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Quickfire Questions #54: James Leesley of High Hazels

Just last Friday, Sheffield band High Hazels hosted a sold out single release launch night for ‘Hearts are Breaking’, released today as a 7″ on Heist or Hit Records. By all accounts, it went swimmingly and we’re very pleased for them. Also last week, we had a chat with singer James Leesley about the band, how they got together and where their name came from, amongst other sundry things; in case you missed that, you can read all of that here. We also bent James’ ear about what else, the TGTF Quickfire Questions, which turned out to be quite good timing as the band will be on London this Wednesday to support Leeds band China Rats at the Sebright Arms and will return there on Saturday the 19th of October to play a headline show. In this feature, James gives us some insight on some Manchester-area bands that have meant a lot to him, as well as what album by an American band he’d bring with him to Heaven. Read on…

What song is you earliest musical memory?
Singing ‘Shout’ by Tears For Fears as loud as I could. I still love Tears For Fears now!

What was your favorite song as a child?
‘The Perfect Kiss’ by New Order, the frog noises used to fascinate me.

What song makes you laugh?
I honestly can’t think of a song that makes me laugh.

What song makes you cry?
‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ by Joy Division.

What song reminds you of the first time you fell in love?
That’s a tough question, maybe ‘Mathematics’ by Cherry Ghost. Let’s go with that!

What song makes you think of being upset/angry?
I’m not really an angry person but ‘Corpus Christi Carol’ by Jeff Buckley or ‘One Of These Things First’ by Nick Drake are both very calming.

Which song do you wish you’d written yourself?
There’s so many, but I’ll go for ‘New Slang’ by The Shins.

Who is your favorite writer?
Paul Simon.

If you hadn’t become a singer/musician/songwriter, what job do you think you’d be doing right now?
Well, we’re not quite at the privileged stage of doing this full time yet, saying that if we weren’t making music I’m sure we’d be in different jobs to the ones we’re in now, so who knows!

If God said you were allowed to bring only one album to Heaven, which would it be and why? (Sorry, double albums do not count.)
I’ll go for ‘Lisbon’ by The Walkmen. There’s a song for every mood on there and I don’t think I’d ever get bored of it.

Thanks very much James for doing this interview with us and also massive thanks to Penny for sorting this and the previous interview for us here at TGTF.