Hugh Middleton and Tim Ischia are Boyeur, a unique and talented musical partnership resulting from a long-standing friendship.
Today, they release their debut EP, ‘Gold Street’.
Who is... Boyeur is a duo from Melbourne. We make indie pop music with the sensibilities of hip hop and classical music. We’re just about to release our debut EP ‘Gold Street’ and go on tour. We’re very excited about it.
We sound like... A lot of different stuff. Our music is made up of many layers. There are elements of hip hop like The Roots or Kanye. There are elements of classical music like Philip Glass or Chopin. There are elements of pop music like The Beatles or Frank Ocean.
Our first gig was... At Gertrude’s Brown Couch in Fitzroy – it’s called something different now I think. We play six instruments off stage and it was the first time we’d done that, so it was mayhem!
When did you settle on the group’s name, and was it a unanimous decision... It was definitely unanimous. The name came about sometime last year – we instantly liked the look/ sound of Boyeur.
In the studio we usually... Are really busy! The two of us play all the instruments so we’re flat out going from one instrument to the next.
If we could tour with anyone... That’d be great! Haha. Seriously though, it’d be Frank Ocean.
Social media is... Something to be studied and understood. There’s a lot to it, and we’re always learning more about how the different platforms actually work on the inside. I think too it can be a distraction for some artists. These days it’s so easy to put your music into the world, but perhaps things go up before they’re really developed fully. Ultimately with social media it’s about knowing when to use it, and when to stay out of peoples way.
To date, our most embarrassing moment was the time... When we were developing the band, we created a blog to showcase our ideas. For fun we created a Claymation series called ‘Katie The Spanish Cat’ as part of it. Honestly, it was so bad it was good. Looking back on it is pretty embarrassing!
Life on the road can be... Very rewarding! There’s nothing like road trips. You get so much time to think about things, which is so rare in day-to-day life.
If you’ll have us on your bill, all we ask is that our rider contains... Mario Kart! We’re both Rainbow Road experts.
The most scary scenario we’ve found ourselves in, was... Everything in this short career has been scary, which is great! You know you’re moving forward when it’s all making you nervous. Although, this one time we were on a road trip in Nevada, USA and a massive deer ran out in front of us on the road – that was intense.
What celebrity would you love to be spokesperson of the band... Someone genuine with mass appeal. I feel like that’s Beyonce. I don’t know much about her, but when I’ve heard her talk it sounds like the truth.
Boyeur Tour Dates
Wed Jun 4 - The Vanguard (Sydney)Fri Jun 6 - The Newsagency (Sydney)
Sat Jun 7 - Rad (Wollongong)
Sun Jun 8 - Smith’s Alternative Bookshop (Canberra)
Thu Jun 26 - The Workers Club (Melbourne - official EP launch)
