Regular followers of the blog will probably be aware of our love for House of Hats. We initially covered them early last year and have been keeping close tabs on them ever since. Their recorded output has continued to impress and as a live band they have gone from strength to strength – their rendition of ‘Rivers Will Run’ at the EP launch show was, to put it mildly, bloody awesome!

The year ended with the band hooking up with a Grammy Award winning producer to create their debut album. We thought it was time to check in with Noddy, James, Alex & Rob – better know as House of Hats.

Hi House of Hats! It’s been nearly a year since we last spoke – how are you all?

Hello, we are all very well thank you…we had a lovely Christmas break but now we are back in action.

I understand the debut album has been recorded – how exciting is that?

We are so excited about this album….it’s an incredible feeling to achieve something like this.

I understand you worked with a new producer on the album – how did that come about?

We were so honored when Pete (Smith, Grammy Award Winner) came forward and offered to help us put together this album. We all met Pete a few years back whilst we were doing our individual projects. He worked closely with Alex and Rob on an EP with their previous band and they kept in contact ever since. He’s always really believed in us so when the opportunity to put together an album came around, Pete got stuck in and helped us produce something really exciting.

When can we get hold of the record?

Ahhh, not for a another few months…keep your eyes and ears peeled!!

As talented artists, as well as musicians, will you be designing all the cover art?

Absolutely. This is something that we really want to keep close to us. As a band we feel very strongly about keeping the creative process in house and luckily we have an extremely talented artist in the band, James is his name! It just really helps our vision when we have all the control in these areas. The art that is created by James is so unique to the songs. 

You just released a free track, ‘Sewing Machine’, as a Christmas gift to your fans – what is the tune all about? Do you have any other songs named after home appliances? [You can download Sewing Machine for FREE if you sign up to the HoH mailing list]

No I don’t think we have any other songs named after home appliances hahaha but this song has been with us from the beginning of our journey, it’s a very special song. It represents the difficulty and the emotions felt when trying to mend someone . It’s a very emotional song that is true in itself and that has been experienced. 

You’ve been gigging a lot – do you have a favourite show? Why?

Cambridge Folk Festival at the Den. It was the whole experience. We arrived a day before our performance and just stuck in to the wonderful atmosphere and had the pleasure of listening to great new bands. The audience were so receptive and supportive…we were on such a high, so many memories from that weekend. 

The residency at The Brunswick in Brighton seems to have been a great success – do you have plans to keep this going?

The Harvest Sessions @ the Brunswick has been such a success and we want to thank all the performers and the loyal supporters that came to the shows. We have now decided to do the Harvest Sessions quarterly now so we can make the shows bigger and better for 2013. We have some wonderful acts in the pipeline so please keep a lookout for the announcements. The next night is on 2nd March.

Will there be a House of Hats tour this year?

There will be….we’re working on it. We hope to do a UK tour as well as some other European dates.

Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions you can share?

We all made the obvious ones individually like keep up the ciggies(fat chance..but we can try) get fitter, go for a run but as a band we promised ourselves to step everything up a gear, very excited.

Finally, what are your hopes for 2013?

Our hopes are simply….to be able to continue what we are doing and live from it. We also hope to go further a field and play to many more people, we just want the music to spread like wild fire so we can keep doing this for another 10 years and more.

Tickets for the next House of Hats ‘Harvest Session’ can be purchased here – see you there!