for Strangers and Bear Creek to Dame Street.
We sat down just a couple of hours before Hudson Taylor released their single Back To You and their new video, full of colour and umbrellas. Here is…
What We Want To Say
So which song was the first that you heard?
Emma: Uh Rubies.. Chasing Rubies. I think I heard it on…yeah, it was on the radio when I heard it the first time. That’s the first one I heard.
Niamh: I was in the middle of Market Cross Shopping Centre and it was Chasing Rubies and it took me another 2 months to figure out what the song was *laughter* and who it was by.
E: Oh it took me forever to find out who it was by. That was the worst part of it cause, every time I’d hear it, I’d be just after hearing the start of the song and then the radio would have to be turned of or I’d just be almost at the end of the song and then the radio would get turned off and I was like “Who are these people?!” And that drove me mental for a while. I did not know it was Hudson Taylor until a long long time after that.
So what is your favourite song?
N: You’re gonna make me choose?
E: Yeah. What is your favourite Hudson Taylor song.
N: Ooooo of all time eh… Feel It Again.
E: Okay?
N: Because they’ve just this connection in the song and you’re standing there, and it’s usually me and you, screaming at the top of our lungs *laughter* a certain line.
E: (Laughing) yeah that line
N: “Coz you can’t feel love til you jump right in” and there’s so many fun, amazing memories associated with that song.
E: Yeah, that is true.
N: But, Butterflies is a very close second. What about you?
E: Easy Baby.
N: I always associate that one with you.
E: Yeah, I..I love that song. It’s great. It speaks to me.
If you had to focus on a particular aspect of Hudson Taylor that you personally really really enjoy, what would it be?
N: That’s a really good question…. I think it’s regardless of how manic the crowd always is because everyone, well not everyone, but some people have been drinking, as soon as certain songs start, like [you could hear] a pin drop and everyone’s enthralled in this one moment… they suck everyone in.
E: That happens a lot with Butterflies, doesn’t it?
N: Yeah, Butterflies, Care, some of the other quieter ones. I can’t think of any of the other ones right now. What about you?
E: Oh one of those songs, where what you were talking about, [the very start of] World Without You.
N: There we go, that’s it. I couldn’t think of the name of that one.
E: For me, what I love about Hudson Taylor…. what aspect in particular; when you see them live and you’ve got this big audience and it’s a huge group of people and nobody’s exactly the same as you are but as soon as you hear, one of maybe 3 or 4 songs, that whole audience is screaming those lyrics. It’s the songs like Chasing Rubies, it’s the songs like Battles….. when you hear Battles, when people hear Battles they tend to absolutely go AWOL and you’re just kind of like “Oh God I’m in the middle of this! I might just die” but in the best way
N: Also the fact that when you’re at one of their gigs, it’s usually in the middle of the first song and, regardless of where you are or how long [it’s been since we’ve] seen them, it’s always like you’re coming home. It’s like “I’ve missed these guys.”
E: Yeah! You always have that sense of “It’s been too long since the last time I saw these guys.” You could have seen them the day before but it’s still been too long.
N: Yeah, and Alfie always catches me and gives the biggest smile of like “Yes, yes..yes it has been too long.”
E: Could’ve been yesterday, still been too long.
Is there any particular lyrics that you connect with?
N: Too many. Too many to count. Um…absolute blank now.
E: Do you have a favourite lyric of theirs?
N: “What if you don’t like me? What if I’m being naive? Maybe it’s love but sure I don’t know.”
E: The Most Irish Line! Ever! But sure I don’t know. No that has to be one of the most Irish sounding lines I’ve ever heard. Let me see, I don’t know…em… lyrically I think Butterflies just really is really really beautiful… but I do like that new one that the put out on YouTube. They didn’t release it as a proper single. The name of it is after completely escaping my mind. I listened to it once or twice the day it was released and I kind of like “Oh damn! This is actually really deep, really profound stuff” and it was so real and so raw as well. It was….
N: Sound The Alarm. The demo, it was fantastic.
E: Really real and really raw, honest music.
Do you remember your first Hudson Taylor gig?
E: I came to gigs really late so my first Hudson Taylor gig was, you know when they released the EP, the Feel It Again EP?
N: Yeah.
