Hot Little Hands (Tim Harvey, James Harvey, Royce Akers, Raph Hammond and Brigitte Hart) is one of those bands with a name you’re surprised hasn’t already been used, because surely everyone knows that it’s just the perfect name for a band, right? And then you might get angry that someone else thought of it first or even Google it to see if these guys took inspiration from some old group. Because shit, it’s a really good name for a band.
Luckily, Hot Little Hands aren’t the type to have a cool name and a lacklustre product (i.e. every high school band I was ever in). Despite their three-word summary (“Raw like sushi”), the folks at Hot Little Hands have a wonderfully constructed sound, very self-assured and hard to pin to any one musical setting.
“Hot Little Hands started out playing parties – as a celebration of popular music and culture.” Tim and Royce told us. “Where is there a better test than the dance floor? If the people don’t like the music, they don’t hit the floor. This is where HLH sharpened their hooks.”
So they may have hooks and a misleading name (though Hot Little Hooks wouldn’t be as sexy, I guess) but that doesn’t stop them from knowing the dynamic of their audience and pursuing it to a wonderful satisfaction. How, then, did these like-minded individuals gravitate together?
“Tim and James are brothers, James and Raph are best friends since kindergarten, Tim and Royce met through girlfriends and everyone’s friends with Brig.”
Lordy, do I hate incidental meetings of talent. Where do these people come from? How do they all know each other? Am I in too many tone-deaf circles? And another inter-related band. Maybe same-blood band members are the answer: just look at Van Halen and, who else, Sonny and Cher? It’s a good recipe.
Fun seems to be paramount for Hot Little Hands, right down to the construction of the music:
“Tim is the main song writer, but we all workshop all our parts into one massively fun party.”
And it shows. There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount tying their songs together other than goddamn it makes you want to dance. You don’t even care how. Let it kill you, just do it. What, though, has this culminated in, other than allowing the band a strong shot at twenty-five large?
“A young lady in a gorilla suit once jumped up on stage and dived into the crowd. I think she was after our bananas.”
You may think that’s a silly assumption, but how much time can you have to research apes when you’ve been playing Laneway, supporting Who Made Who, making all the people of Christendom dance, all the while chasing that ultimate goal of “Getting big in Japan, playing Japanese versions of our songs. In Japanese.”
And of course, the final, selfless act of good will, and the real reason for competing:
“If we win, you win. And if you win, we win. And if we all win, well, that’s world peace right?”
Well that gets me right [points to chest] here.
Visit the Hot Little Hands over at http://myspace.com/hotlittlehands
Be sure to catch them in the final of uncharTED on Thursday 9th July @ Oxford Art Factory.
