Australian Musician’s Greg Phillips caught up with LA-based Australian guitarist, singer, songwriter Hamish Anderson while stranded back at home in Melbourne to chat about life in isolation, his album Out Of My Head and his gear.
Hamish Anderson: A student of the three Kings (Albert, BB and Freddie), Peter Green and Keith Richards with influences of Jeff Buckley and Tom Petty, was named one of Total Guitar’s: Top 10 Best New Guitarists in 2018 two years after being named one of Yahoo! Music’s “Top Ten Best New Artist.
On his current album Out of My Head, Hamish dips his toes dips his toes into Americana, soul, pop, roots, blues, and 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.
Hamish enthuses, “I really wanted to take my time and write as many songs as I could for this album. I wasn’t writing to a specific genre or sound, rather I let the songs reveal what they wanted to be… The album explore themes of alienation and defiance, mixed with unabashed love songs and even observations on what’s happening in the world around us. Certain songs had themes that I hadn’t explored in my writing previously. I feel I really went a lot deeper in the writing of these songs then I had ever done before. Most are universal feelings that I feel people can relate to. Once again, I got very lucky to work with a really great, talented group of people on Out Of My Head including producer Jim Scott (Tom Petty, Tedeschi Trucks, Wilco) who I had worked with on my debut album Trouble. Jim is an incredible producer/engineer and we work in a very similar way — it’s always an amazing experience working with him.”
He opened for Gary Clark Jr. in April 2019 in his home country of Australia and then returned to the US to appear at Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, TN in May and release his new album. He rounded out 2019 with appearances at Mont Tremblant Music Fest in Quebec, Canada, and a headline tour of Europe. Hamish returned to Australia in early 2020 to open for George Thorogood & The Destroyers on his sold out tour. Then while the world pivoted from March on, he stayed busy supporting Out of My Head as it was awarded the Independent Music Award for Best Album – Blues with it’s fifth radio single, “The Fall” at AAA Non Comm (#60) and Americana (#41). He and his album was also featured in Guitar Player Magazine in the August 2020 Issue which resulted in a cover mention for Hamish. Be sure to follow him to hear about what comes next for Hamish!
https://www.hamishandersonmusic.com/