Hurst Purple & Green Interview

Hurst Drop New Self-Produced Grunge Anthem, Purple & Green and Announce Release Date For 2nd EP, Sad Face

Hurst are a head-banging, mosh-inducing, alt rock band hailing from the deep suburbs of Western Sydney. They've been doing their thing since 2014 and have a good time doing it!

During February of 2018, their nostalgic summer anthem, Rattle Kids, dominated local airwaves, charting #1 on the AMRAP Regional charts, as well as capturing the attention of Triple J, Triple J Unearthed, Triple M and various music blogs around the world.

Now the kids are back with a new self-produced and self-recorded grunge anthem, Purple & Green. In fact, the recording took place in the bedroom of Nick, the drummer's house!

Lyrically, the gritty alt rock track welcomes you inside the head of lead singer and rhythm guitarist, Ana Veira: "I admit that I'm very much among the first out there to hide my problems and struggles with mental health. And there's this war between my heart and head over how I should live my life. The older I get, the more I understand that saving face is unsustainable. Fact is, I'm vulnerable, I'm an unfinished work and just because things don't line up or make sense, doesn't mean they never will. I hope this song can mean something to you as it does to me. I hope it can help you project whatever deep emotions and thoughts are percolating in you. I hope it can open doors to be more of who you really are."

Purple & Green is the 3rd single to be released from the band's forthcoming 2nd EP, Sad Face (scheduled for release July 6th 2018).

Purple & Green Tour Dates
JUNE 30 - Botany View Hotel, Newtown NSW
JULY 13 - Captain Cook Hotel, Paddington NSW
JULY 28 - Lust 4 Live, Dubbo NSW
SEPTEMBER 4 - Lennox Groove, Lennox Head NSW
NOVEMBER 17 - The Vic Hotel, Orange NSW

Website – Triple j Unearthed - Soundcloud - Instagram – Facebook

Listen here 

Interview with Ana Veira

Question: How would you describe your music?

Ana Veira: I would describe it as alternative rock inspired by pop melody, and the 90s grunge era. It's angsty, cathartic, and fun all at once.


Question: Where did the inspiration for Purple and Green come from?

Ana Veira: I live in constant tension between how I feel and how I think. Honestly, I feel like I'm going crazy, and at the same time I feel like I'm just being melodramatic.

Purple and Green are some of the colours you get when you bruise. This track is an admission that, 'Hey, these days don't make sense, the way I feel doesn't make sense, I am vulnerable and small… but I've got hope that I can make it through."


Question: The cover for Purple and Green is intriguing; where did this idea come from?

Ana Veira: That's our guitarist Jake, I was really into geometric design so I got my designer pal Brooke Allender to draw them up. We started doing individual covers back in 2014 with one of our earlier singles 'Tom", and every following single had one of our faces. It feels good being able to complete the set with 'Purple & Green".


Question: Where did you record the single?

Ana Veira: We tracked the drums in a large 1,000 seater church in Morisset on NSW's Central Coast. The rest we did in our drummer Nick's house in his and his mum's bedroom.

Question: Can you tell us about why you chose the bedroom of your drummer's house?

Ana Veira: Being independent artists, we learned fast how easy money can burn paying for studio time. Thankfully, I'm in a band with a bunch of boys with can-do attitudes who are up to the challenge of seeing what kind of music we could create doing it all on our own. Nick, in particular, took it on himself to learn how to record, mix and engineer and without him, we'd still be saving up to record.


Question: Which is your favourite song to perform live and why?

Ana Veira: One of the tracks on our upcoming EP called Colourful Misfits is my favourite. We start our set with it and it's this loud burst of energy that just cuts through and grabs your attention. The song is about knowing that we're all different, but celebrating our differences. I mean, if we were all the same, life would suck.


Question: Do you prefer performing live or recording?

Ana Veira: This is tough, I've recently fallen in love with recording now that we're doing it all ourselves, it's cool thinking more critically and intentionally about how we can get the sound we want. I've learned a lot.

Our music isn't complicated, I love it when we can create an environment that people want to jump into and get in on, we make it to have fun, so when people have fun with us, we love it.


Question: What is the story behind the name, Hurst?

Ana Veira: The origin of our band name is still debated to this day, but this is what I believe happened… When we started the band, we tried to brainstorm band names. We were going back and forth for ages until Ben (our bassist) sent through a text saying 'Hey, what do you think of -Hurst?'", to me, it clicked straight away, we all met and spent a lot of our time hanging out in Darlinghurst in Sydney, so it paid homage to where it all began. A few moments later, I receive another message, 'Oh sorry, my dyslexia… I actually meant -Hurts'." We stuck with Hurst.

Question: How did the band come together?

Ana Veira: We all met each other while studying music in Sydney in 2011, but didn't start writing until 2013. We made our way through a lot of genres before really liking what we were creating.


Question: What motivates you most when writing music?

Ana Veira: I do a lot of journaling and writing exercises to declutter my mind and create weird phrases that don't make sense. I think up stories that I've been through or others have been through to make it all fit and make sense. For some reason, I get inspired when I'm driving, so I need to have my phone handy to record phrases, melodies and ideas. I'm always writing in my head.


Question: Which music/artists are you currently listening to?

Ana Veira: Oddly enough, I haven't been listening to a lot of music that's similar to ours. I've been listening to bands like CHVRCHES, Paramore, Pvris, Chance The Rapper, and Lorde. I like listening to pop to influence my melodies.


Question: What or who was your inspiration to go into the music industry?

Ana Veira: We gotta go way back to 1999 to the days when Britney Spears was the Princess of Pop. Then, when I was about 9, my older brother introduced me to Chris Cornell and Robert Plant and my mind imploded. I couldn't believe the sounds the voice could create, and there was something in me that wanted to unleash that kind of energy too.


Question: If you could collaborate with another artist, who would it be?

Ana Veira: One of my bucket list things would be to collaborate on a hip hop track. I love artists the have depth to their music lyrically and sonically, so somebody like Chance The Rapper or Kendrick Lamar would be an absolute dream.


Interview by Brooke Hunter