Comprising Glasgow natives Adam and Sam, HYYTS is a duo that was always going to happen. The pair have been friends forever, and have rapidly infiltrated the pop scene from their bedroom band beginnings.
Their sound unites 80s pop and modern sensibilities, while journeying between pop and electronic sounds; in one moment they’re a celebration of underground club culture, and in the next they’re soaring heavenward with their brooding beats and ambitious pop.
Brutally honest lyrics contrast yet fit perfectly with their dance-floor ready tunes – this juxtaposition is best explained by the pair themselves. In Adam’s words:
“The idea of contrast has always been so important to us. Our personalities completely contrast, Sam is the illusive and quiet one, headphones in and getting inspiration from all angles and genres, putting weird sounds and erratic production over my completely different approach of bubblegum pop and cheesy lyrics. We seem to balance each other out, and it seems to work.”
HYYTS are currently supporting English singer Griff on tour. You can find out more information on HYYTS’ official website. You can also get tickets for HYYTS headline dates here.
Lisa took the opportunity to have a chat with them during their downtime.
Thanks for talking to us! First up, is HYYTS an acronym, and if so, what does it stand for?
Hello! It isn’t an acronym but we should probably make up something interesting lol. We wanted to call ourselves Heights as one of our first ever songs had heights in the name, but it was already taken… so we went for a silly spelling cos we’re lazy and couldn’t think of anything else.
How has the Covid-19 Pandemic affected you?
Covid was obviously weird and really hard but fortunately we kinda found ourselves in quite a solid situation with backing from the label and having one another to lean on, we were able to sort of hide away in a room and write a bunch of songs 🙂 most of which were unlistenable. We both went through massive personal things like falling in love and heartbreak which led to us writing the Helluvatime EP we have a couple of positives to take away from it.
I had a look at your website – Tell us about #NOTLONELYPEOPLE. How did that come about?
So we have a song called Lonely People which is essentially a call to arms for all lonely people to embrace what makes them special and to find solace in the loneliness – obviously it doesn’t really work like that so on top of that message we wanted to make a sort of safe space where anyone and everyone could share thoughts, feelings about themselves, loneliness or whatever feelings they have! We’ve realised after going through our own tough times that one of the best ways to work things out is just chatting about it, which goes without saying can be really really hard, but it’s comforting to know you’re not alone.
I really liked the empowerment and encouragement of it all, what set you on the path to positivity and how important a part does it play in your lives?
Thanks! This whole thing kinda came through lockdown too i think. We were writing song after song and really the only thing we had to write about was lockdown. We quickly realised no one needs to be reminded of the situation we’re in and music should be there to serve as a little three minute distraction or inspiration or just anything to help you escape a little, which is how we’ve responded to music our whole lives and we’ve met so many lovely people which are now friends through this weird little positivity train we’re on lol
You’ve been friends forever and now you’re bandmates – do you have a demarcation line between band stuff and life stuff, or does it blend a bit?
Haha ye I dunno this is a really hard thing to manage because being in music is a super personally exposing thing so the line is really blurred even for us individually, so the addition of being best friends is super odd and challenging but we’d have it no other way and we’re slowly becoming a hive mind sort of deal.
‘Singing Your Name’ is such a lovely song! I mean, although it’s about a breakup and heartbreak, it’s nonetheless relentlessly upbeat to the point of being and empowering! What message do you want people to take away from it?
So the song is written about how we always write songs about our exes (meta) and how weird it is to go out and sing these songs in front of people! But what id like people to take from it is when you hear it, think of someone special that makes you happy and have a wee dance <3
If you could go back in time and speak to yourselves at the very start of setting out in music, what would you say to yourselves? And similarly, what advice would you give to other artists, that you’ve learned along the way? What, if anything, would you do differently if you had the chance, and if so why?
I’d tell myself to loosen up, chill out and to not worry too much. But also I trust the process and i think learning all the little things over time and through experiences is a beautiful thing – similarly I’d tell other artists to trust the process and trust your intuition. Also no one has a clue what they’re doing so it’s all good man, relax.
What if do differently is maybe trust myself more creatively, earlier on.
What’s the songwriting process like for you? Are you a democracy or a dictatorship? Do each of you contribute equally or does one definitely have the last say?
It’s very much on an even keel! Adam tends to take more lyrics, I tend to take more production and we’ll both sit down and work out melody. But all of this can turn on its head it really kinda changes song to song. We both have remarkably similar ways of thinking with this stuff so it’s usually quite succinct with very few scratches or bruises!
Finally, and I ask this of everyone I interview – what question do you wish someone would ask you in an interview? And what’s the answer?
Who would I like to represent the earth if Aliens were to arrive? My answer is Christopher Biggins.
‘Singing Your Name’ is out now and can be streamed and downloaded here.
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