Interview with Pushing Hands
It’s not often that a new band comes along with a sound that blows me away.
I first heard about the group last year when they released their debut single, He’s Still Here. The quartet followed up a few months later with Frames, which continued to build on the minimalist, atmospheric mood of their first official release. The London-based group are recording new material and I had a quick chat with Andrew from Pushing Hands about their music.
.
Q1. Pushing Hands is a training technique in martial arts. Does the band have any connections to this?
A: Freddies mum does Tai Chi
Q2. Is the band working on any new songs at the moment?
A: Yeah, everybody has been really busy outside of the band, but you’ve actually caught us in the middle of recording a new demo, so hopefully there will be something for everyone to listen to in the near future.
.
Q3. Your sound has been compared to fellow Brits Bombay Bicycle Club. Are they an influence on your sound or are there other groups who have been more influential?
A: We’re fans of Bombay and appreciate the comparisons but we enjoy bands like Yo La Tengo and Pavement and I think we get more out of listening to bands of that era and a lot of electronic music too.
Q4: If you could work with any artist dead or alive, who would that be?
A: We would definitely like to play with Talking Heads. None of us ever had the chance to actually see them live, but watching what we can of their old performances on youtube and on videos like Stop Making Sense is inspirational stuff. The production values and the energy they put into their music is really reflected in the performance and they really expanded on the idea of the typical band setup, they weren’t afraid to experiment and it really paid off for them. Also Bob Marley.
Q5. What 5 artists are you listening to at the moment?
A: At the moment we are mostly listening tooooo…. Bob Marley, Pantera, Ride, Stars of the Lid and new Pushing Hands songs.
Thanks to Pushing Hands for the interview. To purchase He’s Still Here, visit the group’s Bandcamp or follow on Facebook.
