Fresh from the release of their explosive debut album, Self Architect, London based quartet, H.Grimace, are set for greatness. With a sound that echoes a chilled out Warpaint, the band’s sleek guitar and percussion backdrop topped with lead singer, Hannah’s, beautifully hazy vocals creates a hypnotic soundscape that you’ll want to listen to again and again.

The follow up to 2015’s “I Am Material” tape, the album shows the band going from strength to strength and is an exciting glimpse of what they’ve got in store for the future. We sat down with Hannah to find out more.

How did you all meet?

Well Marcus and I met through his ex girlfriend, Yvette Paxinos, a great music video and film maker. She was really into the idea of us working together and so I just listened to her! Diago, I met making this record. He was a friend of Rory Attwell’s and Diago got in touch when he found out we were looking for a drummer, we hadn’t advertised he just figured it out and he knew how to play everything perfectly so we were like, yep this guy gets the job!

Do you have similar musical inspirations?

Yeah I guess so, we all like quite angular and bright guitar bands like Women, Television, Smiths, Felt but also a more noise underbelly, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Wire, Royal Trux, The Fall.

What do each of you bring to the creative process?

That’s the beauty of writing – everyone brings something, be it good attitude, enthusiasm, patience or ideas. For this record I would write a lot of short motifs or ideas and we would work them into a passages that flowed or changed direction completely. Marcus is really good at composition and making parts connect. Asher and Shan who were the rhythm section on the album were really creative and dynamic interplaying with the guitar parts.

Where does the name “H.Grimace” come from

That was a nickname my mate’s dad gave me for being a contentious little shit. It just stuck around too long.

You’ve just dropped your debut album, Self Architect. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Well it’s the product of several years work with some fantastic friends. We really just crafted something out of what we all brought to the practices, honed it in and drove it home. Vocally for me, it was a chance to play out a few truths. What it’s like working really repetitive jobs, our relationship with the landscape, feeling the need to make better and better versions of ourselves, social media, power struggles, just life how it feels at the moment. The front cover was a construction of a face within a face on and on. I liked this metaphor for building the self there’s a hole or void there, also building the world in our own image there’s so much missing.

What were the inspirations behind the album?

We have several, it is a cross section for sure. I know we were into several Canadian bands at that time, Eomen, Viet Cong, Faux Fur, but also British punk bands like Swell Maps, and even bands like Beak with its repetitive motoric rhythms and spooky vibe.

If you had to pick a favourite song from the album, what would it be?

Mines “2.1 Woman”, probably because Viviaenne Griffin’s on there and her poem is bloody brilliant. I also like the build up on it and the mood that carries along with it, it feels natural but also compelling but I’m sure that has a lot to do with the words. But I like the music too and how they work together.

You’re playing Green Man Festival this year. What is your favourite thing about performing live?

I think it might be trying to transmit some of the thoughts or feelings you have and play them to people afresh. This doesn’t get boring to me no matter how many times the songs are played, I still feel like it’s a door of communication that’s wider than the song. Other things are expressed, the band, their moods, feelings, the audience, as a whole we play the songs but it’s still always a new context. I’d like to explore this more but so far we do it through a set structure.

What’s been your wildest festival moment?

We played Treefort Festival in Idaho and man that is the coolest place. The bands are rad and it had a really supportive green vibe about it, eco friendly badass punks. I remember our last night and the guy we were touring with had a large stash of mushrooms that he just gave the last load away. I was wearing my free cowboy boots I found and a pony poncho and just cruised the festival like an idiot! Our motel was a stone throw away and I was with my best mates it was awesome!

What else do you have lined up for 2017?

We’ve got the following tour dates coming up…

9 May – Shacklewell Arms, London UK
19th July – Zanne Festival, Sicily IT
17th August – Green Man Festival UK
31st August – Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, London UK

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