The Hyena Kill: A Disconnect To Reconnect

The evolution of a band often has a fair share of ups and downs. For Manchester-based THE HYENA KILL, which started out as a two-piece consisting of Steven Dobb and Lorna Blundell, it felt like despite their rising recognition over the years, things might be coming to an end. Cue some fortuitous jamming with Sam Jones and Charlie Seisay, and you get yourselves a killer album that’s turning heads. We caught up with Dobb to discuss A Disconnect, their change of approach to music and the future of THE HYENA KILL.

It’s sure to say that A Disconnect, overflows with honesty and emotionally impact, possibly more so than any other record the band have released thus far. “I hope so, because those are the records that have impacted us the most,” Dobb says hopefully. “Especially for me, brutal, beautiful music – that’s what I’ve always connect with. If you’re not making music you’d want to sit down and listen to yourself, I don’t see the fucking point to be honest. That’s what’s kept us going as a band through so many ups and downs, the passion for doing it.”

That passion, while palpable both on stage and in their back catalogue, has taken a toll on the resilience of the two piece to carry on. “When we gig, we put absolutely everything into it,” Dobb agrees. “When me and Lorna would finish, we’d be aching and be exhausted. Essentially, we never intended to record this record, we were going to record one song and me and Lorna decided we were going to break up. We felt we had taken the two-piece thing kind of as far as we could go,” he recalls. “We were still jamming and had the bare bones of Cauterised, but we didn’t know if we were going to carry on any more. So, we thought the song was pretty awesome, and that we should just record one more song, then we could call it a day.” That could have been the end of THE HYENA KILL, one last massive tune to see them off. But the decision to expand their sound just for the hell of it changed their decision to quit dramatically.

“We thought well fuck it, we’ve always wanted to add more instrumentation, why don’t we invite a couple of friends along? Let’s just record one more banging track and it snowballed from there!” He laughs. A lot of things changed for THE HYENA KILL on this record, not least how the band could expand their sound by allowing different sections of the music to shine in different ways. “It was a big relief for me to be able to work on vocal melodies and not have to play that much guitar,” Dobb explains on how the band changed up their approach to creating with more members. “I was actually be able to drop out completely, which I could never do as a two piece. If the guitar drops all you have is drums so it’s been so freeing; there’s so much space to actually write the song as oppose to struggling and trying to fill the space.”

There’s the signature heaviness and raw energy that THE HYENA KILL have always had, but now there is clearly a sense of freedom and perspective that simply weren’t there before. “There was only so much we could do as a two piece,” he explains. “So, with all the extra textures it allowed me a lot more room to play less, and even for Lorna. I can’t speak for her, but because there were only two instruments, she really filled a lot of space with amazing drums beats, but this time she got to enjoy just sitting back a bit and just pulsing, keeping the song going and flaring up with her amazing style as and when it was needed.”

You can feel so much ebb and flow to this record, from the sombre and agonised to the well and truly enraged, it’s a real journey of true sincerity and massive energy. That’s somewhat contributed to by the fact Dobb himself has been able to craft his vocals. “I sort of set out and jokingly said ‘I don’t want to do any more screaming’ because it’s so taxing when you go to do it live. I always do move from singing to screaming, and I’ve always been too unfit to pull it off, I’ve never really looked after myself. You get halfway through a tour, and I’d be inevitably drinking and smoking too much. So, with this I really took my time. We wrote all the music first, so I just got the canvas of the song and filled the gaps and did my own interpretation with what the music was doing. It was such a freeing way to work and I was able to spend way, way more time preparing and practising and trying out different vocal lines until I was happy, instead of saying ‘oh that’ll do, I’ll make it work in the studio.’ I knew exactly what I was doing for every take. There was hardly any improvisation and I felt a lot more comfortable and confident.”

Having the time to write and really pour themselves into crafting their work is evidently the best way for THE HYENA KILL to create. “The way we write songs by its very nature is quite slow,” admits Dobbs earnestly, “You’re always expected to have release after release, tour after tour. Then you might get into the studio and not do your best work but you put it out anyway, because you’re trying to get content out all the time. Personally, I think that detracts from the music. For me, and in fact for all of us as we’re all pretty similar in that respect, this was the better way to work- slow, no pressure, no end goal in terms of what sound you’re going for.”

The core of what THE HYENA KILL is still the beating heart of every song, you can hear that from the moment the first track starts, but the band aren’t tied to making self-critical evaluations and putting themselves in boxes. The liberation of taking the music at face value and developing whatever came naturally has resulted in a monumental album that feels like the next step for the band. In fact, some of the most powerful songs the band have ever written have been created on this record, “I think the way I’ve always written in the past it’s been a bit of a collage that can be interpreted any way you want,” Dobb muses on his writing process. “I’ve always liked that, those sorts of mysterious, cryptic lyrics. Even though I sort of did the same thing this time, with these songs it makes a lot more sense. There’s still multiple meanings behind each song and you can pick bits out that you connect with, but while there maybe one or two songs that definitive subject matter, as a whole this set of songs is a lot clearer than anything we’ve done before.”

The future is never set-in stone, as THE HYENA KILL well knows. But in their lowest moments, when things have felt like they’d reached their end, a new chapter and a fresh part of the story emerges. “I don’t know how serious we’re going to be, but looking back it feels pretty serious,” Dobb explains. “It was a big decision, to take a step back and to not do the band every day, constantly. It was like we were just a bit exhausted and needed a break. But in that break, came this album. We just took our time, there was never any rush, because there were no tours [there was just] a couple of shows. And we thought, let’s not tour, we’ve nothing to promote, let’s just write. And we did; we allowed ourselves loads of time to write; it was a really good year.” That time to reflect and allow something to blossom, to interact on a human level is what has plugged THE HYENA KILL back in, and formed arguably their greatest work to date.

A Disconnect is out now via APF Records.

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