Duo hitting the HYYTS

Electropop pair are bouncing about returning to live gigs and play their home town tonight

THEY share the surname Hunter but Adam and Sam, of HYYTS, aren’t related.

But the duo (Adam sings while Sam plays the music) are the best of friends and have been pals since meeting, aged 10, at a football game.

Tonight, the electropop pair will play their biggest hometown show at Saint Luke’s in Glasgow. Adam tells all...

You’ll be playing your biggest hometown show tonight. How are you feeling?

We are so, so, so excited and very, very nervous, too. The best gig of our lives was at King Tut’s in August so we’re buzzing to be playing an even bigger show – and it’s a Friday night, too. It’s going to be the best night ever. We can’t wait!

You’ve known each other since you were kids. Are you good pals because you’re both called Hunter?

The name thing is really weird but that’s not why we’re such good friends. We’re best pals and always have been. We’re such a close team that we kind of share the same thoughts. Neither of us would want to do this without the other. Getting to do these things with your best pal is the best fun in the world.

How was lockdown for you?

It was tough but we were super-lucky that we still managed to see loads of each other as we lived together. We made music every day – mental techno no one would ever hear, which was fun. But getting back to playing gigs is the best feeling ever, so we’re loving life again.

You used to work as a music therapist in prisons so you know about its power. Yet during the pandemic, music was sidelined and ignored. A big mistake?

The Government’s attitude towards music and the arts in general during the pandemic was absolutely shocking.

Having seen at first hand the difference organisations and programmes can make to people’s lives, watching them get completely forgotten about was especially frustrating. But there are amazing people out there taking action and doing the best they can to make a difference.

Can music help young people who have been affected by missing exams and not seeing friends move on from Covid?

I think so. We’ve been lucky to see the difference at gigs we’ve been playing. People, especially young people, are so thankful to be able to get out and dance around and be alive in a room full of people again.

What were your and Sam’s music influences?

Sam’s first record was 50 Cent and mine was the Smashing Pumpkins, which is quite cool actually for first records. I remember seeing George Michael’s Careless Whisper on TV when I was wee and instantly knowing that’s what I wanted to do. The 80s is our biggest inspiration. We loved the duos in that decade like Pet Shop Boys, Sparks, Yazoo, Tears for Fears, Erasure and Eurythmics.

Being a pop duo, has it been harder to be taken seriously in Scotland?

We’ve felt that a little bit but there’s a pop scene growing in Glasgow and loads of great bands and artists that kinda blur the lines between pop and other stuff – like Joesef, Lucia and Lizzie Reid. But our superpoppy music always goes down a bit better south of the Border.

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