Despite sharing their name with grisly parasites, Hookworms are actually incredibly affable. They’re a modest bunch too: a collective in the truest sense, they are fully committed to the sum of their parts rather than as individuals, referring to themselves solely in initialisms, steering clear of the spotlight. Their humbleness is a refreshing trait. And it seems it’s a keen taste for reality that helps fuel it, with several of the band retaining part time jobs in order for music to remain an escapism from the everyday.

Their 2013 debut record Pearl Mystic bludgeoned the music world with a headfirst assault of howling distortion, praise was rightly and liberally thrown their way. Emerging with immediate impact Hookworms’ uncompromisingly brutal brand of cosmic fuzz charmed the sweat out of everyone, a sonic collage of melted guitars and echoing haze, levels well blown out. So instinctively fresh and vibrant as to leave everything else around it scrambling for first gear. 

Within the time span since Pearl Mystic blew up the Leeds quintet have been quietly working away writing and recording their follow up record, titled The Hum, the group’s debut for Domino imprint Weird World. There’s a continuity between their two records, forging a canon of work which serves as an entity – Pearl Mystic’s track list was numbered, I, II, III and so on, whilst with The Hum the tracks follow the sequence, titled IV, V, VI –  two chapters in an impressive oeuvre. The unhinged decibel quaking blitz which fed the buzz surrounding the band has been built upon with added depth, featuring several softer, more reflective tracks revealing a different side to the band.

Like their namesake, Hookworms’ sound has a parasitic demeanour, inhabiting its host with hook-like ability it wiggles inside with warped intentions, clinging on with little intention to ever let go.

Alex James Taylor: Your new album The Hum comes out early next month, there’s a cliche that a band’s second album is the hardest, does this ring true for you?
MB: I think this rings particularly true nowadays, not so much because a band struggles with the writing of a second album, but because such a colossal amount of buzz and hype are piled onto a new band’s debut on the internet that either there is no way of matching up to it, or the general public are sick of having a band shoved in their face by the time the second record rolls round. I don’t think we struggled with the writing of this record, but there was definitely the added pressure of the fact that we were essentially unknown outside of our circle of friends when we wrote our first album.

AT: Did the recording process alter at all for this record?
MB: A lot of the last record was written with the studio as an instrument; we built up layers and wrote songs as they were recorded, a lot of improvisation and first takes. The downside of that was we realised afterwards there were songs from the record that we couldn’t do justice live, so this time round we wanted a record we could play from start to finish – and have been doing so. In that sense, this time round all the songs were fully formed before we recorded them, written together as a group in the practice room.

AT: What do you see as the key differences between the sound of both albums?
MB: Our guitarist Sam recently described The Hum as being the light side of the coin, if Pearl Mystic were the dark, and I think that is a really nice way of looking at it. Listening back to the new one now, even though it still has its moments, overall it’s a more joyful and upbeat record. I guess the obvious sonic differences to point out on The Hum are that the drums are a lot drier this time round, some of the guitars and vocals are a bit cleaner, and there are a few new electronic elements going on. More than anything I think we finally sound like Hookworms on this record though.

AT: You’ve recently come back from touring, how did it go?
MB: The tour was really fun; we played to full rooms every night and had the privilege of bringing our friends Kogumaza along with us as support, who are one of our favourite bands in the country. Unfortunately we had to cancel the last couple of dates, Matt completely blew out his voice. I think people that see us for the first time are always pretty blown away by the intensity of his vocal delivery, but it seems the downside to that is after five or six dates he has completely shredded his voice.

AT: How’s the new material going down with your fans?
MB: We’ve actually been playing all 6 ‘songs’ from the new record in our set, a couple of them for the first time ever, so it’s been really great seeing how people react to them. I know its difficult going to see a band you like and them hitting you with an onslaught of unheard material, but I think this new record lends itself very well to being played live as the majority of it is more upbeat and intense than anything we’ve done before.

AT: Did you find it difficult editing the setlist to fit in the new stuff?
MB: Not really, though they’re obviously different I think you still know it’s the same band when you listen to all of our records. We played our favourite song from Pearl Mystic (Away/Towards), our favourite song from the first EP (Teen Dreams), and the rest of the set was all new.

AT: In December you’re supporting Slowdive in London, that’s pretty special, how did that happen?
MB: They just asked us! We were lucky enough support them and Loop in Paris earlier on this year, and then we got an email asking to open for them again in London, which is amazing. They were mindblowing in Paris, so I’m really excited. It’s also on 20^th December, so I think we’re going to treat it as our Christmas work night out.

AT: I love the artwork for The Hum, it’s really trippy and sinister, who created it and what was the idea behind it?
MB: Our guitarist Jonny takes care of all our artwork, he’s a genius. The artwork was done well before the record was finished, which probably isn’t the way around that bands usually do it. We tried a few different colours, but settled on it being quite clean cut. There were quite a few different library style images he deliberated on before settling on the teeth, and I agree it has a totally sinister edge. A wry smile, perhaps.

AT: The visual for On Leaving is equally trippy, it reminds me of those magic eye pictures, I’ve never been able to see the image in those pictures, frustrates me every time. Have you seen those? I think it’s a 90’s thing.
MB: Yeah, like the sail boat in Mallrats, right? Jonny did the visuals for that video too, glad you like it!

AT: Yeah just like the one in Mallrats! As a band you choose to manage yourselves, that’s pretty rare these days. How have you found that?
MB: We’ve had to let go of a few things like booking shows recently as there was just too much to do with us all having day jobs, we were getting totally overrun with emails and requests. The management thing is a weird one though. I guess it fits more with bands that have aspirations to become huge, and make a living off music, neither of which we’re particularly interested in. The idea of managers and tour managers is a confusing one to me, the average age of our band is now pushing 30, and we’re all more than capable of wiping our own arses and getting from venue to venue. They seem kind of like a grown up version of a babysitter, but perhaps I’m being cynical. We’re trying to learn to never say “never” though, as we did that with the booking agent situation and now look like hypocritical douche bags. Live and learn.

The Hum by Hookworms is out now on Weird World. Find the band on SoundCloud and Bandcamp and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.