Tangled Magazine

Machine: An Interview with Missing Hours

By Jamie Evangelista

Interviewed by Jamie Evangelista and Taz Funamoto

Rock brother-sister duo Missing Hours has hit the Australian music scene with their first single “Machine”. Tangled Magazine caught with Emma and Ant Hewitt where they talked about their beginning in music, what inspires them to write and how they almost became a manufactured pop duo.

How did you get started in music?

Emma: Being brother and sister, we were always playing music together. I started singing in cover bands when I was about 16, played piano before that. Ant was playing guitar and he started tagging along and hoping to get a gig with a cover band as well. Then we just got sick of playing covers and started to write songs ourselves. It grew from there.

Ant: Our dad was a music teacher when we were growing up right through primary school, and he had the Pink Floyd records and the old Crosby Stills records. There was always an acoustic guitar plugged around in the house. Before we could actually play, we would bash around with the instruments [laughs].

Is there a meaning behind the band name, Missing Hours? Why did you decide on that name?

E: There’s a few different meanings behind the name Missing Hours. You know when you play music, you kind of go into a meditative state and you don’t know how much time’s past. You can look at your watch and go, oh I’ve been doing it for five hours, you don’t know where the time’s gone. We had a lot of that going on in the studio while we were recording the album

What inspires your songwriting?

E: Everything, really. Just life experience. I borrow a lot from my friends experiences [laughs]. When you see people going through situations, kind of take a bit from everyone’s situations as well as our own.

A: Sometimes it’s like a phrase that you hear somebody say, something that sticks with you, I’m often inspired by. At the moment, like a drumbeat or a melody, something like that, can be a nucleus for a new song idea. Definitely all kinds of music, it doesn’t matter what style it is, there’s always something to get out of it.

How would you describe your music to people?

A: Awesome [laughter] Just kidding! [more laughs]

E: It’s definitely a joke [laughs]. I don’t know how to describe it… I guess it’s kind of melodic rock but it’s still got pop sensibilities in there. We didn’t really try work through a genre. Whenever we wrote a song, we just made that song be what it was supposed to be. In the album, there’s some really acoustic ballads as well as some of the heavy rock tracks but we’re not defining ourselves in a style.

How did your music evolve when you first started?

E: Because Ant plays acoustic, with the two of us, we actually started out playing more folky sounding stuff, just because with the acoustic guitars it all allows you to, right? We never really thought about adding more band members in and actually creating rock songs. So it kind of evolved when we started making the album. We actually made an EP and we did all these slow songs and ballads. We went out to play live and we thought, ‘God this is getting boring’ [laughs] playing all these slow ballads.

A: We played at this punk rock club in Melbourne and we got up with a live chalice, with guitars and flowers in our hair [laughs]. Everyone was like ‘What??’ [laughs] and we’re like we gotta write some rock songs. We had a pretty long period of time in the studio where we had the luxury of letting it evolve.

With your debut album coming out, you’re now able to reach out to a global audience. Is there any message you want to express to this audience with your music?

E: The message is more for us having integrity and having passion in what you do. Hopefully it can inspire some people to have the same feeling for whatever they do. The same way the music inspired us when we were growing up. We hope to inspire somebody out there in the same way perhaps.

A: Definitely. That feeling when you hear the song on the radio or when you get a new album and fall in love with one of the songs. If one of our songs did that for one person, we’d just be stoked because it’s the best feeling.

How long did it take to record your album?

E: It was probably almost six months but it wasn’t constant. We’d go in for a few weeks then go away and write some more then come back and record a few more tracks. We didn’t know that we’re going to be doing a number of set tracks. We’d just go away write a few songs then come back and set another three songs to record then put them down and it became the album that way.

A: We finished nine tracks then we signed with Sony. Then we did a couple more, mixed it in the States, which took another month. But the first track that came out, Machine, we wrote that just before Christmas time so that was actually after the record had just been finished. We just had this little song come along then record it downstairs in the studio and it made the cut which was good.

What inspired the concept behind the video for Machine, with its post-apocalyptic world? Is there a message behind the song and video?

E: The message behind Machine was the façade that you build that that’s eventually going to crumble, and the post-apocalyptic world is in a way a little bit of a metaphor for that, like the world crumbling around you. But Falling Down also is the next single. Both videos run into each other. We drive out the video for Machine and drive into the video for Falling Down. The director we were working with, she’s fantastic. She wanted to make something parts of a short film, where you come in halfway through a journey and you don’t know what’s happened before or what’s going to happen afterwards, you’re just part of the journey so the two link up.

A: It’s that keyhole vibe. We’re massive David Lynch fans so anything that doesn’t quite make sense is a good thing.

E: It was loads of fun [doing the video]. To get the videos done in two days was so much to get done and lots of things going wrong along the way. Obviously with Ant’s finger [ed note: Ant cut his finger during the car window scene]. The director, she sacrificed her old car that was the one where the roof got cut up and they had to drive that up on a trailer from Melbourne and the car rolled off the trailer on the highway. A few things went wrong but it kind of made it a lot more fun, it was more of a challenge. Everybody pulled together and had a great time.

How does it feel finally getting your music out there after all this time?

E: It’s awesome. Because we’ve been working for so long to get o this point as well, we’re not really taking anything for granted. We’re really excited when we see it on TV or hear it on the radio.

A: Also getting the live band together, just also getting ready to play some shows, we’re so excited about that. It’s been so long waiting the right people to come in and play songs. It’s nice to get on the road and do as many shows as we can.

What has been the biggest challenge so far?

E: Wow there’s so many [laughs]. We moved across to London and sold everything that we owned and went over there to have this production deal with this producer. As soon as we got over to London, he decided that he wanted to completely change our style and form us into this horrible pop duo. We ended up turning that down and we’re stuck in London and spent all of our money and lifesavings thinking what do we do now. So it was a real big challenge to start from scratch again and find our direction from there.

A: At the same time, that was the most positive thing that could’ve ever happened. Up until that point, looking back, we were writing pop songs. So the fact that this guy wanted to make us a pop duo seemed perfectly fair enough. Back then being naïve, you think we’ll write to get signed then once we’re signed we’ll worry about doing everything that we want to do. It was kind of like shaking the tail by the dog. If you’re not writing anything that’s meaning to you, it’s not going to mean to anybody else.

What advice would you give to aspiring artists who want to break into the music business?

E: My main suggestion would be to write what you love and don’t stray from that. I think people have a passion for what they do and you continue down that road then eventually other people are going to love it as well.

Are you looking forward to touring?

E: Yeah, really, really looking forward to it. I think we’ll be touring when the next single Falling Down comes out. We’ll be doing some interstate shows, a few shows in every state to back that up and we just want to keep touring for the rest of the year.

A: The more gigs you play, the more bands you get to see and the friends you make, that’s what it’s all about.

Visit Missing Hours’ Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/missinghours

Visit their official site: http://www.missinghours.com.au