Windsor musicians sniff out an infectious new identity
Wide-ranging indie rock trio Huttch getting more attention after deriving new name from sneeze
It’s amazing how an attack of sudden and uncontrollable nasal combustion can do wonders for your career.
Take Huttch, for example: the Windsor indie-rock trio’s very name originated by a sneezing fit suffered by drummer Robbie Cervi during a Toronto practice session in 2015.
“We were all living together in Toronto and the guys started making fun of me, going like “‘Hutch! Hutch! Hutch! — Achoo, Achoo, Achoo!’” Cervi recalls of bandmates Sebastian Abt and Zack Vivier, adding that Abt then wrote out the sound with an alternative spelling, “and he really liked the way it looked. It had a symmetry to it and it was just a cool word to look at.”
Up until that point, Huttch, one of the critically acclaimed performers of last fall’s Indie Week — and who will be part of a bill that includes Elementals, Big Lonely and the Kerouacs at the Horseshoe Friday — was known as State of Us and had felt stymied when numerous Google searches kept bringing up American state references.
“It’s been pretty much Huttch since then,” says Cervi, who says he and guitarist and singer Abt and bassist Vivier are all “24, 25.”
They’ve been getting more mileage out of the name than you might imagine, even bastardizing their own personal catchphrase to become the title of the trio’s first fulllength album when it’s released in March.
“It’s called Huttchino,” Cervi explains. “It was something that we literally always say when something is going our way: ‘Huttchino! — it’s working!’”
Since the band already has an introductory six-song self-titled EP released in 2016, Cervi says branding their new album with the same moniker “would be redundant.”
And judging by their music, it’s clear that Huttch has no interest in being redundant: while the Huttch EP contains doses of rock-boogie reality on “Every Now and Then” and “Fake Conversation,” the upcoming material previewed during a recent Painted Lady gig, including the song “Get Up,” reveals that the musicians are upping the ante into dance rock for the upcoming Huttchino.
Cervi says the band has been most inspired by Canadian indie stalwarts Hollerado and Yukon Blonde, but also loves the ’70s sounds of the aforementioned Steve Miller Band and the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO).
“We love Canadian bands and Hollerado is such a huge inspiration for us because they’re very much do-it-yourselfers and they just make the same type of rock music that we like,” Cervi notes. “It’s not necessarily indie rock — even now it’s a bit more rock ‘n’ roll. Steve Miller was a huge influence for us, even ELO — we love ELO so much. We want to take what we like from the old and what’s going on with the new, do something kind of different.”
The new album employs four producers, including Daniel Romano sideman and LeE HARVeY OsMOND’s Aaron Goldstein, Taylor Lucas (Elementals) and Windsor locals Derek Impens and Soul Brother Stef, but the professional association has really paid off with Huttchino mixer Clifton David Broadbridge, currently working at the El Mocambo Studios as the protégé of legendary producer and engineer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, KISS).
“Clifton is Eddie’s apprentice,” Cervi says. “Eddie heard more and more of our songs and kept asking, ‘Who are these guys? I really like what they’re doing.’”
And as the members of Huttch know, having someone like Eddie Kramer in your corner is nothing to sneeze at.
Huttch is also scheduled to play at the Casbah in Hamilton Jan. 14.