Melbourne’s own gifted vocalist, guitarist and prolific songwriter, Hamish Anderson is set to release his impressive self-titled debut EP featuring many notable musicians including members of Foo Fighters, The Wallflowers and Angus & Julia Stone. The EP and lead single, Howl will be released on April 19 and Hamish will be celebrating with a launch show at The Toff In Town on Wednesday May 1.
Having made a name for himself across the local scene for his impressive live show that encompasses a mix of blues, rock and folk with moments of loud, electric blues-soaked songs as well as delicate acoustic balladry, Hamish comes armed with a host of noteworthy tunes and a songwriting and vocal maturity well beyond his twenty-one years.
After topping JJJ’s Unearthed charts in the pop/rock category with a demo track, Hamish picked up his guitar and headed to Sydney to record a five-track EP in BJB Studio with producer Eric J. Dubowsky (Art vs. Science, Weezer, Bluejuice). The EP was engineered by Jean-Paul Fung (Birds of Tokyo, Last Dinosaurs, Silverchair) and mastered by Brian Lucey (The Black Keys, Dr John, The Shins).
After hearing a few of Hamish’s songs, the passionate Rami Jaffee (keyboardist for Foo Fighters and founding member of The Wallflowers) stopped past the studio (while on tour in Australia with Foo Fighters) to record organ and piano, alongside bass player Rob Calder (Angus & Julia Stone) and drummer James Hauptman (Bluejuice).
Lead single Howl is a song about human passion and provides a great first taste for listeners discovering Hamish Anderson. “It was written reasonably fast, I heard the riff in my head and that really drove the entire song and its feel,” explains Hamish. “During the recording the drummer’s symbol split from being belted soo hard and I blew up an old Vox Guitar amp!” he exclaims, showing just how much gusto went in to recording the track in just one live take.
With plans to release an album sometime in the future, for now Hamish is keen to work on an EP-basis, saying “I very much like the idea of releasing EP’s as little snap shots of where I’m at musically.” And he isn’t wasting any time, having already headed back in to the studio to record a few new tracks with Jeff Buckley’s drummer Matt Johnson.