PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF FOR US WHO ARE NOT FAMILIAR WITH YOU AND
YOUR MUSIC AND TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.
Hello, my name is Lee. I'm the wrong side of 40 and I’ve been playing punk rock for 25 years in one capacity or another. I live in Sheffield, England and Hike The Peak was born out of the covid lockdowns.
I’ve toured mainland Europe a lot of times and when the covid lockdowns kind put a stop to my full-time band NO CONTEST I realised how much I missed music so instead of wasting my time I started focus a lot on songwriting and recording in my home studio…..Being locked at home sent my mental health a bit haywire so I needed something to focus on….so slowly but surely I began hiding away in my spare room playing my guitar and learning a whole clutch of music programs……My vocal talents are back up vocals at best so I thought id contact a few of my friends that I’ve toured/played shows with in the UK and the euro mainland to see if anyone was interested in adding their vocal talents to the project…..the response back was massively positive. That’s how it started….and so far we’ve featured members of ONE HIDDEN FRAME (Finland), THOUSAND OAKS (Italy), FOR I AM, (Belgium), HOOF (England), ABSOLUTE (Italy), FROM THE TRACKS, (Sweden), LAUGHING IN THE FACE OF (England), CORAL SPRINGS (Netherlands), NO CONTEST (England), THE AFFECT HEURISTIC (Scotland), REBUKE (Sweden)
TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEW ALBUM OR SINGLE?
The new ep is due out on Oct 21st 2022 and has 2 more songs. The guest vocalists for those two tracks are John Harcus from Scottish Skatepunk legends PMX and Ace from Japanese melodic punk band SHAMES. I can’t wait for people to hear it. Then the next one just before Christmas with any luck.
Each ep has 2 songs; each song has a different singer. They’ve been coming out 7 weeks apart since September 2021. So the catalogue is building.
WHAT INSPIRED THE ALBUM OR SINGLE?
You have to ask the vocalists that, I'm afraid. They use the songs to inspire them…..the song writing just comes with me riffing at home and then going into my studio and not coming out until it's finished….some songs can take a week or two to get right, sometimes others have literally taken 2 hours to nail.
CAN YOU SUM UP THE ALBUM IN A FEW WORDS?
Good fuckin music! Heartfelt, fast, melodic, catchy.
WHAT RECORD CHANGED YOUR LIFE AND WHY?
Refused The Shape of Punk to come. To hardcore for the punk kids. Too punk for the hardcore kids. Incredibly seminal. Gamechanger. The best record ever made. Full stop.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE MUSIC VIDEO FILMED BY YOUR BAND OR ANOTHER
ARTIST?
Can I mix these two? I actually shot a video for UK skatepunk heroes FAIR DO’S earlier this year which was great fun and it came out fantastic!
WHAT WOULD WE FIND YOU DOING WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
Well my job is a TV cameraman for a news channel so I'm always traveling for work. I'm a keen snowboarder and have been for a long time…I took that up when my knees could no longer handle skateboarding! I'm always listening to music in one capacity or another.
DO YOU GET NERVOUS PERFORMING LIVE, IF SO HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THAT?
Back in my early days of gigging absolutely. But recently not really. On the odd occasion, you just channel that nervous energy into the performance itself….after the first few chords it usually disappears.
HOW DID YOU FORM THE BAND?
The band is me (as noted in the first answer) and it has its own organic growth…. I've had a few years of asking people to provide vocals and now I'm actually getting people asking about how they can get involved which is nice…..I must be doing something right!
HOW DO YOU WRITE? - DO YOU HAVE A KEY SONGWRITER, OR DO YOU ALL WORK
TOGETHER?
I write all the music in my home studio and then ill send 2/3 songs to someone and get them to pick one. They then write and record the lyrics send them back to me. Then myself and producer Danny Cummings from FAIR DO’s will go into his studio and record the guitar tracks from my original demo versions. He’ll mix it and then we send it to Jesse Cannon in New York to master it….that’s the process. I have a hard drive full of songs….sometimes the vocalist will want a change in chord structure in a part and that can easily be done in a digital home recording environment if you have the know-how but it's a true collaboration with everyone.
WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
My peers in the scene. The skatepunk scene around the world is filled with so many amazing people and in every country, I’ve played everyone has been amazing, opened their homes to us and that’s inspiring. Don’t be a prick to people and life can be peachy.
WHAT IS NEXT?
Two more eps before xmas and then we continue into next year…….i'll keep going as long as people keep listening
PLEASE TELL US ANY SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS SO WE CAN SHARE.
https://www.facebook.com/hikethepeak
https://www.instagram.com/hikethepeakuk
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4uO1QVtCTDlaTZJ9zq1dXL?si=6c1roYccSySBds_OVur2Ag
https://hikethepeak.bandcamp.com/
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