I had a chat with Alfie from Hudson Taylor last week about their new single ‘Favourite Song’, their music writing process and how they create those perfect harmonies. Between a little banter about the lull in the sunny weather and the shock of a bird flying into Alfie’s window during our conversation which was apparently “the most exciting thing to happen in a while” Alfie explained how he has been spending his time on lockdown as well as his inspiration for ‘Favourite Song’.
Five years have passed since the release of their debut ‘Singing For Strangers’ – which charted at number three in Ireland – and in that time the brothers have been hard at work crafting the songs which make up “Loving Everywhere I Go”. The album, which was recorded in Seattle, Nashville and Dublin. It features the hits ‘Feel It Again’, ‘Run With Me’, ‘Back To You’, ‘What Do You Mean?’ as well as current single ‘Favourite Song’ and went straight to number one on the Irish album chart. Hudson Taylor are also the first Irish artists to top the charts in the new decade.The duo put a lot of work into the album and were chuffed with how it all payed off.
“ Yeah it felt absolutely amazing. We worked hard on this album for the best of three and a half years, it took us all over the world and lots of our friends and family are involved in making the album and the whole campaign and lead up to the release of it was just amazing. We got to meet so many people that were listening to our music. We went around and promoted it all over Ireland. So yeah the two of us were so delighted on the day we found out.”
Hudson Taylor have taken their time releasing their tracks and although they have plenty of music and EP’s out there ‘Loving Everywhere I Go’ is the duo’s second album. They don’t try to rush their music but allow it to be created at a pace that is right for them.
“We had released a lot of EP’s in between our albums. So we have two albums out and I would say technically three albums out and then about eight EP’s which would amount to, if you counted up all the songs and you had ten songs on each album, I think we’d have six albums out by now. So that’s what we did to bridge the gap. Our label chose to do that while we were out touring in other countries, so we could delay the album so we could play to more people and release more music in the meantime before committing fully to an album. I think that was the idea but I think there is no right or wrong way to do it really. Some people may write very fast and might write an album in a year and they might have the visual concept ready and their music and everything else ready and they can do that.Other artists I think, yeah sometimes it does take time. If I was to say what are we going to do with our next album?, I would say yeah it’s not going to happen in a year.It could be another three years or something like that. I haven’t even thought about that yet.”
‘Loving Everywhere I Go’ is an energetic rich album brimming with vibrant passionate musicianship, utter joy and hope. Their new single ‘Favourite Song’ encapsulates this perfectly
“Well, the chorus was just in my head. I dont know why Favourite Song came into my head. ” you are like my favourite song” ( lyric ), .. maybe I heard it in passing or maybe I said it but it just came into my head.Then I put that to a little tune and wrote the rest of the chorus. Harry was due to come over, we were due to do a bit of writing with some friends of ours in the UK and just before we got into the studio I sang it to Harry and said hey what do you think of this idea, its called Favourite Song. He loved it and said yeah lets work on it with the lads. So we got in, the lads started making up a track and I wrote down a couple of the verses, the boys helped me a little bit and that was it. We sat on it for about 9 months and when we came to looking at recording and putting together our second album that song came into play and then recording it was a whole different beast.”
‘Favourite Song’ is quite the contender to be everyone’s favourite song this summer. The duo released it at a time when everyone was on lockdown and it was the fun golden ray of sunshine we all needed.
“We released ‘What Do You Mean’ prior to this that came out when our album did around February and we were due to release another single before we started gigging again in the summer but obviously that didn’t happen. I always thought Favourite Song would be a good song to release in the summer because it’s got that certain thing about it. So I was happy that everybody else agreed that it would be a good song to go with and then this happened. I think we delayed it a little bit just because we didn’t know what was going on and we wanted to give it the best and as much time as we possibly could. Other than that we kind of planned to release it anyway and it just so happens that it is upbeat. Hopefully it is what people do appreciate at this time and help people for a brief moment forget about what’s going on and maybe move around.”
There is plenty happening in the world at present and some artists feel compelled to write about the topics in the news. Alfie takes a personal and perhaps emotional approach to world events
“ Well, the personal experiences, kind of is new as well for me. I could write a song about what happened to me on a day where some world event happened and I’ll feel a certain way because of that world event and that will inspire my writing. I love talk radio, I love hearing people’s stories and telling my own stories. There would be lines in the album that were inspired by something that happened on that day or a big world event. I think all that stuff, if you’re tuned in and listen to the news it will affect you. It’s dark or moving in whatever way, shape or form and it will influence your life. I tend to write about things that influence my life so it does creep in, absolutely. Now, I have not been able to get Coronavirus into a song nor will I try. Really it will be more the effect it has on us all and myself and my surroundings.”
Music has the ability to relate to and move people. One song can evoke and connect with people in so many different ways allowing the listener to express their feelings through someone else’s words. Hudson Taylor fans bellow out their lyrics at the top of their lungs and I wondered what were Alfies thoughts on how his lyrics reach people and how they connect with the duo’s songs.
