Listen to Out of My Head

Watch the story behind Out of My Head

Hamish Anderson’s new record Out of my Head has been out a while now, and momentum for the Australian born/LA – based musician has never been higher. Hamish’s track “What You Do To Me” has charted on the Americana Singles Chart.

Hamish kicked off his 2019 with a two-week tour supporting Gary Clark Jr. in his home country, Australia, (where he joined Gary nightly for his encore). Hamish returned to the US in time to release Out Of My Head, which has since been garnering rave reviews globally. With several US, Canada and Europe tour dates on the books, and a new album under his belt, 2019 is looking to be a great year for Hamish.

About Hamish Anderson’s Out of My Head:

After two years supporting Trouble, Hamish began writing his
sophomore album
Out of My Head with a sense of confidence that only comes
around after all that goes into a debut album. For his second album, Hamish
wanted to make it even more song oriented — exploring melodies, hooks and
choruses without committing to one specific genre. “I wanted to let the songs
dictate what they wanted to be, so the record goes everywhere from blues
rockers, soul ballads to more aggressive fuzzy rock and roll.” Americana, soul,
pop, roots, blues, rock; that’s a lot of ground to cover, but Hamish does it
with a natural ease that’s far beyond his years. The mellow (“What You Do
To Me,” “Damaged Goods”) and the upbeat (“No Good,” “You Give Me Something”)
tracks on this record sit comfortably next to each other; all buoyed by a knack
for clever, hook-driven songwriting and a clear, burning passion that drives
the music from the first strum to the last.

Throughout the album, Hamish explores themes of alienation,
defiance, unabashed love and observations on what’s happening in the world —
themes that he hadn’t really explored in his writing before. Hamish shared
“I took a long time with the writing process, really trying to make something
that to me feels like a complete piece. I still love the art of an album to
give the full story.”

The result of that was a cohesive album which really shows that he
took his time with the writing and didn’t rush the process. “Some songs were
written just after the release of my debut album, but the majority of writing
was done over the holiday break at the end of 2017. I went back home to
Australia after a really busy year touring the US and suddenly when everything
stopped for a minute, I just locked myself away and wrote.”

Hamish and producer Jim Scott worked in tandem on the arrangements
of songs — even more so than he previously had. Although some things stayed
the same, for instance he still recorded live on the floor with the band
playing; however, this time once they had the take, he and Jim would spend time
exploring harmonies, sounds and textures that they hadn’t used before.

Throughout Out of My Head, the bass and drums are very prominent.
Of course, there is still a lot of guitar, but this time around he wanted the
rhythm section to be right up front — even on ballads — so everything has a
really solid groove. Hamish was joined in the studio by drummer Johnny Radelat
(Gary Clark Jr), bassists Chris Bruce (Doyle Bramhall II) and Aaron Stern
(Curtis Harding), and keyboardist Jerry Borg
(Jonathan Wilson).

Ironically, despite the languid timeline for the writing and
pre-production, the whole album came together quickly — ten songs were
completed in ten days which is a true testament to the union that Jim Scott and
Hamish have built over these years.

The last track to be included is “Damaged Goods”, co-written with
Rune Westberg (Beth Hart) who also produced the track. It provides yet another
new poignant, stripped back, gospel- like sonic note for the album.

He has clearly set his sights on perfecting the song, and the
larger vision of a cohesive album that is bound to take the listener on a
soul-freeing experience.

Out of My Head released May 2019 on all formats.

Connect with Hamish

Website | YouTube | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify