Hide and Tallow Newsletter Interview

If you want something different, you can find it in Hide and Tallow – a solo performance of drums, foot synths and vocals – pressing and pulling beats, monologues levering with and against searing effects and sub frequency bass lines. Hide and Tallow’s music completely escapes the norm and showcases musical creativity at its most unique. The man behind Hide and Tallow, Horriths Ritherland, answered the following questions for muzic.net.nz:

What sets you apart from other bands and musicians?

I guess I’m not much of a band. I took a bunch of elements I enjoy and heaved them all in the soup. A drum-kit, those bass keys from old electric organ (now plugged into a mid 90’s synth) guitar effects, writing short poems and passages. Just happened that the project evolved mainly by myself, to a point where it felt right to just keep it as a solo project. Maybe what is different from similar solo projects is the absence of looping pedals or computer based gadgetry. 

Which one of your songs are you most proud of, and why?

I reckon Watcher and the Goatherd. These short lines started coming to me as I drove to and from work (around dusk and dawn). It is my most reflective song so far. I still find it to be a mysterious piece, like when memories get all jumbled up and may never had made sense in the first place. At least now they are all in one place together with my general view of things. 

Do you have any plans for future collaborations with other musicians? Who would they be? 

No musicians yet as such, but I am planning a collaboration with a fantastic group of fire performers who work under the name Circus Kumarani. It will be for Matariki to be held around the Dargaville area. Hopefully the idea develops further to a point where we can take it to other places and audiences.

What is the one thing you want NZ to know about Hide and Tallow?

If you get the chance to experience a live set, you should take it. I can’t promise you will like it all, but I reckon you will take away something new and worth while.

Tell us about Hide and Tallow’s next release.

Quite likely the last single before the hopeful album, named Glorious Glorious. In loose terms, that feeling of witnessing the beauty and weight of our stormy coast-lands but with that un-detachable tether connecting most of us to our elaborate habitats. Failing that maybe a live recording of one of my piano pieces I have yet to figure out how to play.

What can we expect to see from Hide and Tallow over the next year?

Another single release or two, an album (fingers crossed) and a whole bunch of gigs around the country, hopefully a good bunch of them at DIY venues/living rooms/kitchens and the like. So far they have been the most memorable gigs.