Getting to Know… Hike The Peak | Interview 🎤

In the 313^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from the worldwide, collaborative, skate-punk project, Hike The Peak.

“Each song has a different singer…” Um, say what 🎙 Hike The Peak? Lee, the brainchild of the collective expounds, “And they’re on different continents so playing live may be tricky. Covid was the perfect time to catch people as they weren’t gigging and needed something to do!” Intriguing to say the least! Like our many other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on the Sheffield-based, worldwide, collaborative, skate-punk project: the genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Hike The Peak: Interview No. 313!

For those who may not be familiar with Hike The Peak, what would you say makes you distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Unique? Well, as collaborative projects go….each song has a different singer. And they’re on different continents so playing live may be tricky. Covid was the perfect time to catch people as they weren’t gigging and needed something to do! I have a long list and who knows if you’re reading this you may be on it!

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Hike The Peak form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

🎤 Hi, I’m Lee. I’ve been playing in melodic punk bands for over 20 years I’ve toured mainland Europe a lot of times and when the covid lockdowns kind of put a stop to my full-time band, NO CONTEST, I realised how much I missed music so instead of wasting my time I started focusing a lot on songwriting and recording in my home studio… Being locked at home sent my mental health a bit haywire so I needed something to focus on. So, slowly but surely I began hiding away in my spare room playing my guitar and learning a whole clutch of music programs. My vocal talents are backup vocals at best so I thought I’d contact a few of my friends whom I’ve toured/played shows within the UK and the euro mainland to see if anyone was interested in adding their vocal talents to the project. The response back was massively positive. That’s how it started…

Each 2-track EP has been released every 6 weeks since September 2021, and since we’ve emerged from the Covid lockdowns, the interest from people wanting to get involved in HIKE THE PEAK has been immense. So, the project will be continuing as long as people keep listening. That’s the vision and how we came about as a project.

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 My aspiration has always been to write music so that people can elicit an emotional response. Whether it be through the lyrical content that whoever performed on that particular track or whatever melodies catch them and force them to tap their feet….that’s what each of the tunes should do one way or another….that’s still the goal…the more people that listen – if they just say to one of their friends – ‘Hey,  have you heard this? It’s catchy as fuck,’ that’ll do for me. Fundamentally, people’s opinions start and end with the product itself.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 Face To Face is a huge influence. Don’t Turn Away is a masterpiece of catchy melodic punk. The perfect package. Simple, yet effective guitar lines that aren’t too tech like Lagwagon or A Wilhelm Scream coz I can’t play that tech so I focus on writing hooks. That’s what gets people coming back. Don’t get me wrong, I love some real tech stuff but when listening to a track I’m not thinking ‘yeah, that sweep was fast,’ I’m thinking of the earworm that’s got inside my head that makes me want to return to it.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

🎤 In my career as a musician there’s many a tale…being so pissed that I tuned all my strings half a tap up without realising for a song… falling out of the van to stop myself being sick in the van but falling into my own vomit…their mostly all beer-related… We stayed at our friend Honza’s in Czech Republic; his mum made us all breakfast and baked a cake for us, which his dog ate when we weren’t looking. Funnily enough, when our friends DARKO stayed there a couple of weeks before on their tour, the dog did the same thing as he had previously. It’s just the look on his mum’s face when she realised he’d done it again, we couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe put the cake somewhere the dog can’t get to?!

We played a last-minute gig in some weird pub an hour outside Munich on tour once, and during soundcheck, we knew things were going south when the snare was hit for the first time and the owner asked if we could turn it down (it wasn’t mic’d up). I used to always leave the strings on my machine heads long to stop people dancing from standing on my pedals and when we were on tour with NO CONTEST we always had fun tunes in the van…like Kesha, Katy Perry and the like…we arrived at Punk Rock Holiday in Slovenia to pick up our artist passes with Vengaboys blasting out much to the chagrin of the staff. No hookers and blow, sorry. If there was I would say here!

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?  

🎤 A favourite song is hard….it’s like picking a favourite child. Each one is different as the vocalist imprints their style onto it when I give them the track and that’s what makes the project so cool. Having said that there’s sections of songs that I really think… ‘thats amazing…and I wrote that…and its been elevated by the vocals and maybe a harmony over the top….I don’t give anyone any brief and when they deliver a vocal line with a three-part harmony that makes me think, fuck yeah, that’s mint! For instance, [I’ve] just written a new song last week that’s got a middle 8 breakdown with a Svalbard inspired guitar line in it that sounds amazing… I sat there laughing after I woke it thinking to myself I can’t wait to get some sick vocals over this. That the excitement for me…

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 I’ve got a Blue Peter badge. Paul McCartney told me to fuck off once. I saw Green Day’s second-ever show in the UK in front of 20 people. I’m in 2 Netflix documentaries. That’ll do for now.

Closing out, what is Hike The Peak currently working on, or promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

🎤 The newest EP came out last week… the next one [will] hopefully [arrive] before Christmas. Because the ethos of the band is playing all the instruments with guest vocalists, playing a live show will be very tricky! However, if there was a festival where a few of the bands were playing which meant that a few of the people would all be in the same place, then obviously it [would be] something that [I] could hopefully make happen one day. Never say never. My mum used to say. Thanks for the chat and thanks for reading. Please give us a listen…we may be your new favourite band!

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Getting to Know… Hike The Peak: Interview No. 313 [📷: Brent Faulkner, Darkmoon_Art, Hike The Peak, luis2500gx, The Musical Hype, Pixabay, OpenClipart-Vectors]