Hayman Kupa Band, The - The Hayman Kupa Band (CD) |

Hayman (Hefner) and Emma Kupa (Standard Fare/Mammoth Penguins) decided to make a duets rec- ord, we knew the results would be great, but we didn’t expect them to be THIS great. Gathering togeth- er a rhythm section consisting of Michael Wood (Whoa Melodic/Singing Adams) on bass and Cat Loye (Fever Dream) on drums, The Hayman Kupa Band create brash, bold and effortlessly melodic power pop. Sharing writing duties and sometimes singing each others words, lines are blurred and creativity explored in a wonderfully exuberant collection of songs. The album is an exploration of relationships and, at its heart, it’s the sound of a friendship being made. Darren explains further: It’s only happened a few times but just once or twice I have seen someone on stage and thought, “I want to be in a band with them.” But I thought it the first time I saw Emma playing with her magnificent and under-rated band Standard Fare. Co-writing is something I’m not used to. It’s very intimate. Emma’s lyrics are sharp and precise whereas mine are more metaphoric. We talked about relationships and that’s what the album is about. It’s about our fears and paranoias and the search for trust and love. We deliberately swapped lines and genders so the narrative is never truly that of traditional duets. We recorded everything live including the vocals with only a handful of overdubs. We recorded it two and a half years ago and it has been like a time capsule whilst me and Emma released five other albums.