E: Yeah that was actually the first time I’d seen them live. I’d never seen them before that live and it’s….it was different. Different experience all together seeing them live because at that point I hadn’t seen many bands live. Yeah it was just so different to see them live.
N: So you’re first Hudson Taylor gig was on the side of Shop Street?
E: Yeah. The two of them busking on Shop Street. Just outside Zhivago, well OMG sorry. Yeah that was the first time I ever saw them.
N: And you doing the harmony lines and everything *laughs* oh that’s brilliant.
If you had the chance to say something to the Hudson Taylor of ten years ago, what would you say?
N: To get them to where they are today?
E: Yeah
N: Keep at it, you’re onto something.
E: That’s a good one. Yeah. It’d probably be something like “Stick together as brothers because ye work so well together.” You can see the pay off when they’re performing together, you know that they both have each other’s best interests out on the stage right then and there. It’s really cute to see as well; it’s adorable. That fam connection…AW!
E: Neither of us made it to their Olympia gig…
N: No
E: The big one that was recorded.
N: Work is a thing.
E: Work is a thing. Yeah [missing] that sucked
N: The bane of our existence.
E: But if you could go back and go to that gig
Front row, Back of the standing area, the circle or up in the Gods; What’s it going to be?
N: Well for Hudson Taylor bar one gig and even then I ended up in the front row, I’ve always been front row for Hudson Taylor always (insert Emma laughing in the background)… Don’t know how the lads feel about that but always am and I think it’s just their genre of music and they always just capture every body and bring you in even more so, if I had been at the Olympia or if they do the Olympia again it’ll be front row. It’s one of the safest places in any of the gigs…
E: Hmm…Yeah
N: Except for Battles and even then you just have to hold on to the barrier and..
E: Don’t let go.
N: What about you?
E: I would go front row but it’s because there was one song they sang with just a microphone and every one had to be completely silent. I loved that moment because even though there’s how many people standing behind you? You still feel like it’s just them and you and possibly the people either side of you and that’s everyone in the room because it was so so quiet and so so cool to witness that.
N: They haven’t done it in… No they didn’t do it at Riverfest. They haven’t done it in a while. That is always an amazing moment.
Do you think Hudson Taylor would be the same without their band, The Dandy Rascals?
N: No they won’t. They’re part of the Hudson Taylor experience.
E: They’re part of it. I love them! There’s one guy on stage, Oisin, and he plays like four different instruments and you’re sitting there kinda going “Man, what can’t you do?” He makes me feel so inadequate. *laughs*
N: He’s my favourite person. At Riverfest, he posed with every single different instrument he picked up for me.
We’re doing this, Harry or Alfie?…And why?
N: And why? You’re going to get me killed for this one… um sorry Alf, he already knows, but it’s Harry. Hands down. He’s just…. It’s all in them eyes I think and that smile
E: And the hair. I do have to give a shout out to Harry’s hair. Like, good Jesus man, get a commercial with Loreal.
N: They’re both two of the nicest gentlemen in the Irish music scene that I’ve the privilege of supporting… but I’m always gonna be a Harry’s girl. What about you, Harry or Alfie?
E: I’m going to pick Alfie cause genuinely his mood when he’s performing is infectious. You can just see the big smile on his face and you realise…you’re smiling without realising and all of a sudden you’re just…yeah, I like him. He’s great fun. Honestly I haven’t really spoken to them much so I don’t really know them on a personal level but I do prefer Alfie just because of the way that he acts . He seems so positive. It’s such a happy vibe to get off of one person so yeah it’s going to be Alfie.
N: At least we don’t have to fight over them *laughs*
E: Yeah that’s true *laughing*
What sets Hudson Taylor apart from the rest?
E: Jesus, I’m asking hard questions *laughing*
N: You’re asking all those questions *laughing*…Their sound but moreso, importantly, the lyrics. The lyrics just connect with people on such a profound level. Yeah… that’s my answer.
E: Honestly, a lot of Irish music is kind of poppy and it’s all fitting into the same genres of music.
N: There’s nothing wrong with a bit of pop but there’s a lot of other genres.
E: They’re a bit of a difference…yeah, ‘a change is as good as a rest’ kind of thing and Hudson Taylor…I would never call them pop. I don’t know how to describe it; it’s not country, it’s not pop…
N: They’re indie.
