Photo: Justine Trickett
"We never wanted to fit in," admits Hurts frontman Theo Hutchcraft, pondering the band's place in the music scene in 2013. "It was strange at first because we were like the black sheep. There was a time when we'd succeeded and no one really knew what to do with us."
Indeed, what to do with a band like Hurts? Too dark to be mainstream, too pop to be indie and, as guitarist and synth-player Adam Anderson put it when they picked up the prize for Best New Band at the 2011 NME Awards, often misconstrued as 'a couple of pretentious wankers who sound like Westlife'.
But it's that awkward idiosyncrasy that has stood Hurts in good stead. "People liked the fact that we stand alone," continues Theo. "You can always look around and take influence, but we've worked quite hard to be unique. It's quite difficult, but I like to be the odd one out."
And odd ones out they certainly are. When they arrived on the scene dominated by the understated sounds of The xx and James Blake and the dancefloor indie disco anthemics of the never-ending post-Libertines hangover. Their slick and dramatic image met with their stadium-sized and utterly shameless pop-noir made them stand out like a sore thumb. In 2013, the supposed 'year of guitar music' (but largely dominated by dance and hip-hop), the black sheep of Hurts has wondered even further away from the flock with their fearless and shameless sophomore effort, Exile.
"It's been a very interesting year," says Theo - comtemplating his contemporaries. "Everything goes in cycles but there have been a lot of big acts delivering brilliant records. Arctic Monkeys made an amazing record, the Bowie record was fantastic, Kings Of Leon are great. It's good when those big things pay off.
"As the years go on, the pop machine grows ever closer to bursting. That's how it works - it gets to the point where the pop cycle gets too big and bursts, that's when the underground comes up. Every year that goes by, I wonder if this will be the year that it tips and we get The Strokes again. We're getting tantalizingly close to the edge and it can only be good for music. When it becomes saccharine and bombastic, it inspires people to make better records."
While our generation awaits the 'burst of the bubble' and the emergence of the next Strokes, Oasis, Arctic Monkeys or maybe even a Nirvana, Hurts have been striving for success on their own terms, and in the strangest corners of the world. While in Britain, they could be described as one of the England's biggest cults, in Germany and Eastern Europe, they inspire a Beatle-mania level of utterly bat-shit mental devotion; headlining festivals, selling out stadiums and sending fan-girls into a feral frenzy at every turn. Is this due a level of indie snobbery in the UK, or do Hurts just have a certain magnetism to audiences across the continent?
Theo Hutchcraft: "It gets to the point where the pop cycle gets too big and bursts, that's when the underground comes up. We're getting tantalizingly close to the edge and it can only be good for music."
"Do you know what, it’s very hard to tell and understand because it’s all that we’ve ever known as a band," replies Theo. "We sit on the radio next to Katy Perry in a lot of these countries, which for us is very bizarre but great for the message of what we’re about. It’s great to have a place there. We’re in a different band in every country. In Finland we’re a very pop act, whereas in Germany we could play a goth festival then in Britain we’re a much more alternative prospect. I think that everyone takes something different from it, which means that you learn a lot from your music."
The many different reactions probably arise from the many different aspects encompassed by the Hurts sound. Few bands could carry the same ecclecticism of a track like the Timbaland-esque bounce of 'Sandman', with the Human League majesty of 'Sunday' and the howling horror of 'The Road' in the same gig, but Hurts take everything to the Nth degree of extreme with grace and aplomb. Their inpiration to be so staunchly adventurous? You may be surprised to hear this, but Yeezy himself - Kanye West.
"Kanye's in a position of power, and he accepts his responsibility as a superstar to change pop music," says Theo. "A lot of people in his position don't snatch that opportunity. People have to play Kanye, and people have to listen to Kanye - so it's up to him to make music that's interesting and can change the landscape, whereas a lot of these big popstars don't take the initiative."
Theo Hutchcraft: "Calvin Harris is a genius. He's a fantastic songwriter and I've never seen anyone who produces records quite like him."
The influence of an artist like Kanye should come as no surprise to Hurts fans. They're a band with their feet deeply embedded in both the trenches of indie and of pop - appearing on the cover of NME while collaborating with everyone from Kylie Minogue to Calvin Harris. 'Under Control', their track with the Scottish superstar DJ and Alesso, shows a massive departure from the Mancunians bombastic synth-sound. Not only is it currently dominating daytime radio and the midnight hour in clubs, but it smacks of a true 'IBIZA BANGER'. Did the band take anything from the collaboration to carry into the future?
"I think it was a learning curve for us all," says Hutchcraft. "Obviously Calvin and Alesso work in a similar world but it was interesting for me and for all of us to learn stuff from each other. They all operate in a very 'pop' atmosphere but in a very different way. There's a lot in common between our two world but it was interesting to try and make a record that was somewhere between them all. Also, we're like magpies in learning their production techniques. It was a very fun process."
Could we see Harris producing the next Hurts record?
"It's hard to tell. It's a very different world, but Calvin is a genius. He's a fantastic songwriter and I've never seen anyone who produces records quite like him. We won't really know until we know what kind of record we've made."
And of course, in true Hurts style, it could be any and all kinds of album imaginable. As they take to the stage at the sold-out Troxy in London to unveil a stunning new live set of dizzying lights and a lightbox stagefloor, it seems that the band are planning ahead for venues with a size that matches the scope of their sound. From the chillingly perfect 'Wonderful Life' to the balls-out boyband balladry of 'Somebody To Die For' and the Trent Reznor dark dynamics of 'Cupid', Hurts pillage the best sounds of yesteryear but present them with the conviction of a catalogue of classics.
"For us, it's always really exciting because we never really know where we're going," saysTheo. "I guess we make pop music, but there are lots of different forms that it can take and we never really know where it's going to until we start making music. We've started writing songs, but there's a variety of paths that we can go down."
He continues: "Considering the types of song we wrote on our second record. We go in the direction of a song like 'The Crow' for instance, which is like a Tarintino-esque mid-Western American sound, or we could go down the route of a song like 'The Road' which is very Nine Inch Nails or we could go the opposite way entirely and make a huge pop record but I guess that it will always fit with us."
Theo Hutchcraft: "We always try to make an album that covers all points of interest. Doing these two records and pushing it to the extreme in a pop sense and then turning around and doing the opposite, we now know the boundaries in which we exist."
When asked if the album would have a particular sound or be another diverse mix like Exile, Hutchcraft replies: "We always try to make an album that covers all points of interest and I think that we're developing. Doing these two records and pushing it to the extreme in a pop sense with a song like 'Stay' and then turning around and doing the opposite, we now know the boundaries in which we exist."
Of course, that's not saying much - considering the epic distance between said 'boundaries'. Still, whatever we see from Hurts next, expect it to be anything but what the mainstream demands. In a world where the charts are awash with manufactured evil, it's a delight to see a band take on mainstream sounds with such fierce forethought and independence. Expect these black sheep to only get darker, and drift further away down their own path.
Below: Exclusive photos of Hurts live at Troxy, London
