Getting to Know… Hybrid Spirits | Interview 🎤

For the 143rd interview on The Musical Hype, we get insight from Hybrid Spirits, who ‘don’t have a particular sound they aim to produce!’

“Depending on the song and style, we like to have driving music and/or lyrics to capture the spirit of the song.” Awesome stuff 🎙 Hybrid Spirits, awesome stuff.  Furthermore, it’s a great answer to the opening question posed to the band gracing the 143^rd interview on The Musical Hype. Hybrid Spirits is comprised of 🎙 Nigel Rooke (vocals, lyrics, keyboards and drum programming), 🎙 Paul Kirk (vocals, lyrics, keyboards, guitars and drum programming) and last but not least, 🎙 Voodoo Jade (vocals and lyrics). More time could be spent summarizing the contents of this Q&A but what would be the point of doing so when you could read the awesomeness for yourself.  So, without further ado, The Musical Hype unleashes Getting to Know… Hybrid Spirits: Interview #143!

Starting things off right, for those who may not be familiar with Hybrid Spirits, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?  

🎤 We feel that Hybrid Spirits are unique because we don’t have a particular sound which we aim to produce.  Our songs and releases, to date, have ranged from alternative to ambient, and from electronic to rock.  We like to think that there is something for (almost) everybody!

Depending on the song and style, we like to have driving music and/or lyrics to capture the spirit of the song.  For example, check out our song 🎵 “Fear”. It is dark, driving and has a captivating beat with mesmerising sounds!

This is why 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.  We can never predict what we will write next, as we have so many ideas and influences!

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Hybrid Spirits form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

🎤 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!

At the beginning we agreed that we all loved writing and recording music, and that it would be great to get it out into the world for people to hear. Of course, we said how great it would be to become a signed band and play Glastonbury or something similar!

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?  

🎤 3 years and several releases on, we still think that it would be great to be signed and play at a huge festival!  We never really had a goal as such, we just wanted our music out there, which it is. We also just wanted to enjoy the experience, which we still do.  Hand on heart, we see it more as a hobby now as we all have other jobs. Of course, if we all earned enough from the music to pay the bills, we’d be tempted to retire from our day jobs!  Ideally, we’d love our fan base to continue to grow and just for people to like what we do. However, we did get a wonderful unexpected pleasure in spring 2019 when we were interviewed by presenters Sunny and Shay at the BBC Radio West Midlands Radio studio, That was awesome!

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

🎤 We all have different music tastes and influences. Paul likes anything from heavy metal to classical music, including Rammstein, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, The Cult, Neil Young. 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 Evanescence, Indigo Girls and Enigma.

You can hear some of Paul’s rock influences by his guitar playing in some songs such as 🎵 “Fear”, 🎵 “Mirage”, 🎵 “Mysteria-Hysteria”, 🎵 “Substance” and some of his other influences (eg The Prodigy) in songs such as 🎵 “Rain or Shine”, 🎵 “Dancing in the Midnight Sky” and 🎵 “Mars”. Nigel’s many influences, especially electronic (and sometimes rather dark!) can be heard in the synths, vocals and lyrics in the songs “Fear”, 🎵 “I Want the Darkness to Come”, 🎵 “Baptism of Ice”, 🎵 “The King Eternal”, 🎵 “War Machine” and 🎵 “Substance”, and on synth work in many of our songs. Voodoo Jade’s influences come in with the harmonies and styles which she creates, whether she is singing backing or lead vocals. She likes dark, heavy music as well as light, and she likes her vocals to suit the song which she is working on.

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.

🎤 Unfortunately, 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.

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?

🎤 For us, it is the track 🎵 “War Machine” from the 💿 Fear EP because it is the first song which we all worked on together. It is a dark, gritty, slow but emotive song about how wars never seem to stop. The song is dark and industrial in nature, but sung from the heart. Nigel and Paul had just recorded this when Voodoo Jade was asked to join. Although she’d never worked with music in this style before, she used her previous choir experiences to “bring light to the darkness.”

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

🎤 There isn’t much to say here I’m afraid! Although Paul once ran away and joined the circus, and Nigel was a secret agent. Nah, not really! Voodoo Jade speaks several languages, which she tries to incorporate in the music when and where possible/relevant. Unfortunately, she had Meningitis in 2012 which resulted in her legs being amputated, so although she has no problems using her voice to record music, the physical aspect of making & performing music is more difficult for her these days.

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

We have just released an EP called 💿 Mirage and we are also fundraising until the end of April 2021 for 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.  https://www.icrc.org/en/donate/covid-19-emergency-appeal

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.

You can find our music at https://hybridspirits.bandcamp.com/. Also, on YouTube, Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play, Tidal, Deezer and Pandora amongst other streaming sites. Just search for us and our song “Fear” and you’ll find us!

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward.   

Many thanks for your support and for doing the interview!

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[📷: Hybrid Spirits, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype; Icons made by https://www.flaticon.com/authors/freepik (Freepik)]