“My mum booked the studio for me, it’s turned out to be a good career step!” Harry Young on his debut recording session.

Harry Young has seemed to have left his mark with the guys at Sugar Rays recording studio after his 6 track recording session at the Essex studio. The vocalist from Bournemouth has just recently formed his own band, Harry Young & His Boys, and he is hoping for a successful career after this gift from his mother. The Young-ster had the studio session booked as a birthday present from his mum and he honestly believes that this is a fantastic stepping stone for himself and any other new musician that wants to perform on this vintage music scene.

“I’m from Bournemouth and I have just formed my own band and they are pretty good musicians. I have been brought up with this scene from my mum and I also have a very keen interest in country music too, it’s all just great music! I do listen to other types of music too but not rap or dubstep, that is not music in my opinion” said Young, 18.

I had the pleasure of listening to one of the six tracks, ‘Shine, Shave and Shower’, which he cut at Sugar Rays studio in Wickford, Essex. I have had the opportunity of recording a few tracks there too and it really is like stepping back in time to cutting a record at Sun Studios, the authentic sound the guys at the studio create is brilliant and for a vintage sounding album it is the only place to go.
“We haven’t gigged as a band yet but we headed to Sugar Rays to cut 6 tracks. I’ve been solo gigging for around 2 years, so I am hoping this recording session, can help the band and myself get some gigs booked up. We headed to the studio as my Mum booked the session for my 18th birthday present and it has turned out to be a great career step. It was a great experience in the studio but I was really nervous to start with and a great place to start a music career” beamed Harry.

I asked the young singer how he would describe his vocals to the rockabilly world and who was his main musical influence. You can listen to the band on ReverbNation and search for ‘Harry & His Boys’ and the tracks he recorded at Sugar Rays were ‘Get Rhythm’ ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ ‘Cocaine Blues’ ‘Shine, Shave & Shower’ and ‘Red Headed Woman’, just from that track list you can pretty much tell who Harry’s influence is!

“I don’t think I compare with anybody and there is not anyone out there that I would say is similar to me. I think I have a great scale and good power to my vocals for such a young voice. My biggest musical influence is Johnny Cash without a doubt. I really enjoyed this experience but I want to get back in the studio and do a CD with more modern covers on it” confirmed the vocalist.

“We hope people like it and that our fans can see where we are coming from” Rob Glazebrook on new Houserockers CD

The Houserockers are one of the hottest bands on the European rockabilly/rock ‘n’ roll circuit and their guitarist and vocalist, Rob Glazebrook, sat down to tell Mayhem the lowdown on the band and their recent recording session.  The band had huge success on Rhythm Bomb records in Germany after their previous CD ‘Shake Around’ proved to be the labels highest selling CD in 2013 and that is something that Rob is pleased about.

“Things are really good with the band at the moment as we have new gigs coming in and established ones re-booking. Completion of a new CD, in quick time, and there has also offer of a deal from Rhythm Bomb Records in Germany to release another CD after the success of ‘Shake Around’ which was their highest seller in 2013” said the guitarist.

Here at Mayhem (previously Essex Rockabilly) we have had the pleasure of covering Rob several times either with The Houserockers or his blues band ‘The Broadkasters’ who have recently started to earn rave reviews from their album ’21 Days in Jail’. The band boast great musical knowledge of this genre and they have recently been in the studio recording their second release.Rob tells us what material/feel he is hoping to achieve with this record.

“I always start playing the songs live a little bit before we choose to record, so that we are familiar with them. This does speed up the recording time and also gives you a nice flow and vibe whilst you are recording. It makes it easier for the sound engineer too, so everybody is happy. The material is a mixture of cool tunes, some known, some unknown. We are trying to cover a few styles as well as adding some of our own songs that I have recently written”.

When listening to any of Rob’s bands, especially The Houserockers, there is something vintage about them. That’s not just their looks, as they wear vintage attire on stage, but the way they play the music and the sound they produce when performing is something very unique. It is authentic to say the very least.

“Sound can be so different on an individual basis. The idea of authenticity as you put it, is to keep the sound simple, not too much equipment. However, you have to use enough equipment to keep different sized venues happy but also it is about the players and how they play because that is why every band is different. Another factor in our favour is both Nick (Hoadley) and I have a cool record collection put together over many years, so we understand the different sounds you can get, but not forgetting it is our take on all this material”.

After their recent performance in Rob’s home town, Southend, the talented guitarist believes the new CD can be just as successful as their first release. After their gig I managed to grab a word with all three members of the band before they mixed the tracks the next day and they were all very pleased and hopeful that it would be a great album.

“Regarding the new CD, we hope people like it and that our fans, and friends understand where we are coming from. The mixture of material we hope will prove to be a hit and we hope everyone likes the sounds that we’ve gone for which is slightly different than the last CD. It is always important to move on , but also to evolve and keep up with the demand” stated Rob.

“The Next 12 months look good for us, we hope the new CD helps get new people to like what we do, we always try to sound like we do live on our recordings, so everything is recorded live with no overdubs, it is what it is, which to many in my experience, is refreshing. We will be trying to get more gigs and maybe we might even be booked for a few more UK based weekenders . For some reason we never seem to be contacted… maybe its due to being ‘low profile’ and not having an ego to massage!” ended Rob.