In our next Band Spotlight, we chat to Nick Hutson of Levant about his goals with the project, and plans for the future.
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S] Talk to us about your inspirations as a songwriter?
When I’m writing music I try to blank out everything else and literally just let the music write itself…so depending what mood I’m in at the time I’m either gonna write a shiny indie pop song or some insane death metal blast beat thing. I just like to go with the flow and then tweak the initial idea into a full song, whether it’s metal, pop or even electronic stuff. Some of my favourite bands and artists include Crywolf, early System of a Down, Agent Fresco and Karnivool to name a few.
S] What have been some life-defining moments for Levant?
Levant is my solo project on the side of my main band, Beyond All Reason. It all began a few years ago when I was just messing around at home with guitars and a computer and thought it would be cool to put a few tracks together and get local vocalists from other bands to come and sing on them. The idea was to give them 100% free reign over the lyrics and melodies and just guide and advise them if needed through the process.
Due to their incredible talents it worked really well doing it this way and I’m super stoked they were willing to put the required time and effort in to get this project off the ground. Levant is in such early stages that I guess the most life defining moments so far have been getting reviews and airplay on the album before it’s even released.
S] To what degree do your surroundings inspire your work as an artist?
All the music is recorded at home on a crappy laptop in a tiny room. Sometimes it’s hard to get inspired but the best way is to just shut the door and plug in a guitar and play until something cool happens…then build it up with layers and eventually create a structured song out of the mess. My girlfriend is an artist (Instagram @theglasscabinet) so we tend to bounce business ideas off each other and sometimes just sit for hours back to back working on our own stuff in our tiny office room, it’s great.
S] What motivates you outside of music – think movies, and people for example?
I love all things horror related and I love taking motivation from any small independent business and watching it grow a following over time…for example you should check out my friend’s horror related t-shirt and art print company, Last Shirt On The Left, or my friend’s bespoke hat company, Paul Ventress Bespoke Hatter, both of which have come an incredibly long way in the last year, all because of hard work, commitment, sacrifice and dedication. It’s great to be surrounded by people like this because we can all feed off each other and help each other out with marketing ideas and techniques.
S] What are your goals for the rest of the year?
The debut album was released on third September so I’m gonna carry on pushing that and trying to get reviews and airplay on it whilst I begin work on the second album. Levant is purely a studio based project so we will never perform live, however I’ve actually already written and recorded around four demos for the follow up release and luckily I have some amazing people around me who are up for laying vocals down on the tracks. I’d like to think album number two will be released around this time next year, if not before.
For more information visit: https://www.facebook.com/Levantsound
