Interview with Hypnogator

What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today? 

We all got into music at an early age, Jonny the bass player came from a classical music family and promptly broke the mold and aimed for rock and roll. George’s dad is a morris dancer who started him off with some folk guitar, which grew into rock guitar and vocals, Liam played in school bands and orchestras in percussion and his parents built him a shed for his drum kit at the end of the garden (very encouraging, so he could really wail on them and not upset the neighbours) and Relf arrived on earth sometime in the late 1850s with the first ever electric guitar - he claims to be older than time, but he doesn’t age so we don’t really know. We all work in other ways too as we still find our feet as a band, so the best answer is probably the office jobs and teaching work we have. However, the honest answer is we would probably all be dead and gone already - withered by the lack of a lust for life….

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

We all keep fit - either gym, hiking, running, rock climbing or fight classes. We love a pint with the lads and George is a 65 year old in a 26 year old body with a national trust membership… We all love to go to gigs and can be found watching a gig every week too, be it folk, country, metal, punk, jazz. This has a massive influence on how our sound has developed. You can never stop looking for inspiration.

How long has your band been around? Also, please tell me about the dynamic of the band of what brought you all together.

We’ve been playing together as a four piece since 2014, but Jonny and Liam have been playing together for about 15 years since they were kids (George for about 13 years at the same school). Relf joined us as an absolute monster guitarist after about a year of us getting together into this group back in 2014. Then when we all went to uni we just settled into being mates. The pandemic then struck and in 2021 we thought we’d put the band back together and make a go of it now we were all more developed musicians too we just came back with a punch. We’re all just mates from school really and ultimately a gig is good fun because we know each other so well now we can just have fun as a group - even at the start when no one was showing up haha.

Where are you based and how did that influence your music?

We’re based in South-East London and Kent, so a lot of dreary suburban dead-ends to get angry about. We’ve all been brought up comfortably - which some people in this industry can be a bit coy about and make out they’re something they’re not - but that meant our dread developed in a more mystical and cosmic way. The existential horrors of a dead end life led our brains to the Cosmic Swamp (our lore that we build with our songs) which is just a metaphor ultimately for the horrors of the vastness of the universe and our insignificance within it.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?

We wanted something sharp and snappy, that felt aggressive but also felt mystical and trippy. We also wanted it to feel like a character that we could all picture. For the trippy feel we threw around words like cosmic, hypnotic, telepath, surreal, and for the aggressive we thought of raptor, gator, jaw, shred. Then we just worked those through and found the one that rolled the nicest off the tongue and had the clearest character.

Tell me about your most memorable shows.

Best and worst incoming. The best memorable one was one of our first at the Camden Assembly - every show we have done there has been a blast because it’s just a great system with excellent lights and a comfortable green room and amazing energy in the crowd. Our second ever show ended up here and it was just such a packed room and vibrant crowd, so much fun - the other bands were so eclectic too that we had a great time watching. Worst: first ever gig, headline the Beehive in Bromley By Bow and the door money got stolen, no green room and the place to store our things was right infront of the stage so people were moshing into our stuff, the sound system broke halfway through and the beers were about £7 each. Bloody joke haha.

What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?

We love the Camden Assembly for all the reasons above - but we have such a longstanding and strong connection with the Fiddler’s Elbow in Chalk Farm that it has to take the top spot. Sticky floors, cheap beers, absolutely ripping sound system with a lovely sound guy to boot. We’ve never played a show there that hasn’t had a full mosh of friends and strangers break out almost immediately.

If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?

A realistic show would be opening for Clutch or Mr Bungle, just absolutely insane acts who have put the work in over decades and really know the ropes. Those guys would be insane backstage too and a great learning experience. If it was just anyone in history, probably Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, opening for either of them would be a mind blowing experience, and would place us firmly in rock and roll history.

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?

