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How is it that you started playing music? We all grew up with a mutual appreciation of music. It was an avenue for us to explore a more creative side of ourselves and also an outlet for a lot of what we each were feeling growing up. All the normal things a greasy teenager goes through. As confused as were about ourselves and what we wanted to achieve with our lives at one point, we can honestly say that it was music that helped direct our focus and help us strive for something more. Learning our instruments and attending singing lessons or whatever else just happened as a result of loving and being influenced so heavily by music in general. 

What are your names? / Who plays what? Hollow Nothing are; Jordan Leatherland - Vocals, Aswhin Singh - Lead guitar, Ben Young - Bass guitar and Matt Jones - Drums. 

Did you make music even when you were young? All of us has created music at different stages of our lives. It started at a young age yeah then kinda blossomed the older we would get. We’ve all dabbled in music making software and obviously have all smashed around on our instruments in the hopes of creating the next worldwide hit. 

Where are you from? So Jordan, Ashwin and Ben are all living in London at the moment whilst Matt travels up for Wales to practice. The Megabus profits have skyrocketed since the formation of this band to say the least. 

What's your style of genre? Our style is actually quite difficult to place. Not to sound like we’re this genre so diverse and different that we can’t decide what it is, it’s just that we draw from so many other genres that we kind of float between the lines of a few. So we’d say somewhere between Indie and New Rock at a guess.  

What inspires you? Our want to bring guitar based music back to the forefront is a big inspiration. The scene has shifted to a more commercial and pop backdrop. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just we think it’s time band music made it’s triumphant return. There are a lot of new and unsigned bands that are soo good and talented and their voices need to be heard. 

How have you developed since you started with the music? We have all grown a lot as people and as a band since our formation. Each of us has come from a hugely different musical background. When we first started it was a mish mash of different sounds being forced together in honesty. But as we’ve learned more about each other and played more as a band, the music has come such a long way. We have developed into a pyramid type structure whereby the base is the width of our styles all leading to the point at the top where it all comes together.  

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? The goal is to get signed sure. That’s probably the goal of most bands as they start out. We’ll keep doing what we do and try to create awesome tunes. If that gets noticed at some point down the line then great. For now though, the plan is to just get as good as we can.

What are your songs about? Our songs vary a little about what they are about. The underlying story to our music though is that we are trying to be a real as we can. We write music about what it’s like to be a certain age living in a world as mad as ours. That feeling of euphoria when you finish work on a Friday and race out to smash the night with your mates. Familiar things you know. Relatable things. The highs and lows of just being who you are, whether it's good or bad. 

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Depends on what gets written first. The way it is at the moment the music generally gets written first then Jordy will get to work with the melody and lyrics. It’s normally a group decision on what the song should be about though and we like it this way. Everyone has their say and we won’t go ahead with something we are not all 100% on. 

What language do you sing in? English. That’s the language we speak. 

What ages are most of your concert attendants? To be fair we’ve gotten kind of a mixed bag. People of all ages have been in the crowds and have been throwing shapes of all sorts it’s epic. I’m sure the longer we play and the more established we get we’ll start to pin down our demographic. Anyone of any age is welcome to come see us!

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Our set list has actually evolved in the last year. We’ve had songs and played them live but later decided that new, better ones should take their place. It's a constant carousel of songs but it’s a great way of keeping things fresh. 

Do you have a regular place you play live often? Yeah we practice mostly in Old Street, London. The owner is a sound guy and the room suits us a lot right now. 

What was your first gig like? Amazing. Nerve-racking. Surreal. There were loads of our friends there and family also. Just people we wanted to surround ourselves with to make sure we smashed our first gig as a band. It went down without a hitch thankfully. 

When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We haven’t started with merchandise yet. As a new band we are taking everything in our stride and focussing on refining our sound at the moment. Look out for wicked Hollow Nothing shirts, hoodies and all that other good stuff a bit later down the line. 

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? That’s just the way things are headed. We are very much in the age of information and social media. So it’s different to how it used to be. There was nothing quite like savings up to buy your first CD back in the day. But digital downloads are a thing of beauty in their own right. A lot of people, ourselves included, enjoy compiling playlists so will pack them full of singles or albums they love. It’s just like collecting Cds or Vinyl but much more space saving!

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Things are more download orientated for sure and we’re at the point now where online plays count towards an artists chart success. It’s good for music labels and productions to move with the times though so changes were bound to happen. It’s the right step even though a lot of people would probably disagree.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Haha interviews such as this provide more insight as to what we are about as a band. It gives people the chance who perhaps haven’t heard too much of us to do just that. You gotta put yourself out there to be heard! 

What advice would you give other bands or artists? Just keep at it. This path, albeit very intriguing, was never going to be easy. There’s a lot of work that goes into making a band functional and successful. Lot’s of days worrying about things that are beyond your control. Tight budgets and lots of travel take their toll too. But at the end of the day if this is what you want to do with your life then you need to fight for it. To give it everything you’ve got and once that’s done, whatever happens, you know you’ve attacked it with all you’ve got. Hard work doesn’t go unnoticed :)

Do you have any new material? We are constantly creating new music and jazzing up our setlist and so on. It’s what you have to do! 

What are your web sites? www.facebook.com/hollownothinguk/ https://twitter.com/hollownothinguk/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLPVw2aoxb9ckkTwx3kBJYg