FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

Listen to Vowel-Phobic HDSPNS' Debut Album

The Auckland quartet deliver an album of jittery post-punk.

For a group that describe their sound as “jamming with a bit of refinement”, Auckland post-punk four piece HDSPNS are remarkably in tune with each other. This is proven on their new record /ˈen(d) ɡām/, their first foray into album territory, after the release of two EPs.

The album was thrown together over a few days in the studio, but sat for six months while the band spent time getting their ducks in a row. Ducks are now rowed and HDSPNS are about to embark on a seven-date New Zealand tour.

Advertisement

We caught up with front man Ben Leonard to find out more about the record, which you can stream below.

Noisey: What’s with all the symbols in the album title?
Ben Leonard: A friend got me into the idea of language fluidity. It’s nice to break away from the idea of language being this super formalised thing that you just use, to being something that anyone can create, with infinite building blocks.

Having quite a jam based format, how have you found the process of making a full length?
Writing the music is always pretty easy for us. We’ve known each other for ages now, so just putting the four of us in a room will usually lead to a few ideas that could become songs. The time consuming bit is then refining those ideas into songs without losing whatever it was that made them fun or interesting in the first place. It’s like chasing something you know you like but you have no idea what it is.

So the album reflects a year in the life of four friends?
We’ve all been friends for years now and at the time we got together as a band we were all pretty lost and just kind of partying and not giving a fuck. That’s really changed, especially over the past year, to a point where it feels like each of us is exactly where they ought to be. That’s a process that happens really slowly and subtly and I feel like a lot of that change began with us coming together as a band, and as friends. So we never planned it this way, but to me /’END,GĀM/ documents that process of how all of us coming together has given everyone what they needed to go out and do whatever they want to do.

Catch HDSPNS at one of these shows:
June 12 – Auckland at Golden Dawn
June 26 – Palmerston North at Great Job
June 27 – Wellington at Moon 1
July 3 – Christchurch at Darkroom
July 4 – Port Chalmers at Chicks Hotel
July 18 – Hamilton at the Meteor
July 24 – Wellington at Eyegum Collective

Like this story? Like NOISEY on Facebook.