takin' a walkJoin @thebuzz knight as he steps into the vibrant world of Australian Indie music with The Hype.
The power punk duo with infectious melodies and dynamic rhythms has new music out called "Something in the Water" and we explore their creative process and breaking through in the world of Australian music.
For more information, write buzz @buzzknightmedia.com
Taking a Walk, and music's about evolving and kind of making the best version of yourself. And I think for us to take the next step was just getting it. Sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes it's just.
Getting a better night.
Well, I'm buzznight and welcome to this episode of the Taken a Walk Podcast. Now, if you like the show, please share it with your friends wherever they may be.
And we love all musicians ranging from.
Indie artists to all of famers and everybody in between.
Today, I think is a first. It's our first group of.
Guests from Australia, and it's our first guests who are actually zooming in from Australia.
So let's fire up the.
Zoom on Taking a Walk and please enter and sign in guests from Australia.
Hello, thanks for having us.
Thus it's a pleasure to finally talk to you.
Man.
So it's Sean Taye and Mitchell Bulkan. Yes, and they represent the band called the Hype.
That's us where the Hype.
Tell us about the Hype? How did the Hype get started?
First of all, I started with an Instagram message.
I think I saw Sean playing his heart out on Instagram, and you know, I saw potentially in Shawn's drumming, and he saw potential in my hairstyle, and I think we just went from there the hairstyle and then literally because Sean's from Perth and On from Sydney, which you know, for American listeners, that's like a person living in California and a person living in New York. Yeah, within three days, it was on living in my studio on my couch, and then we just created the magic from there. Yeah, And it's been maybe like four or five years since then, and obviously we've gone through a lot.
We've gone through COVID.
And just gone through finding our sounds, I would say.
And the name change as well.
Yeah, we just had a recent name change to the hype. It was originally three and then with this new direction we're going in with, you know, trying to be a little bit more you know, pop friendly, a little bit more bringing real drums and real guitar to the kind of the pop world. I think that's why we kind of required the name change.
And what was the original name, I'm sorry, three, I reckon.
We're the first kind of like support band because we supported Red Jumpsuit Apparatusts across America last year and that was a big one for us. But we changed the name literally halfway through that tour, I'm pretty sure to the hope, because we had a couple of songs ready to come out.
Why did you change the name? What was involved? The reason?
I just think it was kind of during that tour we kind of realized that being in a band called three when there's only two members, kinds of it gets a bit tricky to explain to people.
We had multiple people come up, well, who's the third member.
It was just like, oh, yeah, the audience. Yeah, the audience, but just never never really stuck.
And you know, like a music's about evolving and kind of making the best version of yourself, and I think for us to take the next step, it was just getting it. Sometimes that's all it takes. Sometimes it's just getting a better name.
So You've had a lot of folks through your career that I think have been influential and sort of mentored you.
Can you talk about some of those folks.
Who definitely have their own sizeable careers and audiences?
Oh, Sean, this is this is a Sean. Sean's probably gone down this line more than more than I have.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, well since I was like young, I think I started playing drums ten years old, and I really looked up to energetic type drummers, so Travis Barker's and you know, the Stuart Copelands and all that, and it was I was blessed when I was in my early twenties I got to work with Travis and write some songs in Calabasas and that was crazy for me. That was like a moment where I was like, oh wow, I just want to keep on writing songs. So yeah, so that was pretty cool. So Blink corn Eddie two is definitely a massive inspiration twenty one Pilots, who are massive as well. They've kind of taken off in the past four years and got to work with It's such a nice s guy, Josh dun as well the drama for twenty one Pilots, which definitely gave me a bit of inspo for this whole duo situation that Mitch and I are in now. So yeah, just people that the people that inspired me are like really energetic drummers that you just look and go wow, like you can feel their energy when they perform. Yeah, so that's that's me those two.
And Mitchell how about You I se Which was another milestone for us is when we got a we did a fall Out Boy and a Panic at the Disco mash up, and we're doing mash ups on Instagram during COVID just to generate, you know, some sort of activity because we couldn't really tour or do anything.
And we mashed up Yeah, obviously a fall Out.
Boy in a Panic at the Disco song, and then Pete Wentz and Spencer Smith, So Pete Wentz from for That Boy and Spencer Smith, the original drummer of Panic at the Disco.
They've got their own label.
And they reached out to us essentially saying they loved the mash up and they loved our songs and literally just reached out and just wanted to pick our brains and see what we were doing and how we're doing it. It was awesome to get feedback from people that you've admired, you know, essentially my whole music career.
Yeah, that was that was an amazing moment.
Sometimes just getting feedback from people, whether it's good, bad, ugly, just knowing that what you're doing is spiking there is is kind of you know enough to you sometimes, which is which is really crazy when you think about it.
Tell me about what it's meant with Kellen Quinn as well.
Yeah, well that well, Sean and I were writing a song which was all these all these milestone moments are all just off a whim, just off off a chance, which is which is you know, if that's any advice to other bands out there to send a message because sometimes they will actually reply. Sean and I were sitting in his house and we're writing a song and it was kind of like a metal type track, and then we just had the idea of it kind of sounds like a song that Kelln Quinn would sound like would be on and then Sean's like.
Would sound like yeah. So I had the connection with Kellen from a previous tour, so like I did an Australian tour. It was Sleeping with Sirens, my old group, and this other band lower than Atlantis, so I think they're called. But I met Kellen Quinn on that tour. We just connected. It was actually the craziest moment I remember, like seeing him for the first time, to like meet in person on that tour and there was like a magic moment where like after we came off stage, he's like waiting to go on and he's shaking everybody's hand and he goes up to me and it was the weirdest moment because he like he literally just holds my hand like it was kind of like a handshake that like felt like two hours.
