A MIXTURE of the old and the new has resulted in a local band being snapped up by a record label.
HUULEN, fronted by Bolton-upon-Dearne’s Andy Daniels, has signed a deal with Rock Avenue Records USA after being spotted by the label’s UK scout Duggie Kyle.
He liked the sound of the band’s older songs, when they went under the name of The Starkins, as well as their tweaked sound as HUULEN - which means ‘lips’ in Finnish.
Singer Andy, 25, said: “We are buzzing about it. It came about quite quickly.
“Duggie had seen some of our older stuff as well and sent it on. It was all sorted in a couple of weeks.”
The four piece, which includes Wath brothers Matt Elliss (guitar), Joe Elliss (drums) and Adwick’s Will Campbell (bass), have a sound which is a mix of indie rock with some more mellow songs, are now working on putting songs together in a Doncaster studio with Justin Lockey from Editors.
“We are chipping away at that and have a deadline for December,” added Andy.
“The studio is invitation only so it’s a privilege to be in there. There will be new songs but also remastered versions of some of our older songs.”
With links to Sony, the record label will look to get the band touring North America next year.
It’s a path that has been trodden by The Sherlocks, also from Bolton-upon-Dearne, before and Andy feels there is more to come.
“We are not packing in our jobs or anything yet,” laughed Andy, who works as a fleet manager.
“I prefer to be busy anyway and I am a new dad too.
“We will see where it goes but we are going to take time off work.
“We’ve worked hard to get to this stage.
“There are a few bands doing well locally and I think the Yorkshire accent goes down well.”