“ I think with most of our songs, certainly the lyrics I write have to mean something to me otherwise there isn’t really a point in doing it. Unless of course it’s a fun song and you’re trying to write something meaningless then that’s different. If it is a song that’s about something affecting you well, it has to mean something to you and if it means something to you it most likely means something to someone else. So I try and be as honest as possible without obviously telling everyone what I had for breakfast. Being straight up with emotions I think helps me to write songs and I just think what’s the simplest way to describe how I’m feeling now and often the simplest thing is the best way.“
With the gigs, I love hearing people say they relate to a tune because often it’s completely different to why I wrote the song. They have taken on their own meaning and getting their own story and I think that’s what it’s all about. I really like that a song I wrote about my partner could be someone’s wedding song and it means something completely different to them.I love that and I love hearing other people stories and connections.It’s something that is quite special with music “
This is only their second album but it feels like Hudson Taylor have been a household staple forever. In the twelve years since they began their journey they have gained a steady and dedicated following. But Alfie doesn’t feel pressure to follow up previous successes with each release
“ Some maybe yeah, I try not to. I try to write music that I like to hear. Often if I think about what’s on the radio or if you try to write a song that would sound good for this and that it doesn’t work, for me anyway. For some people it might work. I just try to write catchy melodies or catchy lyrics that I want to hear or that Harry might go, oh that’s nice. It’s just following your instincts really, thats usually where it all comes from. So in that extent I suppose we are able to know from the songs we have released what songs get played on the radio and what songs don’t. We are lucky enough to know that and that gives us a little bit of an indication. But then of course there’s trends all the time and you can be just lost in making music for the radio.
It’s pretty hard to do, if it was easy everyone would be doing it. So we just try and write music we like, that means stuff to us and then hopefully it will mean something to our audience and if our audience like it enough then the radio might pick up on it and if the radio pick up on it, it might get exposed to more people. I still like to think our music is word of mouth and that a good song will hopefully get heard. I tend not to think about it too much but I feel very lucky to get played. I just learn from what we have done so far and take that into account.”
Hudson Taylor have been doing a live stream each week which has been a great way to give people a taste of that live vibe. However they are no strangers to this medium of performance. They were doing this nearly 10 years ago to reach a larger audience.
“Yeah we started very early. In 2008 / 2009 we were doing live streams from our family home in Dublin, performing to all sorts of people all over the world and then we stopped using all that stuff as we got more busy with gigs. So now we are finding ourselves back on it. Obviously everything has changed but we have an idea of what to do and we have a load of songs to play and loads of different ways to play them and they have been really fun.
We have been asking people to request songs and we are doing it for everybody who has been supporting our album and would have been seeing us at gigs. It’s just something that we are enjoying doing and it’s just keeping us engaged in music and hopefully keeping other people engaged and giving people something to watch during these mad times.Its quality over quantity like how much do you go on and how good is it.
We have discovered that we both can’t play on Instagram, it will just be one of us so that will be more relaxed. Its like busking, I like it. The YouTube stuff is a little bit more organised.I think about them as if it was a show or if it was something I was watching on a TV show. The beauty of it is its live and its not too over thought but still a high quality thing.
I’ve learnt loads in the process. I’ve learnt with recording myself at home, like I’m so used to having an audience so now I’m just singing into a camera, no ones there and its the weirdest thing ever.I’m starting to get the hang of it now. I don’t take many selfies and I’m not like that or used to that so its been weird getting used to it. But we got there in the end. Harry has been amazing; he edits it all together and makes it so slick. But its been fun.”
Hudson Taylor have beautiful harmonies that no matter the circumstance they can provide an amazing show and their perfect blend has been something the duo have had all along.
“That’s our thing you know, the vocals and then us being brothers and what we both individually bring to the project.That’s our thing.We grew up listening to a lot of music with harmony in it you know Simon & Garfunkel,The Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys,The Beatles. Harry was in a lot of choirs and I was in a few choirs as a kid. Harry has always been the harmoniser. I picked it up over the years and I can now sing harmony but it took me a long time to learn it.The blend has always been there from the very beginning. When we started singing songs together I start singing the melody and boom Harry was in on the harmony. It was always natural and then when we went into our own songs, you know we can write a song thats good to sing harmonies too and a song that isn’t good to sing harmonies too that takes a lot of experimentation. But its something that we are very lucky to have.From the first time we started singing together that was the story. Harry has been great at it really , He has such an understanding of harmonies. Since I can remember you could be any situation and a song comes on the radio and Harry’s there singing the harmony. It’s embarrassing at times but its served him well.”
It was quite a shock at first finding out all the gigs planned have been cancelled however Alfie is enjoying the time he now has and making the most of it.
“ Absolutely, at first I was watching everything happen and I was in the UK. Things were going on in the UK and everything had shut down in Ireland. It was just a really confusing time, I was in a complete freak. I was told, yeah you’re going to be going… you’re not going to be going.We were due to go to Denmark and tour all over Europe. I was really worried about it and now in hindsight I just don’t look at the gigs I missed. I just don’t look at the festivals that are happening this weekend or whatever. But I’m enjoying it in whatever way I can. I haven’t spent this much time in one place in 10 years and thats been really nice. I’m with my partner and my dogs. I’ve never had this much time to think about what we have done. We are all grounded. For now we are going to keep on doing these live streams, gonna keep making noise about Favourite Song without leaving the house.I hope to be writing more songs and getting lots of inspiration and doing other things while I can’t be on the road. My friend owns a cafe I might jump in and help out with that. I really like the atmosphere there. I think it might be good for me and something a bit different. He plays great tunes as well. We are keeping ourselves busy with the live streams and that.”
Hudson Taylor have the deft ability to create pop tunes that are sure to put a spring in your step and a smile on your face. They blend emotive songwriting and lush harmonies to make enjoyable and rich songs that exude energy and passion. Whether it’s a live stream or a sell out show they are definitely worth checking out.
You can stream ’Loving Everywhere I Go’ below
Author : Danu