But it was like it was just the weird It was theirst thing.
I was like, why is this handshake like going for so long? Like you know, you can let go of my hand now, but he's like staring like into my eyes type of thing, into my soul and not what the hell's going on here? And then it was like two or three years later that we caught up Mitch and we started this band, and that was when, yeah, there was the connection there. I was like, you know what, I'm just going to pass it on to Kell and he follows me now and he keeps in touch, so let's see if he connects with this song and the lyrics. And we just waited, you know, we're twiddling our thumbs just like waiting for him to come back. And he got back to us like within a week and was like, yeah, I just want to I want to jump on this this sounds great. So that was a big moment for Mitch and I because it was the first time where we're like, wow, like this is someone we look up to and they want to work with us type of thing.
Did he call you guys? Me?
I think I think everyone tries to throw that in there. I think everyone tries to throw that in there. But yeah, Kelln's just generally a nice guy. Like I don't think you're going to get nicer than that. In the industry.
Beautiful song, No, it's very down to earth there was and such a massive track you know, to like to be a part of as well. That was really I think it's close to what it's five hundred thousand streams now or something like.
Dependent on independent organic just out there.
It does say probably on your your citizenship card that you have to use mate a certain amount of times each day in conversation. Doesn't it isn't that self designated.
Well, it does be contract.
It does open a few doors when you kind of give them the old mate.
Yeah, not bad mate yet. Yeah, it may just walk through get a mate.
It's kind of just like you've got nothing else to say, see, like how's it going, mate?
And you just keep going, keep going.
So you guys love festivals. You have played at a number of festivals. What are some of your favorite festivals you've played at, and maybe describe.
The experience, what it's what it's like to the listeners.
Yeah, a big one for me slam Dunker plays and also reading in leeds was it was a good one. It wasn't the main stage, but it was like in the you know, the side tent, but it was still pretty cool. And I think that's the highlight for me actually, between slam Dunk and reading and leads.
Yeah, and what tell me the experience what it was like?
Oh, just uplifting, man, Like, it's amazing when you you play to that many people and they're obviously not well a few of them are there to see you, but then it's like a majority just there to experience, like the headliner, right, But when they stumble across something that's like on the side, you know, come on up, It's it's interesting to see their reaction because they're kind of like seeing it for the first time, they're like, Oh, who the hell's this? Like, oh, you know, I'm picking up their energy. Who's who are these guys about? Like, let's let's go you know, the next day and listen to these guys.
I feel like as well, when you're playing at festival, you have to be in the mindset of you go in the mindset of I want to win over every person here, so you just try and play your hardest or the best just to like, Yeah, I don't know. It's the weird mindset of like, you don't want to like yeah, you just want to.
You want to connect to as many people with the music. Yeah. But it's a great Yeah. I love festivals. I think it's very powerful festivals.
So in the US, radio plays often an important part for new artists, not as much independent artists, but definitely for new artists, and particularly the way radio over the years here has dealt with, you know, an alternative sound and indie alternative kind of sound.
What's the state of radio for a band like you guys?
In Australia, it's kind of a bit of a guessing game what's going to work on Australian radio, if that makes sense, because the channels are through Triple J, which is very mixed bag Like you can have a bit of surf rock in there, you can have mixed with metal, mixed with you know, a whole different, you know world of genres and sounds, where the US kind of has a bit more of a direction of what it likes and what it wants, and that's kind of where we want to target is somewhere more definite. Australia is amazing, and the and the music scenes here is great as well, but it's a bit uncertain. No one really knows what's good or what's not good. Where America is like, Yeah, that's a catchy churn, that's got a melody, that's got a certain sound to it, that's gonna that's gonna appeal. We're in Australia. No one really knows what works and what doesn't work.
Yeah, but they followed it. Yeah, they follow what works.
But can you envision a world where.
You guys, as an Australian band, really find your greatest success in the future in the US.
I think it's more likely it would come from the US or UK rather than Australia itself. I think a lot of bands have done that, Like, for example, Five Seconds of Summer, they had to break in the UK and the US before Australia would adopt them. And I think a lot of Another example, a recent example, the kid l Ory absolutely blew up in the US before Australia would you know, really come to the party. It's one of those things where Australia kind of it kind of gets most of its influence from the US and they want to see that it's doing well in the US before they give it.
It's, you know, get a mate standard approval sort of thing.
It's time.
Yeah, So what's next over the coming year for you guys in terms of touring and also in terms of studio work.
I think I think the way the industry now is it's just like constant waterfall releases of singles, like just trying to consistently, you know, release singles building you know, a waterfall release. And I think for us, and I think for other bands as well, I think the old school is the new school to stand out in today's world.
I think touring is the way to go.
Because if we score another big tour like Red Jumpsuit, that would be really beneficial at this time, especially releasing something in the Water and then followed by this awesome song that I just can't wait to get out, Like yeah, it's you know when you have that gup feeling you just kind of like know that there's some magic to it. But it would be good to tour twenty twenty five just to see who's the best fit, you know, because Red Jumpsuit Apparatus they were a really good fit for us, and now we're waiting on our manager now just to come forward to hopefully, you know, give us a shot with another really successful bands, just because that would be magic, That would just be awesome.
Well, thanks for being on Taking a Walk guys, Sean Ty and Mitchell Vulcan from the Hype. I want to congratulate you on everything. I want to wish you well with all the future work.
Thanks mates, and I hope we get to talk again sometimes.
Yeah, definitely of course. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much, Buzz, Thanks Matte.
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