E: I don’t even know if you can call them indie. It’s not really folky, it’s this kind of hybrid of everything wrapped together but somehow it all works. That’s what sets Hudson Taylor apart.
N: It shouldn’t work but it does. It’s Hudson Taylor. They can have their own genre.
Is there anything about Hudson Taylor that you would change?
N: Maybe more gigs that I’m able to get to…
E: I was actually thinking the same
N: That would be the only thing. Soo.. I don’t get to see them that often and even though they tour a good amount, in the past year, September to September, I saw them twice: New Years Eve and Riverfest because you know some people decided to come down to my neck of the woods when I was at Indie[pendence] but you know what can you do? I saw them twice and just the other dates didn’t suit in terms of work and everything so if it was to change anything it would be, on a personal level, to be able to get to more gigs.
E: Yeah. I’d agree with you on that one. I’ve seen them once and that was at New Years Eve and I haven’t seen them since and I miss them something fierce, it’s not even funny.
N: My favourite gig memory of Hudson Taylor was actually at Riverfest becasue I was by myself and I’d made friends with the security guard and she was really nice but she put me in at the side, literally to the side of Harry and the entire time I don’t think… I don’t know who was minding who either the security guard was minding me or Hudson Taylor were minding me but I was having the best time of my life by myself for once cause usually I’m a nervous wreck at gigs and it didn’t once feel that I wasn’t welcome or that there were people around me judging me. It was just like “Hey! Harry’s there. Alfie’s there. Look, look, look, I like this one.”
E: We like this song…Yay!
Actually that’s a really good question, your favourite Hudson Taylor gig memory.
E: Obviously that’s your one. For me, strange as it seems, it’s gonna be Indiependence 2018 and us standing out at the side of the tent and then they started playing Battles and the whole tent practically turned into a mosh pit. I have to admit that is probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It looked like so much fun, it looked so dangerous and I was never in a million years going to go in there but…
N: For clarification, we were about (for Battles) four rows back to the far, looking at the stage, left and everyone else was moshing and we were like nope.
E: How about no.
N: We’ll watch it from here, that was… yeah that’s a really good memory.
E: That was a lot of fun. I haven’t seen them nearly as many times as I want to.
N: They should just take us on tour, say nothing.
E: We’d be down for that.
N: Yeah I’ll carry some equipment.
E: Yeah! Yeah, I’ll carry a keyboard or…
N: I’m great at selling merch. Just saying.
From their entire catalogue of music, what Song/Album/EP do you listen to most?
N: Oh…
E: Jesus, I need to stop asking hard questions.
N: That’s really hard, I’d actually have to check my…. there’s one of them that gets played the most….I’m actually checking my phone right now because I know there’s one that gets played the most out of all of them…….(research time)……. oh yeah so their debut album, Singing For Strangers, is the most played
E: For me, I can always and I mean always listen to Feel It Again
N: Neveh…Daynce
How do they make you feel?
N: Happy. Just if anyone ever sees me at a Hudson Taylor gig, just watch my face. My eyes apparently go really sparkly to a point that people think I’m crying.And I have this really goofy grin on my face. Yep.
E: I don’t know, it’s…. it’s kind of like…I feel safe because you could be listening to anything and say you have your phone on random or you have your iPod or whatever on shuffle and then they come on and it’s just like “Oh this is Hudson Taylor, yeah this is the safe music.” It’s always good, it never going to go out of fashion
N: Their music is music I associate with the feeling of home…coming home.
E: Yeah, exactly, yeah. It’s a feeling of homecoming.
N: Now it might be just down to the whole fact that their music just makes me feel that way or it could be the fact that I don’t get to see them that often so every time I do feel that way I’m seeing them.
E: But every time you see them you always feel welcome by them, you know?
N: You’re not just a face in the crowd…
E: Yeah, it’s like you’re getting a personal welcome even if you’ve never met them before in your life. You’re still getting that personal welcome and that “Ah come on in, sit down, have a cup of tea. How are you keeping? Are you well?” That’s definitely there.
Are you excited for the new stuff?
E: Definitely.
Hudson Taylor’s new single ‘Back To You‘ is now available to stream and download and tickets for most of their upcoming Irish dates are available here. For more information about Hudson Taylor, visit hudsontaylormusic.com, follow them on Twitter and Instagram or subscribe to their YouTube channel.
Our Muchness Guide 
Leave a comment