Formed only in August of 2012, Auckland psych/rock trio Husk have already toured extensively around the North Island and released two singles, My Love and Sick Seagull Blues. Featuring Ukiah Brown on vocals and guitar, Robert Bruce on bass and Matt Hutson on drums, Husk describe their sound as “… heavy, grooving, hectic and satisfyingly fluid”.
Brown and Bruce met at university and the pair started playing a few one-off shows under different aliases before meeting Hutson at a party and inviting him for a jam. Their mutual love of 60s and 70s psychedelic rock/folk/blues/jazz meant the resulting band instantly gelled.
“I’m into King Crimson, Free, and more modern psych stuff and old school rock stuff like Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Blue Van, Uncle Acid and Graveyard,” says Brown.
“As far as musicians in general go, no one has influenced me more than Bob Dylan and his ‘Hard Rain’ band,” says drummer Hutson.
The band are planning another North Island tour in April, and settling into the Auckland live music scene.
“There is some great music happening in NZ and a lot of hard-working bands. Auckland seems to be outgrowing a stagnant patch, full of exciting new sounds. We don’t see many bands that are pushing a similar sound to us, which is cool as we are starting to develop a bit of a following.”
Husk are also very much aware of how the internet has revolutionised the music industry for both better and worse.
“From a band’s perspective, it enables you to record, release and distribute your material without having to commit a lot of money to it. On the other hand though, it limits the money you can generate,” Brown observes. “As far as the impact on the music scene in general goes, it seems to have put more of a push towards live performances.”
This is something the Auckland trio have absolutely no problem with, and the band has also taken full advantage of the web to promote and spread their new sound.
“We have been fortunate in that a whole bunch of blogs around the world have picked up and promoted our music,” says Brown. “Under the Radar and bFM have also been awesome. So in that respect we have been lucky so far.”
As well as the upcoming tour, the band plans to get back in the studio with Bob Frisbee to record two more singles in the near future.
