Recently VGW got the opportunity to briefly chat with Daniel Rice of the English electronica band Hadouken! Having hit the scene about 5 years ago the band has vigorously attained an excited following around the world with their energetic and heavy sound. The band has two well received albums under their belt, a BT Digital Music Award for Best Electronic Artist, and a few successful YouTube music videos. They’ve been featured in Electronic Arts games like MMA, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and Sims 3, and a third album is expected to drop this year.
Hadouken! does definitely seem to be leaving an impact.
While you read, check out their latest single on iTunes and iTunes UK!
Q: Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this interview. First, with a name like Hadouken! I gotta ask have any of you been playing Marvel vs. Capcom 3? Any favorite characters or teams?
A: No unfortunately we haven’t had a chance to play yet, looks ace though.
Q: Outside of sampling, does videogame music really have much of an influential impact on your music?
A: I think in a subtle way games have influenced us. If you listen to our first record there are some 8-bit lo fi sounds that are kind of reminiscent of old game soundtracks, but this was never something we did consciously, it was more just a case that having grown up with those games those sounds sounded good to our ears.
Q: So, you guys are working on a third album right now and you seem to know your audience really well. What do you think your fans want from your third album and how are you guys delivering?
A: It’s hard to say, our output has been quite diverse over the last few years and different tracks appeal to different fans so we can’t say what they want as a whole. When it comes to writing the third album we’re just doing whatever feels right to us and we will have to hope that the fans like where we go with it. If you try and second guess what they want and limit yourself to that it can be quite restricting.
Q: How do you guys stay so connected with your audience?
A: We use a lot of social networks, we’re all on twitter and facebook etc and speak to our fans directly through those sites. We also make an effort to come out and about after our shows and meet people.
Q: Is there ever a temptation to just stray off and do something different?
A: Not really because we all have side projects on the go where we can indulge other interests, me, Nick and Chris play in a band called Chapters and James has lots of other projects which he likes to keep anonymous. Doing these other projects allows us to stay focused with hadouken on what works best for that band.
Q: Now you guys play grime, a relatively new genre, let’s talk about that for a bit. For our readers who may be unfamiliar (especially in the States) how would you describe the appeal? And what attracts you guys to the scene?
A: Just to clear this up, we do not and have never really made grime music ourselves. Some of our early tracks were influenced by early grime artists like Wiley and Dizzee Rascal, but that was just one of many sources we drew on. We’re also inspired by other mutations of British dance music like drum n bass, dubstep and garage as well as big crossover acts like Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Leftfield and even bands like Rage Against the Machine and Queens of the Stone Age. Grime excited us because it was an incredibly innovative and exciting sound at the time, if you’re readers want an introduction to that music they should hunt down the Run The Road compilations that were released on 679 records in 2005.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Q: Where do you guys think the music will go in the future? Will the sound ever really change do you think or can it only get bigger and louder?
A: I think the original grime artists have already mutated and diversified into a whole range of different sounds and reached a global audience because of it.
Q: Being ultimately a celebration of youth, and with every generation having their own style, do you guys think grime will outlive the generation popularizing it or do you guys see it as being unique to your generation?
A: In the UK at the moment our charts are dominated by artists who have come up through the grime scene and related genres, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Strider, Chipmunk and Dizzee Rascal for example. The influence of those artists will no doubt be felt for years to come though hopefully future generations will twist and distort their influences into something new and exciting for them.
Q: Alright, now onto you guys as a band and your next album. You’re on your third album which is often the album that decides whether a band will have lasting appeal. Do you feel any of that pressure?
A: Not really, I think we’re lucky to have established a small but loyal following and we’re happy making music for them. We would love our music to reach a wider audience and if this album takes us a step forward then that’s great but we’ve never expected to be the next Coldplay.
Q: As a band how does the process of creating a track work? How collaborative is it from conception to recording?
A: The songwriting very much comes from James, he’ll demo tracks in his home studio and then take them to other producers to work on in their studios, the rest of the band will then get involved writing bits and pieces on their own instruments and recording them in.
Q: For the third album have you guys learned anything from the previous two as far as actually writing the music that you hope really shines in this latest release?
A: I think more than anything else we’ve learned a lot from performing live. When your on stage you can see how the audience reacts to different tracks and how well different things work so we’re putting all the knowledge gained over the last five years & several hundred shows into this record to make something that comes across really well in the live environment. James has also certainly come on a huge amount in his technical knowledge as a producer and the sound of the new tracks will showcase that.
Q: Alright, we’re coming to the end. Before we sign out give us one really good band story from touring.
A: Sadly since we’re still quite a small band and free from drug habits (so far) we don’t have many old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll tales of excess and destruction. Our touring life is just a lot of mucking about & telling crap in jokes, most of which is documented on youtube in our video blog series ‘Blogdouken‘.
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