Irish duo Hvmmingbyrd – aka Deborah Byrne and Suzette Das – are ready to charm your ears with the shimmering electro-pop sounds of their new single Gozo, released on August 4th (2017).
Inspired by a euphoric trip to the island of Gozo, the track fuses together warm, sensual vocals with throbbing, electronic beats and heartfelt lyricism to create something truly blissful. Gozo flows with twinkling, glitchy melodies and the intricate harmonies of Byrne and Das, resulting in a dreamy, effervescent haze.
In this interview feature, we chat with Hvmmingbyrd about their new release, influences, what keeps them going, challenges of a technological driven age and much more.
Full Q&A along with links and a stream of Gozo below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
We have different musical backgrounds – Deborah from a folky/singer-songwriter background and Suzette from classical and jazz – and we draw on both to create our sound. With us both growing up taking part in choirs, harmonies are central to all of our songs. In the past year, we both started studying production and engineering and made it a goal to produce our own music both in the studio and live onstage.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
There’s no better feeling than creating something brand new. It probably sounds narcissistic but songwriting is so cathartic and it feels like such a visceral way to unburden your mind and process the world in the way you see it. You get to process your experiences and stories and then try to turn them into something beautiful which is pretty therapeutic. Often we begin a song with our story and then it turns into something totally different by the end of the process which is always a surprise! We both love to perform and interact with new audiences and it’s such a high to see a total stranger be moved by something you created. We are also very driven to keep improving and audiences are usually very honest and keep us fresh.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
We flit from genre to genre for inspiration. Sometimes we listen to orchestras, choirs, instrumental pieces, movie scores…other times we delve into hip hop, folk or pop. We are both converts to electronic music so there are splashes of electronica throughout our music too – we’re currently going through a phase of obsessively watching electronic musicians producing live!
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
Deborah went on holiday to a beautiful island called Gozo and was inspired by her time there – we wanted to bring this feeling of space into the song that matched the euphoria of feeling really free and alive by being in the moment.
What was the last song you listened to?
We are going through a Francis and the Lights phase at the moment so probably ‘Friends’ or ‘Can I Have This Dance’. The music videos for those songs are also pretty perfect.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Suzette owns a record player and enjoys vinyl. We both listen to Spotify and discover a lot of new music that way. CD’s are good for a roadtrip in the car.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
We put our music on Spotify and Bandcamp. Bandcamp is great in that people can pay what they want for your music and even give you a tip if they like which adds that something special. Spotify is great for discovering new music and we were fortunate to be put on a Spotify playlist which really boosted our listenership and introduced us to some new fans. But nothing beats holding a good old fashioned vinyl or CD in your hand in our opinion!
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
The spelling of our name can be both a blessing and a curse when people try to find us online, depending on which way you see it! The parameters of social media and its algorithms keep changing for good reason but it can be challenging to stay up to date on how and when is the best way to reach fans, as well as holding a balance of keeping everyone informed without posting incessantly. It’s also fun trying to keep producing quality social media content – we are musicians, not digital marketers, videographers or graphic designers, but we try our best! Overall, the opportunities that living in a digital era afford us as independent artists are pretty amazing and we’re thankful for that.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
Our music is on all the usual outlets including Spotify, iTunes, Youtube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp and more. If you want to hear more about our day to day activities, you can check out our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter pages – do say hi!
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
We just want to say a big thank you to Middle Tennessee Music for having us and to anyone who has read our interview or listened to our new single. We hope you like it!
