Review Fix chats with Hydrogen Child guitarist Clyde Hargrove, who discusses the band’s new EP. Formerly known as “Super Water Sympathy,†the band added two new members to their lineup to create an even richer sound to their signature “Shimmer Pop†formula.
Review Fix: How did the band get together and what has the journey been like up to
this point?
Clyde Hargrove: The band formed in August of 2010 with its original line up known as “Super Water Sympathy.” In the summer of 2013, the drummer and bassist left the band and Ansley Rimmer (vocals), Clyde Hargrove (guitar), and Jason Mills (keys) brought on Hali Kha (drums) and Chris Rimmer (bass) to solidify the line up. I think the journey is really illustrated between the first album “Vesper Belle,” second album, also called “Hydrogen Child,” and our current sound under the name Hydrogen Child. Bringing on Hali and Chris as the rhythm section really boosted the sound and gave the songs more punch and attitude. The touring aspect has been really great as well. Everyone really loves sleeping in the van in Wal Mart parking lots and waking up at odd hours of the night to go check out their $5 movie bin and see what kind of characters are lurking around. Right now we are touring the southern region and preparing for Operation: Swarm & Swoon.
Review Fix: How was “Sirens” written?
Hargrove: The bass line and guitar riff had been on the back burner for a while as random things to play during sound check. Probably about a year. We locked ourselves at Ansley and Chris’ house for the entirety of December 2013. This month consisted of writing, eating home made tacos, and playing with the multiple cats that live in the house. During that time we wrote about 15 songs and Sirens was actually the last one to come out of the session. We actually completely forgot about Sirens until the last day of writing. It came together at the last minute. We originally had a different chorus, but after a night of whiskey binging, came up with the current chorus and decided that really took the song to the next level. You could say the song was completely inspired by a house full of cats and Jameson.
Review Fix: What song on the EP do you feel is the most indicative of your sound?
Hargrove: That’s a very hard question because each song on the EP has its own personality. The whole thing has an over all tone and feeling, but we didn’t want to be one of those bands that puts out an EP or album that has a bunch of different versions of the same song. We are always trying to progress our sound and see what we can do differently on the next song or album. We released Sirens as a single to draw people in, but it isn’t necessarily going to be an EP full of songs that sound like Sirens.
Review Fix: What was the creative process for this EP like?
Hargrove: After the December 2013 writing/cat camp, we flew our producer, Frequency, down to Shreveport from New York to record for the first two weeks of January. Frequency really is a beast in the studio. There really aren’t a lot of people that work the way he works. In September, we went to his studio in New York to work on final mixes for the songs that are going to be on the EP. Of the 5 songs that we recorded in January, we ended up choosing three to be on the EP because we wrote two more songs after recording that we felt were a better fit. Wed tracked another song at Pond Studios with Jimmy Wooten in August. Frequency mixed one of the songs and the other was mixed by JK Royston and Dan Mineart out of Richmond, Virginia. We are currently getting the songs mastered and putting the ideas together for EP artwork and finding new ways to stuff flounder for Ansley’s upcoming cooking podcast.
Review Fix: How would you define shimmer pop?
Hargrove: Warm ambient synths with shimmering guitar riffs on top of colorful bass lines and jagged rhythm.
Review Fix: Why should someone listen to you guys?
Hargrove: People should listen to us because we believe in space exploration and peacefulness of birds. We really want to create tranquility in your brain when there is chaos and create chaos when there is tranquility. We want to evoke, provoke, and make you feel vulnerable. I believe that’s the job of an artist.
Review Fix: How do you want this EP to be remembered?
Hargrove: Ideally as the EP that put us on the musical map and led to an incredible full length album.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Hargrove: Only time will tell, but for right now we’re touring and touring and touring. We will hopefully continue to gain a few new fans and friends in each city along. When we get back to Shreveport we’re going to eat at Tacomania and get some brisket tacos. In the words of Robert Frost, “You can never have too much cilantro.”
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