Some great advice I got given and still think of regularly - ask yourself “Is this fun?” and if it isn’t (whether that’s in writing a song, playing a gig, doing a video) then change it and find something that is fun. If you find it fun, someone else will too and that’s a fan. Advice we’d give to our younger selves is probably to start recording bad things earlier. We released an EP in 2015 under our pre-uni name (which we shall not reveal, but it is still available for keen eyed hunters…) and it was the best learning experience, we should have just kept making bad stuff quicker, we would have learnt more faster.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why? 

Our debut single Empty is by far our most loved. It is the first song we wrote after coming back together following 5 years apart and thought “what sort of weird shit can we make”. Then when we put it out there and it got such a solid reception, we knew we had something people wanted. Since then it’s been easy to drive forward. So it’s the seed that led to this whole thing. It also still absolutely rips every time we play it - full studio version on the way (so far only the demo is out).

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

Our upcoming song in March “Little Johnny” gets requested all the time and we like playing it because it's a heavy chest puncher of a tune. But Jesus (Tried To Take The Wheel But He Ended Up Insane) is one of our favourites to play, because it is tight, punchy and riles the crowd up. “Madman” which isn’t out anywhere yet has a special place on the stage for us, having nothing recorded of it yet means it’s still growing and so we’re really working with the crowd each time across a sprawling soundscape to see how we can move the energy in the best way - such a great process to bring them in on.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

It’s a tale as old as time really. We rehearse a lot, bring riffs, rhythms, vocals, any sort of motif that we like and then we jam it out, trying to force it into a structure quickly so we have something to book end. Then when we have that 3-5 mins of solid structure we start to edit and warp it until each section has its own flavour. We then workshop them live and let the crowd’s energy guide us to where the song needs to be. As for inspiration, we just want to make tunes that pay homage to the styles we grew up listening to, whilst finding a path to something new through unique structures and tones. We’re trying to do something musically unique that people haven’t heard before.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

The lyrics are all written by George who tries to tell a story whilst not letting the words get in the way of melody. Melody comes as priority and then the feeling of the tune dictates the sort of story that can be told. Sometimes it is a dark look at some of the horrors of today’s world (like the weird growing obsession with true-crime) and sometimes it’s a look at anxiety and depression, like in Jesus (TTTTWBHEUI) which is all about someone feeling like they couldn’t possibly be loved because they view themselves as evil. Just stories that we think need to be told and that affect us all so that the keen eared listeners feel like they are seen and heard through our songs.

Do you have any new singles, videos, or albums out that you would like to tell me and your fans about? 

Yeah! We have a song Jesus (TTTTWBHEUI) that just dropped, with a video coming really soon. Then in March we have Little Johnny (the crowd favourite), and finally in May it is Madman - which will have an attached 10 minute jam version. We basically try and release every other month to keep people excited. It’s all leading up to a full album drop early next year. Thanks for asking!

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?

For now we just wanna keep on bringing good music to the masses and play bigger and better shows. Two things in the horizon are: 

1. An as-live charity broadcast on 22/02 at 9pm of a live shoot we did with HotVox in support of War Child UK. We’re hosting a viewing party and games night at our local (West Wickham Real Aleway) where we’ll be streaming and giving out prizes (on of which is a tattoo on George’s ass!)

2. We’re hosting a pre-release party on 19th March with our mates Bottomless Brunch and Pest supporting at the New Cross Inn, which will be the place to first hear the studio version of Little Johnny. This will be a big one, with all our friends and fans, so not one to miss.

How can your fans best keep up to date with you, any socials you want people to check out?

They can find us as Hypnogator on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Spotify, Bandcamp and Reddit. Our website for all tickets and links to socials and songs is: linktr.ee/hypnogator

They can chat to us on Instagram easy as one of us is usually dossing off work at any one time so can reply…

We also have a private WhatsApp group (found on the website) for those really wanting to keep up with everything, in which we post only new songs and new show announcements - only we can message so it’s never spammy.