The fourth annual Hopscotch Music Festival kicks off in downtown Raleigh today. Diversions staff writers Bo McMillan and Charlie Shelton talked to a few new bands playing the festival.
Skylar Gudasz of Spooky Woods
DIVE: You’re playing two separate shows at Hopscotch — how does playing with each act differ?
SKYLAR GUDASZ: Thursday at The Long View Center I’ll be playing songs from my solo album due out next year. There will be a real piano, upright bass, cello and some woodwinds with a few awesome, secret guest appearances to be announced soon. On Friday, Spooky Woods is playing at Deep South the Bar. This is more rock- and percussion-driven, and we all share songwriting and instruments.
DIVE: You also are a UNC alumna, correct? Did you attend or play the festival while you were a student?
SG: I am a UNC alumna — go Heels! But I did not attend because the festival began the year I graduated. However, one of the deciding factors for me to stay to play music in the Triangle was because Hopscotch came right at that time and showed me that we really have our finger on the pulse of live music right here.
Adam Hawkins of Eros and the Eschaton
DIVE: How does Eros and the Eschaton’s dreamy album experience play into the live show?
ADAM HAWKNS: The record is a quite a bit different than what we have been doing as just the two of us. We have had to go through and pick out what is the most essential piece of the song which has been a process of discovery for us. We just recorded the songs and then figure out how to play them so as far as when it is just the two of us it is way scaled back but with the band it should be just as layered, full, loud and rockin’.
DIVE: Are you trying to recreate the ambiance from the album in the live show?
AH: Our goal, I think, would be at some point in some incarnation of the band … to recreate the sound of the album — but we are also kind of tweaking the arrangement depending what the band is … We are changing it and switching it around.
Troy Hancock of Wool
DIVE: Being a local musician from Raleigh, how have you been involved with Hopscotch in the past?
TROY HANCOCK: This will be my first performance for Hopscotch. Some of my friends have done it and I’ve gone to see them play. I always felt like I wanted to do it one day.
DIVE: Wool is a relatively new band, how did you go from getting situated to playing Hopscotch so quickly?
TH: Honestly, it just all came about after writing the songs. After a show of mine in Raleigh, Raymond Finn volunteered the drums, and his friend (Johnny) Hobbs said he’d do bass and Zack (Oden) got on guitar. We recorded songs that I’d done solo before and then put it out. From there, “Bulletin Air” got good recognition and people liked it. Then we got called up to play Hopscotch by Greg Lowenhagen (the festival’s director) at a coffee shop.
Dax Beaton and Derek Torres of Body Games
DIVE: What is the formula to Body Games, both musically and nonmusically?
DEREK TORRES: I think just contemporary. We talk about what is on the radio more than anything. We are trying to make pop music but we all come from rock backgrounds, so we are constantly thinking about contemporary music but we are always being guided by our rock ‘n’ roll backgrounds or whatever music we were listening to.
DIVE: What can people at Hopscotch be
expecting for the show?
DT: Essentially we are trying to get it to feel like one continuous piece of music. A lot of bands have a lot of stops and breaks.
DAX BEATON: We used to have that. We had good music but no continuity, but we have so many settings to do so it kills the momentum when you stop. You play a really good song and everybody is into it and then it is silence, people start chattering and the next song starts and people start to slowly get back into it.
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