Following on from their debut album, 2010’s Escapades which surged up the ARIA Charts to a respectable #23, quartet Hungry Kids Of Hungry have officially announced their follow up.
Now over two years since the release of Escapades, the first of a two-album deal with new EMI offshoot label Stop Start for Australia and New Zealand, the boys from Brisbane will deliver their eagerly awaiting sophomore album You’re A Shadow on 22nd February 2013.
Like all good bands, development and growth occur during the writing period.
“You’re A Shadow was for us to challenge ourselves, and I think the result of that challenge is a record that’s an anomaly of sorts,” says vocalist/guitarist Dean McGrath. “The songs are more forward-thinking but the production approach is more steeped in the traditions of the classic records from the 60s that we’ve grown up with.”
“The arrangements are leaner and meaner, but it’s all been captured in a way that it sounds bigger than anything we’ve done before. We knew from the beginning we wanted to create something more bold, raw and ambitious than we’ve done before.”
Recorded at Sydney’s Alberts Studios, the band found a kindred spirit in producer Wayne Connelly who has also worked with The Vines, You Am I, Silverchair, and Josh Pyke.
“Wayne Connolly understood our vision and helped bring it to life… I don’t think there’s another producer who could’ve pulled it off so accurately and with so little fuss,” McGrath continues.
“For me personally, these songs chronicle some of the most tumultuous experiences I’ve endured on a personal level, but the making of the record couldn’t have been more fun or rewarding.”
“We knew we had to make another record and between the four of us we established an idea of what we wanted it to be and sound like,” explained McGrath in an interview with Tone Deaf about the record. “Wayne understood and I think our approach meant that this album has a rockier feel.”
The Hungry Kid concedes that “it’s not brutally heavy – essentially we’re still writing pop songs – but it does have that edge. There was a sheen over our first album but this one is raw.”
“It’s very real,” he concludes, adding worryingly, “I don’t know whether that sounds wanky or not.”
“With Escapades, it was more of a compilation than something we sat down and had a specific vision for. Kane [Mazlin] and I, being the songwriters of the band, we usually write quite separately from each other. But we seem to be on the same wavelength this time, so the album sounds really cohesive, like a whole piece of work.”
Hungry Kids Of Hungary deliver a set of songs that again demonstrate the band’s ability to combine their trademark melodies and burning energetic hooks, while a shift in production qualities reflects the band’s 60s west coast influences.
Premiered on the triple j Breakfast Show with Tom & Alex, HKOH delivered lead single ‘Sharp Shooter’ which garnered immediate high rotation and went on to be the #1 Most Played track on triple j in August. Follow-up single ‘Twin Cities’ is set to do the same, scoring another immediate addition on the j’s.
Hungry Kids Of Hungary has extensive touring plans for 2013 – both nationally and abroad.
You’re A Shadow will be released on the February 22, 2013 via Stop Start.
