Hype Worthy

Hype Duo, are an unsigned Australian success story. with over 60,000 followers and over two million streams on Spotify, the boys have shown you can make it, on your own terms. Their ‘Yeah the Boys’ is featured daily on KIIS 106.5 on the Kyle and Jackie Show. They have performed at a multitude of festivals, Half-time performances at international sporting events and have toured extensively both here and abroad. We sat down to talk to Micko from Hype Duo to pick his brain on the Covid Years, the challenges of writing funny songs on serious subjects and their latest gift to fans “Ken Oath”

2020/21 have been full of uncertainty and change and for some the year came as a blessing for some a curse. How do you rate your Covid years?

We have really been able to channel our energy into creating more music due to the inability to gig. Prior to Covid we were gigging between 2 and 4 times per week. When Covid hit and all of our gigs were cancelled we had 2 choices, sit in our rooms and sook about it or sit in our rooms and create music, we chose the latter. We recorded and released a full album titled “The Year That Was”, as well as creating a number of video clips. We worked with a number of Aussie acts including Chris Franklin, The Screaming Jets, Angry Anderson, Russell Morris, Kevin Bloody Wilson and More on “Stay the Fuck at Home” which has currently had 2.6 million views.

We also released a tribute song to those who served with our track “We Will Never Forget You” which has currently had 1.3 Million views. I guess we tried to make the most of a terrible situation and our music got us through the worst possible times. We hope it helped others as well. Our track “Rona” helped us express our anger while the track “Home” helped us reflect on the positive aspects of our lives. The song “You’re Not Alone” we a song written for the people we know who were suffering in lockdown whilst the song “Lockdown” we a piss take at what was happening in most homes during lockdown.

Are you glad to be getting back to performing in front of real crowds soon?

Absolutely, Gigging is something we love and are passionate about and it was such a big part of our lives (and our incomes). Sometimes you have to miss something to realise how much you love it and we have certainly experienced this. We can guarantee that our best performances are yet to come

Participation in digitally streamed events during the Covid/Lockdown period was they way to connect with fans and share music, what was that like compared to playing in front of a live audience? Was different preparation needed?

It was very different and definitely not as fun. We did a number of streams although it is very hard to give your all when you are in a room with no one else in it. As musicians we feed off the crowd. We did a very large ANZAC Day stream that reached a very large audience which was a great experience although performing live is definitely a better experience. We didn’t really prepare musically for it any differently although from a technical point of view it was a very steep learning curve.

Your songs are often comical but always come from serious subject matter? Is it hard to take a serious subject and not only put it into a song but also to make it relatable and funny?

We try not to overthink what we do. If you look through our catalogue you can see that there is a massive difference in the content we have created (From “Aussie Girl” to “We Will Never Forget You” couldn’t be more diverse in both content and the subject matter of the song) although our songs are what we were feeling at the time. We experience emotion and we write what comes to us at the time and we put it out.

The beauty of being unsigned and self managed is that we can literally do what we want without needing approvals or other people’s opinions and It seems to be working. We are content with the fact that not everyone is going to like everything we do, we will do what comes to us and feels rite and our audience can take or leave what they like. When we stop being true to ourselves we stop being true to everybody, and that’s the most important thing we have to offer.

Last year you released an Anzac Tribute; an extremely moving and heartfelt song dedicated to our Armed Service Heroes for the Annual Anzac Day Remembrance which was an at home affair due to Covid. Were you surprised by how quickly the song was embraced and used as an anthem by the country?

Absolutely, especially considering how different it was to our other content. It was a song from the heart and although we haven’t served ourselves, we understand the sacrifice people making for our amazing country through knowing people who have served. We were very humbled by the impact the song had and we hope it made people stop and remember the sacrifices that were made for this amazing country and the way of life we have.

What has been your favourite event to perform at or the person you have performed with ? What's been the highlight in your career so far personally? And why?

Rock The Boat is our favourite event to perform at, its an 8 day music festival on the sea and the bands on the cruise are amazing, we are looking forward to playing on the “Super Cruise” Next year with Suzie Quatro, The Angels, Russell Morris and more. On the cruise we met a cellist named Dave Eggar who performs the main riff in “Viva La Vita” by Coldplay, he was performing with Foreigner on the cruise and he he popped his head in on one of our gigs and liked what he heard. He ended up playing 3 full gigs with us on the boat. After the cruise he returned to New York and we have kept in contact, he has since performed on our track “Younger” “Hurricane” and “All I Need”. We also performed with KC from KC and the Sunshine Band on one of our gigs which was cool.

Is there anyone you would like to perform or collaborate with?

We are up for anything. The collaboration we worked on for “Stay The Fuck At Home” was fun, we never turn down opportunities so we are keen to see what the future might bring.

You play a lot of corporate and private functions, how do they compare to playing at pubs and clubs?

They are all different, we enjoy the diversity and mixing it up. We have learnt so much over the years about how to perform, how to pull a decent sound, how to work in different settings and we like the diversity of what we are able to do. Obviously playing our originals is our passion and we prioritise these opportunities although if we are making music we are enjoying ourselves and that’s the most important thing.

Where was your first gig? Was it a success or flop?

Our first gig was at a venue called “Margarittaville” in Darling Harbour. I (Micko) was booked with another singer who I was working with at the time and she left to move to Queensland. On the same day Greg called me to see if I wanted a jam. Greg used to be a Bassist in a covers band I worked in so I said “yeah for sure”. When he came over he asked if I had a mic, I said “Do you sing” hahah. As soon as he started I said “We have a gig this Friday hahah”. We didn’t have enough songs for the gig so we played the same songs twice and at the end of the night the manager said he wanted us back so it went from there. We ended up with a residency there as well as a residency at “The Star” and at “The Mercantile Hotel” in The Rocks so we filled our calendar up quickly from there.

In your journey as a performer/group/musician have you changed? Is life much different for you from when you started out?

Things have definitely changed for the better. We are able to choose what we want to do now, we worry less and enjoy ourselves more. It almost seems like when we started doing what we wanted instead of what we thought we should do we started to be successful so that's how we will continue to play our cards. We are more professional in our approach to how we run the business side of things and more relaxed towards how we interact and perform and these 2 aspects complement each other well.

Who in your crew or team deserves a shout out but never gets one? And what is it they do that keeps your world turning?

I would have to say our manager, Jenny. She does all of the non music aspects that we wouldn’t do ourselves although they have been extremely important in our success. Eg. This interview wouldn’t have happened if Jenny hadn’t organised it haha. Organising schedules, maintaining our site, speaking with venue managers, festival organisers, emailing radio stations, paying us, organising sound technicians etc. the list goes on.

What is your favourite song to perform from your discography? 

I would have to say it depends on how we are feeling although “Yeah the Boys” always goes off. I think our latest release “Ken Oath” will definitely be our favourite once the venues open up again although we haven’t played it at a gig yet (and we have never performed it together as it was recorded during lockdown.

What’s next for you? What can we expect as we quickly roll into 2022?

We have been booked on “The Super Cruise” for next year which will be unreal performing with Suzie Quatro, The Angels, The Radiators Etc. We have heaps of interest form festival organisers at the moment so we are hoping to get on more festivals in 2022. Our 3rd album will be released early 2022 which we have been working on and we think this is our best work yet. There is still plenty more to come from us!

Interview by Michelle Symes

October 2021