As Flaming Wrekage’s brutal fourth album tickles your earholes, you know this is something special. …
Canberra outfit Hands Like Houses inconspicuously became something of a juggernaut in a short period, releasing two top ten ARIA charts albums Disonnants in 2016 and last year’s Anon.
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In between three consecutive sold out headline tours of Australia and as if that wasn’t enough they achieved a landmark 85 million streams and sold a 100k+ records globally, but all that shouldn’t come as a surprise for a band that has notched up 15 US and nine UK tours during the last decade.
2019 promises to be yet again significant for them as they start off the year playing dates in all the major cities across the country early next month with special guests Ocean Grove, Endless Heights and Red Hook; the tour kicks off with a gig in their hometown and then sees them head to South Africa before adding more US and UK dates later in the year. Hysteria spoke to Hands Like Houses frontman Trenton Todd Woodley about what were some of his personal highlights of 2018 and some bands he recommends checking out this year, plus much more!
Hysteria: Hands Like Houses have had a very successful 2018. What were some of your personal highlights?
Hands Like Houses: getting the album done and out was awesome, we played some fantastic shows, we did a bunch of sold out pre-release shows in Australia, we got the Triple J feature album which was huge for us, we did a sold out show in London and a handful in the US in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Orlando, so a lot happened for the band in a very short amount of time. These are all personal milestones for me and collectively we feel like we’ve been accepted by a wider audience and that’s pretty cool. It was a big year and I look forward to seeing where the album cycle takes us next.
I’m excited about the new Bring Me the Horizon album, the first couple of tracks they’ve released have been sweat and I’m keen to see where they go because their music has a big impact on how our music scene is perceived.
[ Trenton Todd Woodley ]
You’re bringing three great Aussie bands with you on tour, what bands would you recommend people should check out this year?
I would definitely recommend Emarosa who went on tour with us in the US, their new album is great and it’s been awesome to see them live during the tour. Davour the Day who were also in the same tour with us are doing great music and are rad dudes who we were glad to tour with and are definitely going in an interesting direction. I’m excited about the new Bring Me the Horizon album, the first couple of tracks they’ve released have been sweat and I’m keen to see where they go because their music has a big impact on how our music scene is perceived. I’m currently producing and co-writing for a band called Introvert from Newcastle and that should be coming out in the middle of the year.
Do end of year lists like Triple J Hottest 100 mean anything to you?
Yeah! Particularly with the Hottest 100, I like how people tag us on voting polls on Instagram and it’s always interesting to see what other people are voting for and listening to. It’s nice when people want to vote for one of our songs like Monster and that it’s one of their picks for the hottest 100. It’s really interesting to see because we’ve been alongside anything and everything from The Amity Affliction through to Post Malone and Childish Gambino and so many other artists. It’s nice to see people with a broad appreciation of music enjoy what we are doing, it’s rewarding for us. We also got included in Apple’s 2018 best of playlist alongside anything and everything that was huge from last year.
What were your favourite music moments of 2018?
I think seeing the music modernisation act being legislated by the United Stated Congress was a monumental victory for musicians and especially songwriters. In terms of the wider music industry I think that was a music moment last year that I’ve been most encouraged by. It’s going to have a drastic impact on how different streaming platforms credit and pay out royalties to songwriters rather than just reap all the copyright. It’s a fight that musicians won together and that massive million dollar corporations fought against. The way musicians and songwriters use to be paid was based on a legislation passed in 1909 which is really wild! Maybe it’s not a musical highlight of last year but it was definitely one of the most significant musical moments of the year.
Were there any shows that stood out for you or any festivals that you were glad to be a part of?
2018 was a pretty quiet year for us as we did take time off to write and produce the new album; it was only in the last couple of months that we actually did some touring. The couple of sold out shows across Australia and the sold out show in London and having people sing back some of the new songs that weren’t even singles was amazing. I think the shows we did last year were hugely special but I think they were more encouraging than they were individually special because it’s almost like a preview of what’s going to come with the rest of the touring cycle.
You must be looking forward to the overseas shows coming up later in the year. Could you tell us more about it?
We are excited to be playing the Sonic Temple music festival in the US, it’s a massive line-up, you’ve got the Foo Fighters, System of a Down and Disturbed all headlining and so many other massive acts. We’re also playing some dates in South Africa so it’s all looking pretty sweat!
Catch Hands Like Houses with special guests Ocean Grove, Endless Heights & RedHook at the following dates:
Friday 8 February // UC Refectory // Canberra
Saturday 9 February // Enmore Theatre // Sydney
Friday 15 February // The Tivoli // Brisbane
Saturday 16 February // The Forum // Melbourne
Friday 22 February // HQ Complex // Adelaide
Saturday 23 February // Astor Theatre // Perth*
