Hiya Ron and Gol from hovercraft, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
What was life like for you before you got into music?
Gol: I can’t remember a time before I was into music. From listening to lullabies as a baby and a toddler, my mum’s old country and western records, my dad’s Beatles, Stones and Dylan LPs, my gran’s piano, my granddad’s classical music on his hi-fi, the weekly BBC Radio One Top 40 charts countdown on a Sunday evening, The Old Grey Whistle Test, The Tube. There was no life before getting into music!
Ron: I was mainly at school and kicking a football about before I got into a band and started performing music. I’m fairly ancient now so I’m closer to kicking the bucket than a football.
What’s the live music scene like in London/Lincolnshire right now? Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
Gol: Best band in London right now is Honeyglaze!
Ron: I live out in the wilds so not so much going on here, but there seems to be plenty going on in and around Lincoln, Grimsby, Gainsborough and Scunthorpe. Hull’s always been quite lively.
The only band I could possibly big up is the Indie, Soul & Rock ‘n’ Roll covers band Pelham Road. Although I hear original bands Roulette from Grimsby are pretty good and the punk outfit Tiny Forehead seem to be having some success at the moment.
It seems like being a social media curator has become added to the many jobs of a musician, how do you feel about this?
Gol: I enjoyed creating our website https://hovercraft.band although now it needs a big update…
How do you manage engagement on your socials?
Gol: We only really use Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/61575631407719/), which helps to keep it manageable. We’re really showing our age, here!
Ron: Engaging with social media has become fairly normal for most people now, so I don’t really think about it too much. It’s just something you have to do if you want to get your music heard by as many people as possible.
We always make sure we acknowledge or reply to messages, likes and shares.
We’ve been fortunate that BBC Introducing across York and Humberside, 1Xtra, and Radio 1 have been listening to our tracks, and we’ve had coverage in Mexico, Brazil, the UK and USA. That validation has been encouraging.
What’s your view on the Music industry today?
Gol: Things are different these days. It’s easier than ever for anyone to create, publish, licence and distribute music online. It’s much more democratic in that sense.
Like everything else, more and more profits are being extracted by big business from musicians’ labour and art, while musicians have to work harder for less.
Ron: Again, it’s not something I think too much about. I’ve only ever really thought about where the next gig is or do we have a next gig. I’ve always felt the whole recording and management side of the industry was a bit of a closed shop for most bands and that’s why we always did it ourselves.
Where do you feel you currently sit within the music industry?
Gol: Outside!
Ron: Probably as outsiders, looking for the opportunity to share our music.
Whats the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
Gol: Pepper’s songs are even better than I remembered them!
Ron: For us, as we’re no longer a live performing band, it’s to get our music heard by as many ears as possible. It means embracing social media, new media and new production technology as well as utilising streaming platforms, music curators and other online media platforms.
What was your best experience on stage?
Gol: I don’t have one individual memory, but all our gigs rocked. As a band, and as an audience, everyone was always blown away.
What was your worst experience on stage?
Gol: Ten years before hovercraft, I played a gig at the former Libyan People’s Bureau building in London. The stage was built out of Gaddafi’s Green Books! We played a cover of The Hardest Walk by The Jesus and Mary Chain for our soundcheck. Some fierce looking blokes came over and told us that if we played it again they would kill us. We played it twice as fast and ran for our lives!
Ron: I can’t really remember a bad experience. We’ve had rowdy audiences, speakers knocked over and equipment damaged over the years, but nothing particularly malicious.
Tell us something about you / each member that you think people would be surprised about.
Gol: A few years ago I met the Godfather of British Bhangra in what used to be a Bishop’s changing room and helped him get grant funding for the older people’s day centre he helps run.
Ron: Three of us grew up together in a small market town in Lincolnshire. Two of us are brothers. Hovercraft disbanded 30 years ago after topping the local charts with ‘Mr Tooting Brown.’ Our lead singer and primary songwriter Piers ‘Charlie Pepper’ Wildman disappeared shortly after, reconnected briefly on Facebook, then disconnected again following a trip to India more than 10 years ago. We’re releasing our back catalogue reconstructed with AI in the hope the music somehow finds its way back to him and he reconnects with us. Every song is both memorial and message.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
Gol: On The Rocks is a blast from the past and the second chapter of our AI reconstruction trilogy. It’s a recreation and reimagining of our songs from 1996 with a more contemporary and polished indie sound, often with female vocals. After the jazz, soul and R&B sophistication of Shaken Not Stirred, On The Rocks ventures into darker, more experimental indie-rock territory. Why? Because they’re great songs and they deserve to be heard.
What was the recording process like?
Gol: We used old and new tech to find and restore lost demo and rehearsal tapes from thirty years ago. Then we restored the original audio and recreated our songs in new styles using AI and editing software. It’s laborious, but rewarding. Almost all of the original recording process was us playing live as a band in a studio or at home with an old four track recorder. The audio restoration or sound archaeology process we use now is the total opposite.
What was the biggest learning curve in writing the new tunes?
Gol: “These weren’t newly written – they’re 30-year-old songs we’re reconstructing. But the biggest learning curve has been understanding how to guide AI to capture Pepper’s vocal phrasing and emotional delivery. Sometimes we had to rewrite lyrics phonetically like a poem just to get the AI to emphasise the right syllables the way Charlie would have sung them.”
Ron: “The learning curve wasn’t in writing – Pepper wrote these in the ’90s. It was in the archaeology. Learning to hear lyrics properly for the first time from degraded cassette tapes, some recorded backwards or at half-speed. Discovering the wit, wisdom, and heartbreak in words we could barely make out thirty years ago.”
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
Gol: No.
Ron: From my perspective, no. I think the songs retain the swagger, melody and emotional depth of Pepper’s originals. Yes, they’re much more accessible and sonically less confrontational but they are without doubt the soul of Hovercraft.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
Ron: Look out for each other and Pepper, if you’re listening, get in touch.
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