Hudson Taylor: stays in the family

Two brothers from Ireland: meet Harry and Alfie Hudson-Taylor.

“Only time will tell if we’re all just cynics on the run, if we’re all just cynics come undone” (Battles)

Quick facts

Started in: 2011 

Hometown: Dublin, Ireland

Released albums: Battles EP (2012), Cinematic Lifestyle EP (2012), Osea EP (2013), Singing for Strangers (2015)

Best song in our opinion: Chasing Rubies

A musical family

With a musician father and a dancer mother the lads grew into this profession naturally. Gaining practise, fans and a good reputation through busking (which they started to earn some pocket money) and their online videos, their first EP went to number 1 on the Irish charts, quite to the surprise of pretty much everyone. But a listen to their songs will confirm that it wasn’t undeserved: the duo has plenty talent.

Their first full album released by Polydor was also successful enough. It includes a song on equality just as Ireland was voting on gay marriage and their approach is fierce, definite and unapologetic.

They dedicated the song to the LGBT community saying it was directly inspired by the Pride marches which they took part in on behalf of their sister and other friends.

The performance also displays how smooth they sound together with nothing but two guitars. As one of my respected online friends, Hannah explained:

“Though they have a full band (at least the majority of the time) when they tour these days they really don’t need all of that at all – they put on an amazing gig even with just an acoustic guitar each and/or 1 between them.”

It comes handy as it happened to them a couple times that power was list during their gigs, one at the famous Glastonbury festival. But picking up where they left off is no problem for the duo after years of busking. I think after watching the video above you’d agree!

Now the Gallaghers gave this “playing with my brother” setup a bad name but Harry and Alfie couldn’t be more different. They enjoy writing and playing music together and they consider themselves very good friends. They said they started music for fun and they’ll keep going until it’s still fun. Hopefully it won’t run out for a while!

Fun fact

Quite unrelated but rather interesting fact: Hudson Taylor was the name of an English missionary who went to China to spread Protestantism. He ended up doing so much more: he established more than a 100 schools, fought against the opium trade, created an organisation that after 150 years still exists today.  In China he created a life that respected local traditions (to some extent). He learned various dialects of Chinese and translated the New Testament into two! Quite a name-kin, I have to say!

What’s next?

They will start with the festival circuit (circus, some would say) again in the summer.

“Hudson Taylor are playing a load of summer festivals this year – currently lined up they have the ‘110 Above Festival’ in Leicester (UK) on June 19th, ‘G! Festival’ in the Faroe Islands on July 14th, ‘Indiependence Festival’ in Cork (IE) on July 29th and ‘Forgotten Fields Festival’ in Tunbridge Wells (UK) on August 5th. They’ve commented that they’re looking forward to playing some new songs at these events so they have clearly been doing some writing since last year’s touring.”

(Thanks to Hannah for this great info!)

What are your thoughts on working with a sibling? Would you do it? 🙂

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In April we’re featuring 30 bands in 30 days as part of the A to Z blogging challenge. I’ve selected the bands from the artists that worked or toured with The Script before – simply because they have a good taste in choosing bands to work with! The posts are written by my regular contributors, some special friends as guest bloggers and myself. Sign up if you’d like to keep in touch via email.
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Hop over to The Windy Days of an English Teacher to check out today’s post about how I use music to teach English.

Today’s featured blogger is A to Z co-host Jeremy Hawkins, click here to check out what he’s up to.

About Miss Andi

Learning to be unapologetically me but healthier. Shamelessly personifying my dog, Mia, who is my soulmate, though doesn't let me read as much as I used to. One day I'll finish a novel that will not save the world - but might make it smile.

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