Getting to know Hot Spoke
Sydney band Hot Spoke tell us about their upcoming appearance at Bigsound, about their next single and about not realising Serial was non-fiction:
We are… Seb Bartels on electric guitar, Damian Enemark on bass and B/V’s, and Ness Muir on guitar and vocals. We’re a band from Sydney Australia. We all met at university about five years ago and have been making music together ever since. We all pretty much bonded over our mutual love of Wilco and alt country/sad jams. Both Ness and Damo were playing around Sydney as solo artists and decided to combine forces to make the saddest/ loudest racket possible… and thus Hot Spoke was born.
Calm Down is… the title of our next single and our E.P, which will be out soon. We recorded it with Steven Schram between Linear and Jungle studios in Sydney’s inner west. The song existed on Ness’ phone as a shitty iPhone recording for about three years before we decided to start playing it as a band. Sometimes songs sneak up on you like that. “I wrote it as a reaction to people saying that phrase (Calm down) when you’re reacting emotionally to something,” says Ness. I’ve always found that to be the most frustrating reaction to when you’re trying to express how you’re feeling to someone. It’s about a combination of that and reacting to being in a relationship where you feel like you’re not being heard at all, the other person has made up their mind who you are and how you should feel and they expect you to go on playing that part.
Our show at Bigsound will be… our first show at Bigsound and our first festival as a band. We’re stoked to be playing at Black Bear Lodge. We are on at 10:50pm so we hope to see you there!
Home is… the circus that is Sydney.
We spend too much time… gaming! Well Seb does anyway. Seb is a gaming enthusiast who will frequently give up sleep in favour of playing games. His current faves are ‘No Mans Sky’ and ‘Fallout 4’.
We’re currently listening to…
The War on Drugs
Wilco
The Smiths
Morrissey
The Drones
Punch Brothers
Angel Olsen
Big Thief
Rio Kiley
Middle Kids
Alex Lahey
Gang of Youth
Tiny Little houses
Heron Oblivion
Father John Misty
Pale Hound
Dinosaur Jr
It might surprise people to learn that… Damian is actually an accomplished organic hobby farmer who keeps quails and tends to his kale and garlic patch over the weekends. Also that Ness didn’t realise that Serial was non-fiction until Seb told her after she listened to the whole first season… as a result her mind was truly blown.
In the future… we hope to record more songs and play a lot more.
Hot Spoke play on Wednesday September 7 at Black Bear Lodge 10.50PM – 11.20PM as part of Bigsound in Brisbane. Keep up to date with the band on Facebook.
Interview by Bobby Townsend.
