It’s been a busy week for Mongolian throat-singing rock band The Hu, with a London tour, special reception at the Mongolian Embassy, massive support set for Iron Maiden at Knebworth, and the release of a brand new video. Naomi Dryden-Smith has been channelling some Mongolian energy.
Anyone who has listened to The Hu, seen their stunning videos or heard them live will know that the only word that really describes them is epic. And not in the loose way it’s bandied around these days. Seriously epic. They generally sing in Mongolian, so you have no idea what they’re singing about – but somehow you know it’s important, dripping with history and tradition, with an intense vibration that resonates with something you can’t really explain – like they’re in tune with something we’ve all long forgotten. Visually, they look like the warriors they sing about.
The band came to London last week on their way to their massive show supporting Iron Maiden at Knebworth. After a quick tour of London’s sights, including Buckingham Palace and a chat with the Household Cavalry (and their horses) in Whitehall, they were hosted by the Mongolian Ambassador at the Embassy in Kensington, where they gave an intimate acoustic performance to a small select group of guests. Inside, in an incredibly sweaty room, their acoustic performance of This Is Mongol, Black Thunder and latest release Grey Hun, was every bit as intense and resonant as when they’re plugged in; it was spellbinding. Outside, while posing for a photo, a passing black cab recognised them, stopped, and left his passengers in the car to grab a selfie with the band.
I had a chat with two of these warriors, Jaya and Temka, afterwards via a patient interpreter – Temka in an England football shirt, which helped reduce the intimidation. I wanted to know about their influences, who had reached them whilst growing up in Mongolia. “Metallica”, “Slipknot”, “and also really heavy metal”. No surprises there. But at the same time “we are trained musicians, especially in folk music. We are carriers of our traditional music and traditional instruments which we’ve been playing since a very young age as well. We basically worked on a fusion of our folk music with our rock music, and that’s how hunne rock came about: our genre.”
As to aspirations “We would like to be as legendary as our idols, the big bands, and we would like our hunne rock genre to develop and become part of the rock family – the international rock family. We want to be legends.”
Asked about their band name, they explained “The Hu means ‘human, human being’. When a baby is born, whether it’s a boy or a girl, we call it ‘mini hu’ – so that’s where it comes from. ‘Mini one’ – it’s almost like ‘my baby, my babykins’. It represents the intelligent and empathetic human being.”
When you talk to them about their fans, their faces soften and light up: “Basically, when we go on tour or do festivals there’s a huge fan base who follow us. Also, there’s such a massive fan base in the UK now and we love coming back to the UK on tour. So, we’re really excited about our upcoming tour and looking forward to meeting our fans. We can’t wait!
When asked of all the venues in the UK, which is their favourite so far: “The Underworld! Of course, we’ve played in bigger venues and festivals, but The Underworld was really special because it’s a unique place where Amy Winehouse and The Beatles have played. It’s very intimate and one of the first venues we played in the UK – we really love the energy of it.
Turning to which song they feel most sums up the band and brings the spirit of the band through: “There are two songs which are very special for us because through those songs our fanbase really got to know us: Yuve Yuve Yu and Wolf Totem. We are growing as a band so on the third album fans can expect more beautiful songs. Further albums will explore nomadic spirit and nomadic heritage and bring that energy through too.
“On 14th July there is a big surprise for fans, we’ll release a video for our new song Echoes Of My Father. The song is dedicated to all fathers, because it seems like there are very few songs about them – we want to encourage people to appreciate their fathers. That’s going to be a really good video!”
Looking forward to seeing more of this special band. Make sure to watch Wolf Totem and Yuve Yuve Yu.
The band will release their third studio album, Hun, on July 24 and return to the UK for a full tour in October (see details and tickets HERE).
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Words and Embassy photo by Naomi Dryden-Smith: Louder Than War |Facebook |Twitter |Instagram |portfolio
Other photos supplied
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