Hadouken : Interview with James Smith

After the indie-rave success of debut album ‘Music for an Accelerated Culture’, Leeds-based Hadouken! are back with a UK tour and a new album and maybe even a new musical direction, with new album being produced by Drum & Bass heavyweight Noisia.

Known for their ironic lyrics about today’s youth culture and grimey-punk sound, the five-piece have been under fire in the past for taking the piss a little too much out of the grime genre but as we find out, they take their music very seriously.

We catch up with frontman, lyricist and producer James Smith pre-tour and talk about the controversy behind the band and the new ‘UK’ tour:

4or The Record: You’re new EP ‘MAD’ has some pretty intense remixes on from Phace and Detboi - how do you pick the best ones? Or are they just your favourites? 

James Smith: It’s always a combination of remixes. We suggest people that we would like to get to do a remix and it also has to be within the budget because if we ask for a big act it would probably cost thousands and thousands of pounds or they’d be too busy or probably just wouldn’t want to do it. So we have to be realistic about who can do it. We got the Phace one because a friend, who’s into Drum & Bass, recommended him to me and again with Detboi - he was recommended and we’re big fans of him - I’m really into house music.

4TR: Drum & Bass artist Noisia have been producing your new album - is your music heading in a different direction? 

James: The new album is going in a new direction but it’s completely wrong to think it will be Drum & Bass. We didn’t write any songs to suit that tempo but Noisa are very versatile producers - they’ve done a lot of breaks and electro music so they’ve got a wide variety of skills. They decided that they didn’t want us to do anything too Drum & Bassy either as it would pigeon-hole us and them so we were quite creative with the different tempos that we used.

4TR: You’ve been criticised in the past for almost mocking the grime genre because of your ironic lyrics but you used to produce for grime label True Tiger Recordings - who are your influences and do you think grime will ever be as big as indie, for example?

James: I do take offense to the people that said we were mocking the genre because I was massively influenced and inspired by that genre, and I don’t consider our music to be grime whatsoever. It’s had an effect on me - I’ve been into the scene since the UK Garage stage. I don’t think that Grime itself will ever be as big and I don’t think it should ever aspire to be because it is an underground music and it works because it’s volatile and rough. I think when Grime artists have aspirations to make it, they tend to water down the genre a bit, but it’s always going to produce massive artists like Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, Tinchy Stryder and Chipmunk, and that’s always going to be a positive thing but I’m much more of a fan of purer stuff like Slew Dem and Tempa T - stuff like that. They’re brilliant underground artists - really uncompromising - I think everyone should check them out.

4TR: What type of gig would you guys prefer to play: a student indie night, a grimey house party or a summer festival? 

James: I really like a venue that’s about 400 capacity or under because you can get down and dirty and you’re really close to the audience - you’re not separated by barriers and 20 metres like at a festival or a big gig. That saying, I’d never say no to the bigger gigs but I prefer the more intimate affair.

4TR: You recently supported The Prodigy in Japan, a band who have inspired so many others and obviously yourselves - how did it go? 

James: I was really inspiring to get out of the country and see the bigger fan base and just see a different culture. The crowd were wicked and obviously The Prodigy are one of our biggest influences of all time so it was good to hang out with them and the Pendulum guys - we had a really good time.

4TR: You’re signed to your own record label Surface Noise Records - does the label have plans to sign more artists? 

James: We did start off with the ambition to release other stuff but once we got our band on the go, we didn’t have time to sign anyone else. There was consideration to sign other bands but we kinda didn’t get round to it so now we’re just concentrating on our own thing but that’s not to say that we couldn’t do it in the future.

4TR: The UK tour kicks off in a week - some fans have complained that it’s not a UK tour if you’re only playing England and one Irish date - will you be adding dates for your Welsh and Scottish fans? 

James: It was always our plan to do a UK tour but in terms of the offers we got from the promoters - they were the ones that worked and we could do. I’m more than happy to come up to Scotland and Wales because generally the crowds are better in those countries - they just like to have a good time and lose themselves. I was a bit disappointed myself when I found out we weren’t going to those places but it’s not up to the band sometimes, it’s up to the promoters.

4TR: When’s the new single ‘Turn The Lights Out’ due to be released? How did the video shoot go? 

James: I think we’re gonna start dropping it and putting it out there in the next week or two but I’m not sure of the actual date of release. The video shoot went really well - we got this new director called Blake, who’s a really nice bloke and really talented. We shot the video in an underground warehouse in East London - it’s quite crazy!

4TR: And finally, what will make this tour better than the last?

James: I think we’re really going to be stepping it up this time. Each tour is as good as the last and we give it our all - we gave 100% to the last one and will give 100% this time too. It’ll be good to get out and meet the fans again and play to some people I hope are eager to hear us. We’ve got a band called Soft Toy Emergency supporting us - they’re really up-and-coming, nice people from Liverpool - they seem to be getting a lot of heat on them at the moment. Can’t wait to get started!

Words: Shelly Elcock

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