Brighton jangle-psych quartet Hutch return with their hotly anticipated debut EP ‘Smile and Wave’. 

Describing their sound as “Twang pop post-yacht rock soft psych”, the bands unique sound brings together a kaleidoscope of bright guitar tones, harp and layered vocal harmonies has seen them gain widespread national radio and press support such as BBC Radio 6 Music (Deb Grant), Amazing Radio, BBC Introducing, So Young and Shindig! to name just a few. 

With songs about rainbows in the sky, trips to icy lakes in the Winter, and getting out of bed, such is the innocent simplicity to Hutch’s world that it conjures an extraordinary magic all of its own. In a musical landscape so populated with the harsh rigours of post-punk urbanity, industrial abrasiveness, or electronic abstractions, it seemed that, somehow, something as simple as focusing on nature’s elemental beauties - with a sunny melody or two thrown in - could too provide its own essential, cathartic pleasure - “We just choose to focus on the good things and small moments of peace in a big hectic world” explains the band.

Starting off as a soundtrack project for their own Mighty Boosh-inspired cartoon called ‘Mark Monsoon and the Children of the Sky’ - the band that came to be Hutch quickly shed their TV ambitions and focused instead on forming a band from their shared Brighton home. While shifting away from more narrative-based songwriting, their earliest material nonetheless carried over the gentle absurdism of the ‘Mark Monsoon’ era: "we remember at the time having songs about Stationary in a pencil case, squirrels building houses in piles of leaves, and squids that shared back gardens divided by fences. The animal themes stuck, and also we quite liked how we had all these songs about animals underneath the name of ‘Hutch’, it just seemed to fit nicely together.” 

Now arriving with their first major release to date - their sound somewhat matured (but themes thankfully not) Hutch’s Smile and Wave EP reclines bedecked in jangly guitars, time-jolting tempo shifts and angelic 4 part vocal harmonies, rosy-eyed harp-twinkles and rapturous psychedelic explorations. Mingling the lysergic gooiness of The Babe Rainbow and King Gizzard’s Paper-mâché Dream Balloon, the lilting lyricism of Stella Donnelly and the subtly complex wholesomeness of Her’s - Smile and Wave is an EP coated in a joyous glow and refreshing sense of childlike-whimsy; a welcoming escape from reality and a cosy ascent towards radiant paradise. 

And true to form, the themes of the songs themselves appropriately revel in twinkling, yet decidedly mundane, fantasy. Lead single ‘The Bow’, with grinning sincerity, describes dancing underneath a rainbow. The chugging ‘Ice on the Lake’ takes inspiration from a snowy country walk taken by the group while on tour in Bedford, and their failure to break through the thick, frozen-over water, with a reference to an iconic British actor too; “We took a stone from what we’re 75% sure was Hugh Laurie’s house”, they confess. 

Then there’s ‘Marmalade Air’, about lazing in bed. And if you’re looking for all kinds of profound hidden messaging underneath all of this, then that’s on you: “We like rainbows and lakes, it's really that simple.” The majestic closing track ‘See It All’ was co-written with harpist (and erstwhile touring member) Eva Lunny, who has since gone on to release her own solo album ‘Sonics & Meditations’ via Bella Union.

While inter-mingling all this international psych-pop influence and escapist imagery, Hutch’s story so-far could not be told, or would not have happened without the current boom in their local Brighton grassroots circuit. What band describe as a “one-of-a-kind, close-knit community”, The scene has flourished since the pandemic, thriving on mutual support, close-collaboration, with a whole gamut of diverse, interesting acts, starting to reach audiences nationwide in the past 12 months - The New Eves, Flip Top Head, Welly, toname but a few. These are also bands that regularly attend and play each other’s shows, forming their own side-projects too. Such a nurturing creative environment is even seen within Smile and Wave too. And if there was any band to encompass all this joy, this sense of community, and that timeless, almost primitive need for heady escape, then it’s Hutch.

Hutch are: Jack Pritchard (Vocals and guitar) / Dan Shepherd (Vocals and guitar) / Charlie Bogg (Vocals and bass) / Owen Bullock (Vocals and drums) / Eva Lunny (Harp and Synth - studio only)

‘Smile And Wave’ track listing: 

1. The Bow
2. Ice on the Lake
3. Marmalade Air
4. See it All 

2024 Headline Tour Dates: 

29 FEB // Margate, Where Else
1 MAR // Chelmsford, Hot Box
2 MAR // Norwich, Voodoo Daddy’s Showroom
3 MAR // Halifax, Grayson Unity (Matinee Show)
5 MAR // Huddersfield, Parish
6 MAR // Sheffield, The Washington
7 MAR // Liverpool, Kazimier Stockroom
8 MAR // Milton Keynes, The Craufurd Arms
9 MAR // Bristol, The Lanes
12 MAR // Guildford, The Boileroom
13 MAR // London, Shacklewell Arms
14 MAR // Portsmouth, The Deco
15 MAR // Brighton, Green Door Store
16 MAR // St Leonards, The Piper 

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