Manchester Orchestra

As Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull politely introduces himself to me with a firm handshake, back stage of London’s popular gay club 'Heaven’ and more recently also a live venue, he sits comfortably in his sweaty post rehearsal t-shirt and lights up a cigarette, sighing heavily a few times. He wasn’t meant to do be doing interview he told me, as he’s preserving his voice after weeks of being on the road, but luckily he changed his mind.

Tonight’s show comes at the end of a full UK tour with popular Brit rockers Biffy Clyro, and is the final date of their UK visit this year. Hull looks older than his 23 years, perhaps brought on by his thick full beard or maybe, as he later reveals, he has become weary from touring, which leaves him feeling tired and homesick.

Manchester Orchestra have recently risen to popularity among the more attentive Indie fans, though the really committed will argue they’ve been following them from the start, and saw them in Camden’s barfly performing tracks from their first album before they played to venues five times the size alongside Biffy. Their songs are full of integrity, mature angst and show the rough yet catchy edge of southern American rock.

From the Deep South in Atlanta, Georgia, Hull talks about how 'at the end of the day I think if you’re doing something that’s successful, your parents will be proud of you.' Coming from a family of pastors, where both his father and grandfather shared this trade, Hull says he always knew he was going to do something involving standing up and talking to people, and that he 'started writing songs as a teenager and that’s what I’ve been doing since. The more positive encouragement you get from the outside the more you get from your family.' He talks about being praised for what he could do from an early stage, but shares his worry that this praise does not mean he’ll ever be a good man in life, 'we have to stay grounded and keep our heads down.'

Hull talks openly to me about a range of topics, even stopping to tell me about the integrity of any profession, be it his band or my interviewing skills. He says 'I mean I can tell if you’re really passionate about it or if you’ve only done your homework and then you’ll go away and just write up a piece in a standard format,hopefully you are passionate and you’ve actually listened to us, have you?' I start singing their most recent single (which I admit I listened to prior to coming to meet him) at which he quickly tells me to stop. Hey it may not be a great rendition but at least I do know (some of) the words.

I ask Hull about missing his loved ones back home and when I allow him three words to describe this most recent tour in the UK he states 'cold, wet and sad' not being able to come up with many positives. Being thrust into a life of touring away from his loved ones has hit him hard, as he is only recently married. His first record 'I’m Like a Virgin, Losing a Child’ was written when he was only 18. Hull describes the new album 'I’ve got Friends’ to be about the transformation of 'getting married everything that an adult can do and then freaking out about it, for the first part, while the second half focus more on 'being alright with where I’m at and being really grateful for what I’ve been given the opportunity to do.'

When I ask Hull about his creative inspirations, he tells me that he writes when he wants to. He says he’s either 'incredibly happy or incredibly sad. I work really well when happy or sad and I’m a happy person most of the time.' This last statement does not seem parallel with how he feels on tour. 'Support bands have it tougher', he says, as you only reach a fraction of the satisfaction gained from a full set and 'you’re still trying to win people over.' Likening themselves to friends and fellow American Rockers, Kings of Leon, Hull looks down at his fingers, talking about how big they are, how much success they have achieved, that 'their lives are probably a lot easier now than they were,' I don’t know if he’s referring to the drugs, alcohol, woman or money. Either way, Hull sadly says he wants to take his band to the next level but at the same time, the Kings 'never have the comfortable part of being home as they’ve always been working on the road and touring.'

I ask him for the positives from this tour, and he can only come up with one and a half, sadly stating 'Work, rock and roll' to which he laughs and says 'It’s really, really hard when you’re so disconnected, we don’t have the money to call home every day. We know that we’re putting in the work to see the benefit of at some point later, it’s just not necessarily right now, and that’s okay. That’s the hard thing, looking at bands more successful than us you realise you’ve got so much more work to do'

Hull seems to be a man of creative contradictions, you need only look at his quirky bear-like appearance to see he is far from all that is mainstream. This meeting goes to show, that although passionate about all he does, rocking hard for the eager fans who sing along to his catchy and well written tunes has exhausted him. Opening for one of Britain’s biggest rock bands isn’t enough, he is hungry for more and I think we’ll be seeing Manchester Orchestra at bigger venues next year.