’ And it was a bit of a glimpse into our influences, whether, like the beginning of the video or towards the tail end at the corner store, in a garage or house party, just performing.” “We approach everything in this way that it can seem like a hair-brained scheme, you know what I mean?” Vonne says, “Like, ‘hey, so what do you want to do for a music video?’ ‘Well, there’s this album cover we want to reference.’ But to put it out there and have people respond to it in a really great way, that’s amazing. The single and music video have produced a buzz for the pair – they’re particularly excited about BBC radio plays, and an interview they gave on Radio One. The video references the album cover for English post-punk band A Certain Ratio’s 2002 record, Early. It’s like, ‘Is the music good? Did you make a bunch of good songs? Cool.’ Then we can get into the references later on, that’s not on the face of everything.”Īs they lead up to their forthcoming album release in early 2022, They Hate Change have recently dropped the video for ‘ Faux Leather’, an electro/jungle/hip-hop mash-up. You shouldn’t have to know Kraftwerk’s whole catalogue as the entry point into the music. It’s not like, ‘Oh, you never listened to Shy FX before, therefore you can’t get into it… if you don’t get it that’s why.’ And it’s like, nah man, the music should be able to stand on its own, regardless of the records it references. Nor do they expect their listeners to have the same musical palate. We’re just trying to push things further and further – we’re not trying to do some crazy shit for the sake of it, that’s not our vibe.” We are just trying to push things as far as we can, so if it ends up sounding or feeling avant-garde then that’s why. “We don’t really stand on it in this posturing way. “ It’s as avant-garde as you want it to be,” Vonne explains. Dre laughs when I bring that up, and then reassures me. This kaleidoscopic range of influences is reflected in the weirdness of They Hate Change’s sonically packed music, which some critics have hailed as hip-hop avant-garde. Whatever’s coming out of Manchester right now… India Jordan, the DJ producers spanning that whole history of club culture.” That stuff’s really cool! My man Novelist, remember he was pushing a genre for a year or so, called rough sound? Rough sound is like 160bpm and it’s like… I don’t think he’s on that anymore. “Leading the charge for that – Sharda, those guys. They reel off a list of genres – happy hardcore, street soul, jungle, UK garage, grime – and an eclectic list of artistic influences including Goldie, Brian Eno, D Double E and Dizzee Rascal… “And Kiwi Records is doing kind of like a new UK garage situation right there,” Vonne tells me, rapid-firing with enthusiasm for the UK scene. That was a whole thing that happened over there that we had no idea about.” I’m not gonna say we know everything about here, but learning about, you know, the Thatcher years over there and learning about the music that happened during that era, it’s like damn. “It’s not that stuff from America isn’t interesting,” Vonne continues, “but there’s an entire separate music culture. They speak in this rhythm throughout the interview, Vonne offering lengthier answers and analysis, and Dre interjecting with lively affirmations to imply that Vonne is speaking for them both. I think we’re just into music from the UK.” “I think at this point we definitely self-define as Anglophiles. They Hate Change are self-taught students of British culture and music, inspired by a huge variety of genres and movements and keen to learn all they can about the social and political climates that produced their favourite sounds. “Yeah, yeah,” Vonne says, when I’ve finished speaking. I’ve gone fairly deep on the history of post-war New Town development and the rise and fall of the welfare state, and, despite the fact we are here to talk about They Hate Change, Vonne and bandmate Andre are leaning into their computer screens listening intently. I’m telling the duo about Basildon, the dilapidating concrete Essex New Town that produced Depeche Mode in the 1980s. Vonne (who uses they/them pronouns) is one half of the Tampa hip-hop duo They Hate Change. “We’re super interested in that, yeah,” Vonne tells me.
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