Hercules in NY are the latest hypercolour live dance sensations to emerge from the laneways of Melbourne and hit Australia’s stages. With all the pluck of a rock outfit whilst garbed in the best thermochromic threads available, Hercules in NY offer tight performances, dense synth textures, affecting meters and thick basslines amidst a matrix of eloquently pert lyrics. Thanks to a musical education acquired through a childhood of classical lessons, these dance pop marvels have plenty of fortitude and guitar strings for the path ahead with the dance pop group setting their sights on the big lights of the world stages. With their unique band name derived from their boyhood code word of “hot chick close by!”, Hercules in NY are Mark D’Angelo on vocals, guitar and keys, Martin “Marto” O’Donnell on sampler and decks and Simon Lawrie on bass. This trio take their influences from a variety of musical wizards that span the electronic age. French Electro sensations like Daft Punk may feature strongly in their vocals, synths and guitar riffs, with flavours of DJ Shadow impacting the rhythmic nucleus while the thickly turbulent basslines and studio applications of Bootsy Collins or Bernard Edwards will sit at the foundations.

Having first come together in high school, all Hercules in NY have ever wanted to do was be seen as purveyors of good times; sharing their musical message through their accessible sounds stemming from plenty of funk, energy and feeling. Motivated by their drive to communicate with others through the conduit of music, Hercules in NY perform so as to see people at their happiest, dancing their nights away. Since the well received release of their debut AA single in April 2008, their successful debut EP in October 2008 and a bunch of gigs around Australia, Hercules in NY have landed the enviable spot of opening each Art vs Science gig for the latest national tour. ITM sits down with the guys to chat broken guitar strings, hitting the wrong sample button and the pressures of coping as a live band in a dance world.

Performing in a band can be difficult for everyone to cope with. How do you all deal with living in each other’s pockets on tour?

Growing up together as we have, hanging with the band is like hanging with brothers, it’s different to being with acquaintances, or even friends. This relationship is great because we can absolutely crack it at each other and then we move on, minutes later we can be laughing about it. We’ve been living out of each other’s pockets in one way or another since high school, so there really is no challenge to it. We just respect each others needs and wants and try and meet them all when possible. We try to keep it that simple. It works for us.

Looking back on all your tours so far, how do you think you’ve managed to make it to this point?

By being ourselves. The number one most effective way of getting on with people in this industry is just by being genuine and honest. We’ve made it this far and will hopefully go much farther by avoiding all the bull and just getting on at doing what we do with our music.

With the music industry in the current state of today, how do you think Hercules in NY will stand the test of time?

We find it useful to focus on the moment and just concern ourselves with providing our audience with a source of enjoyment that will hopefully enable one to appreciate more of the positives and forget about the negatives for a while. Like everything, music is an ever-developing medium. Technological growth has seen a transformation of the musical format from radio to record, tape to CD, and now to the dominating internet phenomena. When we consider the history of music, the idea of ‘ownership’ of ‘popular music’ is a fairly new concept. Maybe the internet is putting the ‘ownership’ of music back in its rightful place. Only now, at this end of the technological curve, does the punter have so much control over their access to music. The internet is responsible for a new jumping-on point for anyone remotely interested in music; without it we wouldn’t have home-made filmclips, mixes and remixes bouncing around the world, exposure to new and amazing acts that would never otherwise see the light of day, and, of course, we wouldn’t have ‘zines, forums and sites like inthemix.

What has been the most interesting gig so far? What makes a good gig for you guys?

What makes a gig good is a crowd willing to take what we’ve got and give as good as they can back. It’s that simple. That’s all it takes – we’re easily pleased really. One of the most interesting gigs we’ve played was the first night of our first ever residency at Melbourne’s Vineyard in St Kilda. We were unprepared for the sheer frivolity that a crowd could get up to. The music was pumping and we were too busy jumping up and down with the crowd to notice a girl being wheeled away on an ambulance gurney due to some overindulgence, until they had to wheel her over the stage and through to the ambulance whilst we kept playing. We were assured that the girl had fully recovered the next day, but between her, the sexually enlightened crowd and wave after wave of spasmodically twitching dancers, we were quite unsure as to what madness we were getting ourselves into. We’ve seen quite a lot since then but this was definitely our first hit and we’ve been addicted ever since.

What are you looking forward to with this tour?

Seeing just how far across Australia we can spread our infectious dance pop. We love meeting new people on the road and being shown a good time by locals. So far, they’ve been great. And, at the risk of sounding all lovey-dovey, we also love the chance to tour with a great band like Art Vs Science.

What is it about your sound that you think compliments Art vs Science’s sound so well?

We were having a big talk about this with AvS after the Launceston show, actually. It’s great because we tackle the dance pop side of things – with a twist due to our influences that span the past 40 years. Then AvS storm on stage with such a fresh hybrid of modern sounds that it really just feels like a logical progression of sorts.

Aside from this tour, what have Hercules in NY been working on?

We’re launching our new single, I Came Alive in August and have grand machinations for a longer release in the immediate future. We’ve had some fantastic people like James Ash and Tony Espie working on our recorded material with us to bring out its best.

Hercules In NY are currently slogging it on the road with Art vs Science, and you can catch both bright young bands at the dates listed below!

Thur 13 August – Plantation Hotel, Coffs Harbour
Fri 14 August – The Zoo, Brisbane
Sat 15 August – The J, Noosa
Sun 16 August – Neverever Bar, G. Coast
Wed 19 August – Norfolk Basement, Fremantle
Thur 20 August – Amplifier Bar, Perth
Fri 21 August – Jive, Adelaide
Wed 26 August – ANU Bar, Canberra
Thur 27 August – CSU Uni Bar, Bathurst
Fri 28 August – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Sat 29 August – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney (Unlicensed All Ages, Afternoon Show)
Sat 29 August – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle (Evening)
Sun 30 August – Waves, Wollongong