Roo Pescod (The Hippaes)
1. What are your top five albums that were released in 2017? (In order 1-5)
- White Reaper – World's Best American Band
- Hard Girls – Floating Now
- Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger in the Alps
- Cloud Nothings – Life Without Sound
- Thee Oh Seas – Orc
2. What band did you discover in 2017 (can be a brand new band or an older band) that had an impact on your life? What made them significant?
I was having breakfast with some friends in Bristol and Margaret Glaspy's album came on and I loved it instantly. Such great subdued, simple production, and the way she winds her guitar around her vocals is incredible. Her voice and guitar have great timbres to them, and without changing the sound at all she really uses the dynamics to push both into natural distortion. Brilliant musically, insanely listenable, and I love anyone who makes me rethink how I play guitar. Emotions and Math would have been in my top 5 if I hadn't been a year late to the party.
3. How will you remember 2017? (In terms of music)
This year I wrote a musical and toured it at the end of the summer, so that's going to stick in my mind. But I haven't done very much standard touring this year and feel a bit out of touch with the UK scene (tellingly my top 5 are all US-based). I've been to a lot less gigs than usual, but unusually I've been really digging the live music that I have seen. Maybe I'll remember 2017 as the year I started enjoying live music again after overdosing in my 20s.
4. What can we look forward to from you in 2018?
The Hippaes are going to play some UK shows in February and release some music when we feel like it.
5. What records are you looking forward to most in 2018?
I saw El Morgan and the Divers play at Deadpunk Fest in May and they were really amazing. I know El's been working on this album for ages in her and Tim's studio and I think it's going to be killer.
6. For most, 2017 will be remembered as a year of political and social conflict. How does that cultural atmosphere influence your own music or artistic life?
It's really highlighted to me that my thoughts and beliefs are not the soft middle ground that I assumed they were. Before this year I was anxiously waiting for the world to swing back to sanity after years of destructively right wing Tory rule in the UK, and then all of a sudden we swung the other way which caught me completely off balance. I spent a lot of the year feeling really miserable and useless, and it's only time passing that has made the everyday horrors seem "normal" again. Creatively it's made me more insular and less willing to engage with the outside world. I've been trying to block out all the noise and do exactly what I want which has led to me spending a lot of time inside jamming with myself, and less time walking the streets at night. Pretty cowardly and unhelpful. Saying that I recorded some songs in a kitchen with a couple of friends this weekend and it was a huge relief to be playing music again instead of just constructing it on my own.
