Following the release of their latest album ‘Hollow Heart’, London five-piece The Hanging Stars are undertaking a UK tour.
Recorded at Edwyn Collins’ Clashnarrow Studios in North-Eastern Scotland, The Hanging Stars released their first single from the album, “Radio On” earlier this year.
Hanging Stars guitarist and singer Richard Olson explains, “I wrote a lot of songs over these last strange years but ‘Radio On’ just kind of turned up at the door one day. We exchanged pleasantries, had a cup of tea and then it simply sat down and made itself at home. One of those songs that just writes itself.”
He continues, “Maybe it’s folly, but I do believe in that universal harmony, the music of the spheres or whatever. Because sometimes they just knock on the door and walk right in. Sing a simple song of yearning and despair – with one foot in the tinfoil covered walls of The Factory, the other on the sticky floor of London’s prime Country & Roots venue the Betsey Trotwood and a pair of hands on the controls of Edwyn Collins’ studio Clashnarrow, it seems to me that contrasts can equal harmony after all. And there is nothing the world needs more than that right now.”
With producer Sean Read, Richard along with bassist Sam Ferman, drummer Paulie Cobra, Patrick Ralla on guitars and keyboards, and the in-demand pedal steel player Joe Harvey-Whyte – embarked on a two-day drive to reach Helmsdale, and the unique studio sitting on a cliff overlooking the North Sea, on the same latitude as Gothenburg, and with the smell of Scandinavia on the air.
Now, with ten new tracks making up Hollow Heart, the band are on the road and South Wales fans can see and hear them at Newport’s Le Pub on May 13.