Interview: Hudson Taylor

Harry and Alfie Hudson Taylor became YouTube sensations with their raw vocals and folky sound and are set for big things.

It’s been 9 months since The Tab caught up with you last, how’s the year been?

Since we last met the Tab we’ve recorded in the States, played Glastonbury and now we’re supporting Kodaline, it’s been absolutely mad.

Then:

Now:

What did it feel like to be thrown onto the Hyde Park main stage when Tom Odell couldn’t make it?

It was crazy. We finished our gig to 300 people, had some beers, put on our shorts, about to enjoy the Stones. Our manager got a call saying we were on main stage in 20 minutes. It was our drummer’s first gig. They wouldn’t even let us on since we didn’t have the correct passes. We finally got on and played to 50,000 people.

Doing what they do best

You filmed your first video on a Nokia camera phone 5 years ago, did you ever imagine you’d play Glastonbury?

No never. We went on holiday to Germany 5 years ago and took the guitar with us. Some people out there asked us to put stuff on YouTube so they’d never forget us, so we did and that was where it started. (See their first video of “I’m a believer” below, Hudson Taylor now has several million YouTube views)

What’s it like having people now cover your stuff?

That’s so class. They hear it differently, change it around, put their own spin on it. It’s really good to see.

How do you like Oxford?

Yeh it’s great, our mum actually studied geography at Oxford (They couldn’t remember which college)

What advice would you give for other budding musicians?

Youtube isn’t the only way, it’s great, but busking prepares you for live gigs. Advice generally- Only do it if you love it since you’ll play terrible gigs, get paid no money and sleep on a hell of a lot of couches. Not for the faint hearted.

Alfie your hair is always amazing. How long does it take?

It now takes like 2 minutes but yeh I used to have massive rolls but that was way too much time and effort so I stopped that.

We’d tab that

You both have quite distinctive styles, do you have any style icons?

A: Gosh, I like a lot of older stuff, like a lot of the lads from the 60’s and 70’s.

H: Um… no I just like comfortable clothes.

Do you have any hidden talents or party tricks you’d like to share?

A: I used to be a champion Irish dancer and Harry is grade 8 on the church organ.

Harry then ponders at something he could do as a dinner party trick, he attempts to do some rhythmic thing (apparently this is called “boom, slap, clap”) but it does not go to plan! He does however succeed in making a very loud peculiar clucking sound…

You’ve developed a large female fanbase, what’s the weirdest thing a fan’s ever done? (We don’t mention that we’ve become Tab writers to do this interview)

We got flashed in Germany. There was also a guy busking in Dublin who played our songs and pretended they were his, he said it got him all the girls.

Two of their many female fans

Finally when we can get our hands on the fully fledged album?

Middle of next year. It’s all written and we’re starting to record. We can’t wait.

We can’t wait either!