Today, Manchester duo The Hyena Kill unleash their new EP – ‘SPUN’. Taking on a more aggressive and full-throttled sound, its six songs certainly can’t be ignored. With the combination of Steven Dobb’s ferocious riffs and versatile vocals and Lorna Blundell’s dynamic drum work, The Hyena Kill have produced a stellar, emotive EP.
Since meeting at a house party in 2012, Steven and Lorna have gradually been fine-tuning their brand of noise rock, taking in a variety of influences along the way. To find out more about their influences, as asked the duo to pick out five of their most influential records.
Funeral For A Friend- Hours
Lorna Blundell (drums): I am hugely influenced by what the drums do on this album. Ryan Richards playing is incredibly complimentary to the tracks whilst being completely original and fresh. I didn’t quite realize the impact this had on my playing until I revisited the album recently, and picked up on some stuff that had really inspired my style of drumming. This album was a favourite of mine as a teenager.
Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
Lorna Blundell (drums): Whilst this album isn’t anything like what we do, it was so refreshing when I first heard Matt Helders play the drums on this. I believe he is a self-taught drummer, and this reflects his attitude on the kit. Its like nobody has told him what not to play. I was definitely influenced by this approach as a drummer. I try and take that on board when writing, that there are no rules.
Fiona Apple – Tidal
Steven Dobb (guitar & vocals): This album has always been a huge inspiration to me, more so for the lyrical content. Still to this day I’ve never heard anyone else express so much pain and anguish in such a delicate, articulate way. Its always fascinated me how some of the albums most fragile moments can be so empowering. Whenever I’m looking for inspiration to write this is my go-to album.
Deftones – Around The Fur
Steven: A friend gave me this album on cassette when I was a teenager and it blew my mind. The sheer power of the music was like nothing I’d ever heard before. it totally redefined how I approached guitar playing. The way chino sings and screams on this record comes from such a real place, it’s like he’s literally wrenching out his heart.
Nirvana – From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah
Although it’s a live album it’s the one out of my Nirvana collection I played the most. It really shows them as the raw punk, no bullshit band they really were and every track slays. It was a good education at an early age that everything doesn’t have to be note-perfect as long as it’s delivered with passion and integrity, I’ve carried that with me since and I think it really reflects in our sound as a band. I used to practice screaming to this album, Id wait till my dad was out, crank it and scream at the top of my lungs. Fuck knows what the neighbours thought.
‘Spun’ EP by The Hyena Kill is out now on APF Records.
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