HLLLYH - It's The Mae Shi!

It’s taken a good five years of consistent touring via. L.A, a couple of unofficial album releases via. the internet and here in 2008, all eyes are starting to catch sight of The Mae Shi. It can be explained, but not in typical fashion – The Mae Shi aren’t your usual hyped band and they haven’t got attention the way others have. Before playing another one of their many shows in the UK (they’re played over 200 since forming), Gigwise caught up with recent recruit but realistically, long-time Mae Shi member, Bill Gray as he suggested to us how the band got this precious amount of recognition that could catapult them into semi-stardom….

The first piece of evidence comes forward; new single/EP ‘Run To Your Grave’ which has gained them many more fans, and certainly no haters. Blending every music genre there possibly is, from hip-hop to punk to un-conformist indie, the band themselves declare themselves “boogie” more than anything else. “Who doesn’t like the boogie?” they ask, revealing their secret to success. The single itself could be mistaken for a concept album, all tracks flow with an original beeping sound hiding the background as each track’s individual traits keep up the pace. ‘Run To Your Grave’ features on their future record, released this month and titled ‘HLLLYH’. Similar to band name ‘!!!’, it’s open to interpretation. “You can call it ‘Hell Yeah’ or ‘Hallelujah’, it’s more fun to be able to have people interpret it in different ways. It’s also a way of saying ‘Look at this band!’” explains Gray.

One thing’s for sure though, however people interpret the title, it’s a guarantee that they’ll be only one way to interpret the actual music: Crazy - in a good way, naturally. “A lot of it is crazier than ‘Heartbeeps’, our most crazy record”. Excitement arises, but they forgot to mention how ‘HLLLYH’ will feature confidence, maturity and boogie. It being their first record officially released on a label in the UK, under ‘Moshi Moshi’, this is most definitely a way of showing off but also keeping cool. On the subject of it being their first album release in the UK, the cult status that has come about on these shores is certainly the reason for its long-awaited release – otherwise they’d have buggered off elsewhere. “The US doesn’t have quite the same following as over here, you seem professionally organised in the UK, the whole system of making records is very professional.” The band will also be embarking on a “professionally organised” UK tour pretty soon, clashing with cities they haven’t even heard of before. It’s all taking shape.