The Scotsman Sessions #225: HYYTS

Welcome to the award-winning Scotsman Sessions. With performing arts activity curtailed for the foreseeable future, we are commissioning a series of short video performances from artists all around the country and releasing them on scotsman.com, with introductions from our critics. Here, Glaswegian duo HYYTS – aka Sam Hunter and Adam Hunter – perform recent single Blue & White, taken from their forthcoming EP Helluva Time

Despite being children of the Noughties, Glaswegian duo HYYTS (pronounced “heights”) look to Eighties synth pop for inspiration, evoking its bittersweet blend of lyrical introspection with upbeat party tunes. Their Scotsman Sessions performance of recent single Blue & White is one of the most joyous and spontaneous contributions to the series, capturing the chemistry between flatmates Sam Hunter and Adam Hunter (no relation).

“We chose this one for you because Sam sings it and we love it. It’s all about not being ready to say goodbye to someone you love. We wanted to make it a big, sad but dancey tune,” they say.

The pair have been making music together since 2015, though their friendship dates back to meeting as ten-year-olds at a football match. Adam, who originally hails from Ayrshire, studied musical theatre at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and went on to work as a music therapist in prisons, while Sam, who is from Stirling, promoted gigs and clubs in Edinburgh before moving into production.

Next on their personal tour of Scotland was a stint living and working in Dundee, where Danny Wilson frontman Gary Clark encouraged them in fusing Adam’s love of pop with Sam’s affinity for techno. Following a succession of shiny singles, the duo were awarded the Best Pop Act gong at the 2020 Scottish Music Awards, a highlight in a tough year of “no gigs, no pub, no hanging out with our pals. But we've been really busy writing and recording and looking after each other so it's actually been quite productive.”

Blue & White is the second track released from their forthcoming EP Helluva Time, which tells the story of a relationship in reverse order. The duo have come out in real life sympathy with their theme by breaking up (Sam) and falling in love (Adam). As to the next phase of their musical love affair, they are hoping to deliver a helluvatime at three socially distanced gigs in London in May.

The Helluvatime EP is released by Warner Records UK on 4 June

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