Wirral indie-rock quartet Hooton Tennis Club are delighted to announce that they have signed to Alcopop! Records and will return with their new single ‘Born, Died’ set for release on 12th November 2024.
Recorded by Al Habeck and Hooton Tennis Club at MUMA Studios, the track was mixed by Harry Chalmers, and mastered by Tom Langrish at E1 Mastering (IDLES, Fontaines D.C, DITZ).
Commenting on the signing, label boss Jack Clothier says: “From the very first moment I heard HTC’s breakout single Jasper on Lammo’s show, I was blown away – and they pretty much instantly became my favourite band of the year! It was just this feelgood instant fuzzy slacker indie smash hit that bounced about for months, pirouetting round my cerebellum like a wistful stroll through the beautiful autumn leaves of Crosby. Imagine my unimaginable delight when a few years later HTC happened upon our inbox with a collection of demos that sounded even better. Could not be happier to be working with Hooton Tennis Club, and we’re monumentally excited for you to hear these songs, and hang out with them on the road actually – because they appear to be the nicest people as well. Some bands have it all <3”
Hooton have appearances at Beyond The Music and Favourite Days Festival lined up this autumn, and will curate their own New Year’s “Hootonanny” on 31st December 2024 at Future Yard, Birkenhead with tickets on sale now (see below for listings).
Their first new material in four years following standalone single ‘Monsoonal Runoff’ (2020) and the release of their transitional second LP Big Box of Chocolates (2016), the new single shows off Hooton’s fully-formed new sound which finds the band definitively moving away from their slacker roots and embracing a more stripped back, genteel aesthetic which takes cues from Elliot Smith and The Shins.
The new single takes its title from a painting by artist Richie Culver in the 2023 John Moores Painting Prize show which features the words “born” and “died” painted on a large, otherwise-empty canvas, grimly reminding frontman Ryan Murphy of the meta-data found on celebrity profiles on Wikipedia.
“With this subject matter, and the recording clocking in at two minutes thirty-something seconds, the song now plays out like ‘Roy’, the life simulator game in Rick and Morty,” he quips. “I really like the way we’ve captured it on record and in the mix, though—it reminds me of The Clean (minus the popping snare): fun, but kind of sad.”
‘Born, Died’ began as a drunken chant between singer-songwriter Hannah Brown (Hank B) and some friends of the band, who were improvising Celtic folk songs with Murphy and his partner at their flat one night. “The ‘Well yes, well yes!’ of the chorus became the sing-along, mantric answer to the ‘more wine?’ question of the evening,” explains Murphy. “Hannah started singing about the mispronunciation of Bowie, coupled with the French expression, ‘Bah, oui!’, which sort of means ‘but of course’. Some days later, I asked Hannah if I could use the ‘well yes’ thing. She laughed and kindly agreed to let me steal it.”
Looking to the lyrics of Bill Lennox and Bobby Colombo of Detroit indie-rockers Bonny Doon for inspiration, Murphy was drawn to the idea of a short song having three acts; something like birth and childhood, mortgages and marriage, and finally ageing and death, which ultimately limited the subject matter of each verse, making it easier to write. “I imagine they’re somewhat inspired by Bob Dylan and/or Paul McCartney,” says Murphy, “both of whom, by keeping things simple, manage to write with this magical ‘universal appeal’. I could only try…”
Based between The Wirral Peninsula and nearby Liverpool, Hooton Tennis Club sing about the small details of life. Theirs is a world in which curious observational lyrics abound; poetic riddles and wry nuggets that contort the banality of everyday existence while never succumbing to cynicism. Quite the opposite in fact: Hooton’s songs are bathed in sunlight, and find romance where others see squalor.
Originally hailing from Chester and Ellesmere Port, Hooton Tennis Club grew up together. They shared record collections, went on school trips, bonded over a shared love of ‘I Should Coco’ by Supergrass, and played in several bands with improbable names. While studying at various colleges they speedily recorded some songs to upload with no intention of ever being an actual ‘band’. Their name was inspired by a sign for the tennis club in Little Sutton, Cheshire. No secret explanation. No hidden messages. No grand plans.
Hooton Tennis Club soon caught the ears of Heavenly Recordings. Sharing mutual friends in Stealing Sheep, label founder Jeff Barrett signed the quartet in September 2014 and their debut single proper, ‘Jasper’, was described by BBC6 Music’s Lauren Laverne as her song of the year. After a UK tour with label-mate H. Hawkline, the band entered Parr Street studios in Liverpool with Bill Ryder-Jones, former guitarist in The Coral, to record their debut album Highest Point in Cliff Town.
A year on from their debut, Hooton Tennis Club released their 2nd LP Big Box of Chocolates—a dozen tracks that continued the band’s knack of combining catchy off-kilter riffs with droll storytelling. Like its predecessor, the album has a selection box of alt-rock short stories: fuzzy stomp-along snapshots of life in the twenty-first century seen through the eyes of lads caught in the hazy Limbo of their twenties.
The band will be revealing further new music and live dates over the coming months.
