Turning things up to eleven, Hartlepool’s indie outfit Northern Hospitality have been moving into heavier and heavier spaces since their banger of a single, ‘To Be Free’.
Back with perhaps their heaviest single to date, 2024’s second single ‘Break Free’, the Hospitable gang seem to be embracing the harder, better, faster and stronger sides of rock, stepping solidly inside the punk textures and ideologies. Damian Robinson caught up with lead singer and guitarist Gaz Price to find out more about the single and future plans.
‘Break Free’ is a banger of a song. Perhaps before we get into the sound of the single, could you tell us a little bit about the song’s meaning…
Thanks. ‘Break Free’ is a tale of inner turmoil and frustration. It’s about trying to make sense of some of the pain some people go through in their inner life. These things are easy to ignore but sometimes you just want to break free from what they’re doing to you. This is about deliberately choosing to start again and saying I want something different.
There’s a huge sound to the record…
We wanted to try and make the song sound like the sound of frustration. So this is a big rock song in a way, with our punk ethos coming through perhaps more than on any other record we’ve made. This is the heaviest we’ve sounded.
How was it recorded?
We want our music to sound like the way we play live, so it needs to be raw and played with feelings. It’s who we want to be as a band. So when we recorded it, we played it pretty much straight through at Blank Studios and used the live recording as a grounding for what was recorded later. The intensity of the playing is important to us, as is how we sound when we’re recording.
There are some great live shows coming up for the band…
Yeah. We can’t wait. We’re doing SoundWaves on the main show with Kaiser Chiefs and Feeder, and then we’re doing the Georgian Theatre as part of the Northern Showcase. So there are two big gigs, and more coming, which I can’t announce just yet. But sometimes you get on a roll and good things start happening.
And what’s the plan for the rest of the year?
It’s funny how things work: sometimes there’s nothing for a while and then there’s huge momentum, so we’ve got a lot planned and we feel really good as a band. We’ve got this new single, then the shows, then some work in Liverpool at Sugar House Studios where we’re looking to record some even heavier songs than ‘Break Free’. We’re not heading towards Slipknot heaviness but we’ve got songs that are very punky and heavier and it’s really exciting. So we’ll record those and then we’ll see where we are.
That sounds like a good year…
Yeah, and we want to play Newcastle again soonish if we can and then do some pieces around Stockton. We love Stockton as it’s got such a great scene and such a great set of venues. Jimmy at KU couldn’t have been more of a help when we were starting out and we’ll always be grateful to him and to venues in Stockton. The whole of the North East has pockets of great venues and great people and we’re thankful to everyone who’s helped.
You can listen to ‘Break Free’ now on all major streaming platforms.
