The sophomore album for Brisbane pop kings Hungry Kids Of Hungary sees the band take a more refined and focused approach to their songwriting.
“We were coming off the back of the first album we put out in 2010,” says lead vocalist and guitarist, Dean McGrath. “We’d toured pretty extensively both nationally and overseas for that and it was time to do another one.
“We’ve tried to follow up, with this second one, with something better and more ambitious. Our first record was a fairly clean-cut pop record; all the songs had been written over a three year span and they were some of our first songs we’d written together, and I guess this time we wanted to make a bit more of a focused effort.”
After the success of their debut album, Escapades, Hungry Kids decided it was time to concentrate their efforts on refining the sound and style of their songs for their second record, You’re A Shadow.
“When you make your first album it’s more of a compilation of songs that you’ve written up to that point where you feel you’re ready to put an album out,” Dean explains. “Whereas this time, instead of it being heaps of songs that were written over a long time and played live a lot, we were writing a record within the space of a year and we knew what we were working towards from the very beginning, so it feels like it’s a more cohesive effort this time round.”
HKOH worked with legendary Australian producer Wayne Connolly to achieve the rich sounds, reminiscent of '60s West Coast pop, they wanted for the album.
“Wayne’s a brilliant producer and a brilliant engineer,” Dean says. “He’s got such an amazing body of work to his name, all the bands he’s worked with in Australia and the amazing records he’s produced. Also, we just clicked right from the beginning. He really understood the kind of record we were trying to make and he was brilliant at helping to achieve that so it was a dream recording experience.”
Hungry Kids Of Hungary play the following shows with The Preatures and Them Swoops:
Fri Apr 05 — The Hi-Fi (Sydney)Sat Apr 06 — Mona Vale Hotel (Mona Vale)
Thu Apr 11 — Newport (Fremantle)*
Fri Apr 12 — Capitol (Perth)*
Thu Apr 18 — Kings Beach Tavern (Caloundra)
Fri Apr 19 — The Hi-Fi (Brisbane)
Sat Apr 20 — Great Northern (Byron Bay)
Sun Apr 21 — Alhambra Lounge (Brisbane) (U18)
Wed Apr 24 — The Waratah Hotel (Hobart)*
Fri Apr 26 — Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
*Them Swoops not appearing.
You're A Shadow is out now.
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