Hailing from Midsomer Norton near Bath, Avalon Highway consist of 5 friends, who between them make music alongside their day jobs, which range from builders, plumbers, carpenters, to the equally handy owning a music shop.
Hungover In The Sun is a taster of their upbeat, fun, and pop-driven tunes – a cheery ode to the inevitable over-indulgence of summer. The tongue-in-cheek music video stays true to these themes perfectly, making full use of the green screen to provide all sorts of summery backdrops.
In this interview spotlight, I chat with the band about the latest release, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
We are from Midsomer Norton, in the heart of Somerset. The road signs going into the town even say ‘Centre of the Universe’. We make music in the style of Rock/Roots/Indie/Pop – we have an eclectic mix of tastes and influences which comes together in our own way. It kind of just happens that our music comes out the way it does, it’s just ‘us’.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
You know when you finally find that group of people you just ‘click’ with? Well Avalon Highway is a group of best friends, where everyone keeps each other motivated. We love making music and we’re on this path to show as many people as possible!
How is this new release different than any previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
The release, including single, Hungover In The Sun, is actually a debut.
We wanted to keep our band’s ‘sound’ that we have when we’re all in a room playing together but make the music happy, fun and easy listening.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Technology means you can easily make demos in your bedroom. We built our own studio where we record our demos but it’s cool these days to record down an idea and send it to your producer for some feedback! The industry is saturated, yes, but that’s just a consequence being able to record anything, anywhere and make it available for everyone in the world to listen to. SO, I guess a something that’s more challenging these days is trying to break through the huge offerings that are available.
What was the last song you listened to?
Whole of the moon – Waterboys
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Vinyl, obviously! Does anyone prefer an MP3 to vinyl?
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Spotify, if one has to be chosen. It looks nicer than Apple Music (hah).
And, actually Spotify Radio is really cool, it gets you listening to new music you probably wouldn’t have found otherwise.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
Facebook.com/avalonhighway (look out for videos and lots more coming soon) Soundcloud – two tracks on there at the moment, third to come soon!
Youtube.com/avalonhighway – NEW music video now live, check it out
Anything else before we sign off?
Please have a listen to our new tunes and give us some love on our Social Media accounts 🙂
