by Michelle Singer
Matt Hitt, front man of band Drowners, is just coming from performing acoustic versions of tracks “Hold Me Down” and “Unzip Your Harrington” from their debut and self-titled album. Embodying a sound of indie pop and post punk, Drowners have already toured with big acts such as Arctic Monkeys, Foals, and The Vaccines.
The album encompasses tales of love, lies, lust, and looking in from an outside perspective. The songs contain a kind of feeling of young angst and while coupled with the melodic and guitar based sound of Britpop provide fun light tunes that get stuck in your head and you can’t help bopping to. It’s like driving through the summer air or the ingenuous bliss of just hanging out with your friends.
The art of pop songs often goes unappreciated. However, the craftsmanship of capturing a story or a feeling in a 3-minute song is not as simple as it is simplistically catchy. Hitt thoroughly enjoys the process of working out the musical elements that make up a great tune. For Hitt, the lyrics and melody come to him at the same time and he writes almost in a stream of consciousness.
“Normally when I come out with a lyric I have the melody in my head already so it kind of all arrives at once. It’s kind of a weird process because when I finish I can’t really remember the time I spent on it. I remember writing one of them on a train and I wrote all of the words down on my phone, had the melody, and then when I got home it was all finished.”
Hitt says he tends to write in batches and writes as the inspiration comes to him. For that he keeps a notebook where he is constantly writing his ideas and lyrics down. For “A Shell Across the Tongue”, the inspiration came from watching a documentary. “I was watching a documentary on aboriginal rites of passage and basically they scrape a person’s tongue which is representative of not lying and your heart for unconditional love.”
Growing up Hitt would watch The Monkees and try to emulate Mike Nesmith. His grandfather also played a big part in his musical discovery at a young age by exposing him to acts such as Buddy Holly. “I got a guitar and just sort of pretended to play it for about three years bouncing around to Elvis songs, as 10 year old boys do, and then actually learned when I was about 13.”
So with the desire to be in a band at an early age Hitt followed that aspiration and years later left his home in Wales to move to New York with the intent of starting a band. “I moved to New York in 2011 and then met all of the band members in these pubs I would drink at.” With songs already written and demoed in his kitchen, Hitt sent them to the other members. Conveniently one of them already had a practice space right next to a bar they frequented and together they continued to develop the songs.
From there, Drowners took off very quickly and played their first real gig with The Vaccines at Webster Hall in front of almost 1,000 people which had to be nerve-wracking to say the least. “Well, we all take a couple of shots to take the edge off because we’re all quite nervous people. A year later we opened for Arctic Monkeys and we were all in the same dressing room and kind of laughing about how out of our depths we were.“
For some bands the instant hype can become immobilizing but Drowners are no short of great songs and have a solid live performance. “I’ve started writing the second album already because I don’t want to just rest on one song off this album. I think it’s important to keep working because, it sounds silly, but if you don’t have the songs it doesn’t matter how cool your haircut is. You’ve got to have some weight to you.”
Drowners have already toured quite a bit and have their album release show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York on January 31st. They played at Ortlieb’s in Philly over the summer and will be playing in DC this February. The band also just announced they’ll be at this year’s Coachella festival. Packing their five band members and tour manager in a van for tour can be quite “cozy” as Hitt puts it, but the band is always excited to get their music out there and can’t wait for people to hear their debut album out January 28th.
