The Hunna talk living the dream, releasing new music and getting to The Pyramid Stage
We dare you to name a bigger band on the rise than The Hunna. After years of dedication to their pure love for music, the British boys are embarking on a worldwide tour to promote the release of their second album.
It’s the second January show at the O2 Apollo in Manchester and The Hunna are hyped for another big night. The boys chat with us about living the dream, releasing new music and getting to The Pyramid Stage.
It’s your second night playing the O2 Apollo Manchester – are we expecting tonight to be as big as last Saturday?
Dan: Saturday was the best show we’ve ever had, but tonight is sold out so we’ll see – we can’t wait for round 2!
You’ve already released ‘Summer’ and ‘Dare’ off the new album which we love! When can fans expect the rest of the album?
Dan: It’s going to be released in May. We’re releasing ‘Flicking Your Hair’ which is another single on Friday (12th). We’re gonna be dropping singles as much as possible (like we did with 100) so half will be released that way and then the rest will be revealed with the album in May.
Do all of your lyrics relate to personal experiences? Is it a collaborative effort?
Ryan: Yeah they do, most of the time it’s just me who writes them. The songs are about things we’ve experienced together, me on my own and even experiences the guys have had as people which I’ll then write about from another perspective.
You previously supported Coasts on their 2015 tour and they’re currently supporting you – are you good friends with them?
Dan: Yeah we’re fairly close. We don’t hang out with them all the time, but they’re easy guys and we have a lot of laughs. They’re supporting us in Australia, Europe and America then they’re gonna go do their own thing! They’re good guys and they’ve had us on their tour so now we’re repaying the favour.
How did your signing with High Time Records come about?
Dan: Before we started the band me and Ryan were playing an acoustic set in a really bad bar in Watford called Rehab. It was a really long process; we’ve all been mates and writing songs for years so we eventually decided to start the band up. I think people think you just get signed easily but it’s years worth of work; building everything up, preparing and making sure everything is ready.
Jack: When you start, you don’t even have being signed in mind because you’re just so happy to be gigging. But then when the momentum kicks in you’re like ‘we’ve been doing this for a while now, let’s try to get signed’.
I bet it’s amazing finally being signed and then doing a world tour, does it feel surreal?
Dan: Definitely! High Time is an independent record label so there was no guarantee it would be successful. It was definitely a ‘work your way up’ kinda thing for us. Being with an independent label has its perks; we have a lot of creative control, which we wouldn’t have if we signed to a major label.
Ryan: That’s something we definitely wanted, to be able to stay true to ourselves and play rock music that we love.
Where did the band name come from?
Ryan: Hunna means 100 in hip-hop. We love our hip-hop and we always used to say one hunna like ‘last night was one hunna’ or ‘that girl is one hunna’. We were hungover after a party one day and Jack and Dan were talking about what names to have. We had Hunna and we decided to try The in front of a few names and it just clicked. We went through so many names though!
Dan: We nearly called ourselves Jasper or Luna.
Jack: We love slang words and we’ve made so many up together, but out of all of them The Hunna was the most band-worthy.
What do you do on a normal day-to-day basis when you aren’t touring? Is life 100% music focused?
Jack: We play football, go to the cinema, relax, see our families. Just normal stuff because when we’re on tour it’s mad so we don’t get to do that stuff much anymore.
Dan: We haven’t stopped recently! Today was literally wake up, shower, pop-up tour, meet and greet, interview, tattoos, stage. Fun though!
Jermaine: We really do appreciate it because it’s gone from having a lot of time off before we signed to now being the complete opposite.
‘She’s Casual’ has had over 12 million streams on Spotify, did you know this was going to be a big hit when you wrote it?
Dan: Yeah we felt it although it was actually a b-side to Bonfire. Bonfire was the first single we released.
Ryan: Yeah, She’s Casual was pretty much one of the first we had as The Hunna. We had it for a while and we kept going back to it, developing it over the years. We thought, if it goes out and gets the right support behind it then it could really do something and here we are – 12 million steams later!
Can we watch out for you at any festivals this year?
Dan: We’re definitely going to be playing a lot of festivals this year as we’ve just signed a deal with Live Nation. We might be playing Main Stage for Reading and Leeds, and Victoria Park in London with Catfish and the Bottlemen which will be cool. We’re also hopefully going to be doing festivals in Europe, America and Japan. It’s a shame there’s no Glastonbury this year because that’s a big dream of ours. Straight to the Pyramid Stage!
You’ve sold out shows all over the world and made two albums in the space of a few years. What’s next?
Dan: Yeah I think we are living the dream a little! We haven’t got that Porsche yet and no Ferrari’s either but regarding the fans, definitely!
Ryan: The only thing that’s next for us is even more work than we’ve already done and even less sleep! So worth it though – we won’t stop until we’re the biggest band in the world.
