Hood's "Outside Closer" is out on Domino
www.dominorecordco.com/usa

G.P.: Often Hood's music feels as much like a visit to a place, as much, or more than it does a conventional song, do you think your physical geological location and climate are reflected in your music?

R.A.: I think they have to be. Maybe you don't agree but I think "Cycles" is a much more urban record than what went before as we now all live in cities so you tend to write about the environment that surrounds you. When you're out in Wetherby although it is a town my parents house is situated in a fairly rural environment so you're bound to notice the changing of seasons, the way the fields alter and changing weather patterns.

G.P.: How important is the element of chance?

R.A.: Totally, totally totally important. The best things we have done have been totally accidental. This is the thing we can't get across to people like record companies who think you have to demo a song then go in with a "name" producer and attempt to do it again. The aim of Cycles really was to go into the studio with only bare sketches of songs and just see what comes out. Obviously what came out sounded nothing like what we had in our heads but I still think it was a worthwhile and interesting approach. We are now recording solely at home and the music is starting to sound exactly as we want it. If you were a producer you would probably say we were doing everything wrong but it sounds good to us so thats the main thing. The music has to have the stamp of the individuals who make it. A good example of the wrong way for me is the last couple of Elliot Smith records where his personal songs have been trod on and ruined by big budget arrangements and producers. I want less and less people to play on Hood records and no-one else to be involved in it apart from the close circle of friends who understand what we are getting at.

G.P.: You mentioned how important the human voice was to Hood's sound. How important is the tangible emotional aspect of your music to you?

R.A.: Very important - in fact of prime importance. I seriously think there is a lack of music out there that has that emotional attachment. A lot of electronica post rock is nice but doesn't move you the way that words and the human voice can.

G.P.: Describe Wetherby, and West Yorkshire?

R.A.: Rural in parts built up in others. Leeds is quickly becoming a miniature London which is good in some ways not so in others. Wetherby is a picturesque market town about 10 miles from Leeds. It is pretty much a commuter town these days but strangely is fairly cut off. No train link and terrible bus links to Leeds and York.

Therefore there is still sort of a village mentality to it where the only thing you can do after the pubs shut on a friday or saturday night is either to go home or fight. Heres the soundbite - Wetherby - nice to visit not nice to live there.

G.P.: Is Hood more at home in the studio or onstage?

R.A.: In the studio I think. We didn't really do too much live until a year or two ago. We're getting better at it, I think - I enjoy playing live but hate all the hassles that surround it. Chris is a studio whizz and could record all the stuff himself if he wanted. I'd like to get us to the stage where we could have our own studio set up so that we could do loads of recording but money/ time is causing problems at the moment.

G.P.: Can you tell me about an early experience with a film, TV show, or other artform that had a memorable impact on you?

R.A.: Well when I was about five there was an advertisement on TV warning people of the dangers of flying kites near electricity pylons. It showed a girls kite getting snared in the overhead lines and her falling to her death. It was truly horrific.

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