Buffalo Summer is back this year with a new album called “Second Sun”. It’s the first record on UDR Records. Andrew Hunt and Jonny Williams spoke us about it.
Is it your first time in Paris?
Andrew Hunt (vocals): It’s our first time for interviews, we played here 3 times before, at Nouveau Casino, twice at La Flèche D’or.
Can you describe your band in few words for people who don’t know you yet?
Andrew: Vocals bluesy classic rock in few words or something like soul music.
You started a couple of years ago, does it seem like everything goes fast for you?
Jonny Williams (guitar): It looks like it’s going fast, but we put like 4 years only touring.
Andrew: We started in 2010 officially, but yeah, we have spent the last 3 or 4 years on the road, just playing all over. We kind of build a perform best slowly. We’ve been lucky have support. We come back with UDR Records, a german label, for this new album.
How did you come up with that name for this second album? What was your inspiration behind “Second Sun“?
Andrew: Actually, it’s a name actually Jonny came up with, and it’s the second album as well, maybe it’s a king of wordplay.
Yeah, cause the first one was self produced.
Andrew: Yeah, we done everything ourselves, so yes it’s kind of as well second sun, it’s kind of illusion so when you have one sun in the sky, sometimes you see people take a photograph and there’s another one which is not really there, for me, it’s kind of an obvious connotation, it can represent as well where we are as a band in terms of like the music industry can be, like small cameras, it’s like a common phrase in UK, but like an illusion of being, one of sun is there, on is not.
Jonny: It doesn’t all of it appear as you see it.
Where did you find this old good sound?
Jonny: Parents records collection! When you’re a little kid and they say ‘watch that, this is Led Zeppelin” and you’re like “Oh my God!”. Becoming to it, and I think it surrounded where we grew up, we did really much as to do up for growing with in a while, listening to music, playing music, listening to music, playing more music.
You started soon to play music right?
Andrew: Yeah, I’ve always been interesting by music, but I don’t know. How old were you when you started to play?
Jonny: Twelve?
Andrew : Twelve. I started to play guitar when I was 16 but I always had like an interest in music anyway, and then I think like when, like a teenager, if you got into music, you got into music and everyday becomes, playing guitar or singing, those kind of things.
Jonny: Everyday becomes a guitar day and not a school day. (laughs)
Simo, Black Stone Cherry etc. What happens with this generation who goes back to the basics?
Jonny: I don’t know. Maybe it’s in the water. (laughs) I think it’s just the time, the natural generation you get our parents music, you get old and start to play it. It’s coming back around for circle. We didn’t say “let go and start a classic rock band”, we just started playing songs we liked.
Maybe people need more pure sound?
Andrew: Yeah definitely. Electronic music is made by machine so it can be impersonal, and I think if you’re playing music like blues which is where rock n’roll comes from, it’s a really real type of music with a lot of feelings and I think people start to realize that again and that’s why I think there’re a lot of more guitars, drums. Rock is coming back.
Back to your album, we love “Light Of The Sun”. Do you have a favorite song?
Andrew: That’s is actually my favorite song on the album. I think I’m the only who that’s favorite and I don’t know, what’s your favorite?
Jonny: “Neverend”, “Levitate”, yeah.
Andrew: “Light Of The Sun” is quite melodic, it’s a melodious song.
Who is Priscillia?
Andrew: (laughs) It isn’t like a real person, it’s almost like. It’s an invented joke, It’s kind of strange cause we have a song on the first album, and the name “Mary” was the title, and as a joke we said that on every album let’s put a girl name. So, we were on a pub, and that day we saw a picture on the wall and it was like an artist from the 1900 and the name was Priscillia. So we definitely took it to call the song Priscillia. And we kindly wrote a story around. Sometimes you meet people, who are like innocent but troubled as the same time. So that’s kind of became a sort of story.
What’s your opinion about music today?
Andrew: Good question. I think music is very much alive and well. There’s a lot of good music still be made, from all different types as well. I think with the Internet, it’s easier to get your music and contact with people, but as the same time, there’s so much music, it’s hard to get through this and find the good music. It becomes a bit saturated.
Jonny: Back in the days, you have to pay and you have to go in the studio. But now you can do it now and put the song on the Internet. There’s no way to control. But be a kid must be amazing cause all this music is available, you can listen to the all bands.
Andrew: But as the same time as well, even though that much music available I think for musicians and people trying to make a living from playing music it’s quite troubling. Our generation growing up when music is free, now you can click YouTube and there’s a lot of music studios, record labels shutting down because people stop paying music to the level as we were before, and it’s not cheap to make a record like we’ve made, but I think it’s a general lack of investment in the music industry in general, it does make it more difficult to be a musician now.
When will you come back for a french show?
Andrew: We don’t, unfortunately at the moment, we have played here a few times before. I’m pretty sure that when the tour will announced, we will come back to play.
What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Jonny: A nice orange Vinyl.
Andrew: Yeah, we’re coming with a lot of new orange merchandise like T-shirt, baseball hat, all those kinds of things and the most important, if you like our band, please come to see us at the end of the show, come to speak to us. We always make ourselves available for anyone who likes the band.
Last question: as our website is called “RockUrLife”, what rocks your life?
Jonny: What rocks my life?
Andrew: Music.
Jonny: Yeah music, music everyday. Packs of 25 cigarets (laughs), that rocks my life.
Andrew: Music is generally what we do everyday. And football rocks my life. (laughs)
Website: buffalosummer.net
