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“We came back to it for a very simple reason: we started enjoying writing songs again.” Sam Swallow’s description of how The Hoosiers re-formed, and in doing so reconnected with what had made them start a band in the first place, is matter-of-fact, but the expression on the keyboardist’s face as he says this is passionate. Sitting beside him and nodding in agreement, Irwin Sparkes, Martin Skarendahl and Alan Sharland convey a similar sense of having emerged, blinking, into the light, having endured some pretty dark times. The 12 tracks that make up The Hoosiers’ comeback album, The News From Nowhere, offer further evidence of renewal: produced by the band, and recorded in the East London warehouse where Martin has amassed a collection of vintage recording equipment and instruments, The News From Nowhere is an astonishing return to form. “Doing it on our own terms,” says Irwin, “and actually having a proper say in it, felt wonderful. We have nothing to lose, but a lot to prove.” “It’s the first time we’ve worked without a producer,” adds Sam, “and that has it pluses and its minuses. We ended up asking someone to come in and help with the last stages, just to have an objective pair of ears and get a different opinion on one or two things we couldn’t resolve.” Such as? All four Hoosiers exchange glances. “We’re a democracy,” says Irwin, “and that can have its drawbacks.” “Especially when there are four of you,” ventures Al, “because that two-against-two thing can occur.” Sam: “But then Irwin instituted the sitting-on-the-fence idea, too, which complicated things even further.” “And I’m really good at it now,” laughs Irwin. “I can lie down on the fence.”
As the above exchange demonstrates, The Hoosiers are in a good place right now, and no wonder, so vibrant and brimming with ideas does The News From Nowhere sound. Engaging directly with fans via Facebook in a continual dialogue has enriched and revitalised them, they say, not to mention vindicated their decision to self-release the album, and miss out the middlemen. Yet there were times, as each member of the band will readily admit, where things were altogether less open and easy. The multi-platinum success of their 2007 debut album, The Trick to Life, and singles such as ‘Worried About Ray’ and ‘Goodbye Mr. A’, raised huge expectations for its follow-up, not least at The Hoosiers’ record label. The prophetically titled The Illusion of Safety was, all four agree, a troubled project from the start. “I look back now and think that we were in this very specific and very narrow place,” says Martin, “as a band on a major label. Music ends up different in that world; artists are swept along by its rules and standards. When we were making The Illusion of Safety, this producer went, ‘This is how the bass drum should sound, because that’s what Lady Gaga does, and Lady Gaga is all over radio right now’. So it isn’t surprising that a lot of music ends up being affected by that environment, by that way of thinking. It should have been just about what the four of us were doing, but it wasn’t. And that was the biggest difference on the new album.” “It’s in the language, though,” argues Irwin. “The word ‘hit’ is substituted for ‘good’. There’s an art to writing under those conditions, but it wasn’t one that worked for us. It exacts a toll on too many writers. You give up too much if you do that.”
