What’s My Scene: The Hazys like to take the judgement out of music
In our regular Q&A column What’s My Scene, InReview speaks to emerging and established local artists to get their take on the South Australian creative scene and their place within it. This week, The Hazys talk about finding their feet in Adelaide’s music scene, and recruiting your dad to play drums.
Where was your first Adelaide gig, and how did it go?
Our First Adelaide gig officially as The Hazys was at The Exeter Hotel. We had been playing under our lead singer’s name (Asher Hammat) for a couple of months, as at the time we hadn’t finalised what we as a band were going to be called. Originally the poster was stated as ‘Asher Hammat & The Friends’, but leading up to the show we finalised that we would start playing under ‘THE HAZYS’. It was honestly a perfect way to introduce ourselves under that rebrand, with a packed out Exeter front room and a crowd that were there to dance, it felt like the start of something special.
What is your artist origin story?
We like to joke that it all comes down to our drummer (Blake Hammat) as he is the father of our lead singer (Asher Hammat). But truthfully we all met through Uni, where we were studying creative practices in music at the Con [Elder Conservatorium]. We quickly all became friends and started sharing music with each other and genuinely just playing together too. Over time there were projects related to Uni work and outside projects that slowly brought us together as a band. It’s easy to create music when you’re making it with your favourite people.
What was your impression of the Adelaide creative scene when you first started, and how has that changed?
We have always strongly believed that Adelaide has one of the best scenes. The majority of the time everyone is so welcoming and supportive, which makes it so much easier to gain confidence in the scene. Music can be seen as very judgey at times and we like to take the judgement out of music and just enjoy it for what it is. We have such a wide range of talent across Adelaide and we think it’s really special!
How has your own work evolved since you first started?
I think over time we have been able to involve ourselves more into the scene and into the mainstream of Adelaide music. When we first started we were fresh out of high school and sort of just figure out where to fit in. Now we have been able to establish as known sound and image that people can recognise. I think now it’s nice to be a few years into our career as a band and now be examples for some of the other up and coming young bands.
What is it about your next release that you’re most excited/nervous to share with the world?
We are most proud of this new EP and are so excited to bring it out to the world. It has been a long time coming, with songs on the project that have existed for over two years, so it feels really special to have evolved those songs over time into something we are truly proud of. The most nerve wracking side of it all is just how people will receive the new songs; as an artist you are always hoping to make something that people really connect with and we have a couple of tracks that people haven’t heard yet, so that’s definitely new for us, yet is the most exciting side of the release too!
Who are the artists around you that inspire or challenge you?
Collectively we all listen to so much different music, so it’s hard to pin point just a few artists. But in terms of acts that have similar sounds to us, we’d have to say bands such as Ball Park Music, The Vanns, The Belair Lip Bombs, Gang of Youths, Backseat Lovers and even Wunderhorse with one of our new tracks. These acts all inspire us especially in the way of guitar music! However there are so many acts that have nothing to do with The Hazys, that feed inspiration into our work too!
Favourite Adelaide venue to play?
We recently played the Rhino Room for our ‘Olive’ launch and that was super special, so we’d say Rhino Room or Jive, as We have played so many special show there… and another’s coming up!
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Dream artist to perform alongside?
Almost an impossible question, there are so many acts we adore! However at this current stage we’d probably say someone like Ball Park Music, Gang of Youths or Wunderhorse.
Favourite artist to collaborate with?
We’re all big fans of an artist by the name of Theo Katzman, he’s one of the most talented songwriters so it’d be cool to see what he could add to a Hazys track.
Where is your next Adelaide performance, and how do you hope it will go?
Our next shows consist of our Guessing Game tour, which is celebrating our Sophomore EP! Shows include a listening party at Clarity Records and a radio session at Three D Radio, plus shows in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and The Hills! We’d love to see every single one of you down there!
The Hazys launch their new EP Guessing Game at Jive on Friday September 25
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