Band Interview: Hybrid Spirits

Games, Brrraaains & A Head-Banging Life are pleased to bring you an interview with alternative rock and goth band, Hybrid Spirits.

1. How did you get started as a band?

Hybrid Spirits formed in 2017 after Paul Kirk met Voodoo Jade via a collaborative project with a mutual friend. Before that, Paul and Nigel were in a band for many years called “Aus der Asche” which became known as “From the Ashes UK”. After the collaborative project, Paul and Nigel invited Voodoo Jade to join them in their music venture, and Hybrid Spirits were born!

Nigel Rooke – Vocals, lyrics, keyboards and drum programming.
Paul Kirk – Vocals, lyrics, keyboards, guitars and drum programming.
Voodoo Jade – Vocals and lyrics

2. How would you describe your sound?

We cannot define our style, but release anything from rock to electronic, alternative to ambient. With other things mixed in! It was how we came up with the name “Hybrid Spirits” for the band ; The word Hybrid describes our music, as we don’t believe that we sound like anybody else. Our music can’t be pigeon-holed, and our releases can vary. We chose to add the name “Spirits” to our band name because we all get along really well, like 3 kindred spirits.

3. What bands/artists would you say have influenced your style of music?

We all have different music tastes and influences which, in turn, has influenced the music which we write. Paul likes anything from heavy metal to classical music, including Rammstein, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, The Cult, Neil Young, The Prodigy.

Nigel loves electronic music, but also Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, Gary Numan. He also loves Ska music, Goth, Rock, new wave, synthwave. He particularly relates to songs with strong emotional connections.

Voodoo Jade loves most of the music which Paul and Nigel like, with some folk and new age music thrown in for good measure! Growing up, she was a big fan of Blondie, and now she loves Evanescance, Indigo Girls and Enigma.

4. Has the rise of YouTube & music streaming helped or hindered you as a band?

As with most things, there are positives and negatives. There is less money to be made via YouTube and streaming, but it has helped us with getting our music known and onto various playlists! The good side to streaming is that people can listen to new music without risking money on a purchase if they end up not liking the music! However, support from fans is always appreciated, especially when they purchase our music via Bandcamp as it helps us to raise more funds for the next release.

5. What do you enjoy doing when you’re not making music?

We all have different hobbies and interests. For Paul it’s films and astronomy. Nigel it’s gigs and football, for Voodoo Jade it’s meditation and psychic development. It’s important to have other interests to relax in life, and we find that a good balance of work and play boosts creativity. Between us, we have many things to inspire us which has led us to write songs on many different subjects!

6. What are your future plans musically? Tours?

Hybrid Spirits don’t play live or tour but we wouldn’t rule it out. We are spread across the country and it is difficult for Voodoo Jade to travel as she is in a wheelchair following Meningitis in 2012. We work on our songs electronically and remotely. Each song is passed to each and member to add what they wish, before a song is completed. Lockdown was a positive experience for music writing for us, as we had more free time to work on music individually. We don’t meet up in person very often, but we have regular band meetings on video chat.

We have just released an EP called “Mirage” and we are fundraising until the end of April 2021 for the release of our charity single “Rain or Shine”. It is a song to reflect feelings of hope and solidarity during the Covid-19 lockdown, and sales from it will be raising money for the International Committee of the Red Cross for those affected by Covid-19 across the world. Read more here.

We will continue fundraising until the end of April 2021, so it’s not too late to buy a copy of the charity single (£1.50 or more) to support the cause at our Bandcamp page.

Also, we have already started recording some new songs which will be on a future release. Again, it is a different feel to the music which we’ve already released, and would be classed as darkwave/electronic. We are still writing more music for the next EP/album so everything could change yet! We do alternate vocals between Nigel and Voodoo Jade, and the next EP will predominately be Nigel on main vocals. His voice is perfect for darker songs!

The band is also recording relaxation music for a series of meditation tracks which Voodoo Jade is currently working on. There are some tracks for general meditations, and some for the development of psychic awareness/abilities.

Links

Website | Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook