INTERVIEW BY VIVIAN HUA.
With dual vocalists and a viola, Hong Kong Six crafts raw indie rock that draws upon classical and contemporary influences to show off their amazing band chemistry. Vocalist and guitarist Darren Geare tells us more.


How did you guys come up with the name, other than the fact that you guys have six people?
It’s not the sexiest story. It’s in the tradition of bands named after cities or countries, like Chicago, Boston, Europe… it just kind of occurred to me one day that I really liked the confidence and bigness of those names. You associate the name with the band and when you think of Boston, you don’t think of it being a town, you think of “More Than A Feeling.” I liked that, so I brought that to the band, and Carlos came up with Hong Kong.

How would you guys describe your music?
Oh boy. It’s always tough. Man… (asks his friends) how would we describe our music? Amplified rock music, I guess. We’re not reinventing the wheel or anything, but we have a really wide-range, eclectic background. Bernie and Tracy are classically-trained musicians and that brings an element to the band that’s unique. While they both like a lot of classical and jazz musicians, they’re also into bands like Radiohead, Modest Mouse, and bands from the early punk days. You have Carlos who brings hip-hop, dub, and reggae. It’s not about a particular scene or trend. We obviously reflect a little of the music of the times, but we have so many influences that go far back – so it’s just good music.

Since the OC’s kind of known for its pop punk scene, how well do you guys think your music fits in with the area?
I don’t think we really do necessarily, but we’ve been really warmly accepted. “You guys are from Orange County? I can’t believe you’re from Orange County.” We get that all the time and we always have, but I think it’s kind of cool to be doing our own thing. There’ve been shows where we think we’ll get tomatoes thrown at us, but we don’t really care. We just go for it and believe in what we’re doing. We’ve always gotten really good responses, even when we’re playing on bills where there are no bands who are even in the arena of what we’re doing.

Was having a female vocalist something you wanted from the beginning?
For a lot of singers, there’s kind of an unexplainable thing that happens when singers match well. When we first started singing, there was no thought to the fact that he’s a guy or she’s a girl. We just had a really great chemistry with harmonies. People would just listen to our recordings and be like, “Wow,” because we really sound nice together. It wasn’t anything planned; it just kind of happened.

What’s your songwriting process like?
It’s pretty different for every song. Mostly, it’s just very, very collaborative. We pretty much do all of our writing as a band, with all of us in the same room. We don’t really talk about it too much. We really just kind of play and it finds itself. Once the meat of the song is there, we start getting picky and dissecting it. Once in a while, someone will have a riff to bring to the table, but other than that, it always happens all at once. We are lucky because we have such a subconscious communication. We all know where we’re going to go. We trust each other and hear each other really well. “Swim With The Sharks” was probably a five to ten minute process from start to finish. That happens sometimes, but sometimes songs take months before they’re done cooking.

Does having classically-trained musicians give you different kinds of input stylistically?
Very, very much. They bring a lot of that to the table, and they always have. They bring a degree of professionalism, and they have such an amazing scope of technical knowledge as far as writing music. I’m self-taught and I can’t really read a note, so it’s really awesome. I learn stuff all the time. We’re constantly working on how many ways we can push ourselves. Both worlds come together, and that’s what creates our unique sound.

Is it hard coordinating everyone’s schedules?
It’s pretty amazing to think about getting six people to do anything, and I’m always kind of amazed that we keep it together. There are some three-piece bands with their issues about practice and making shows happen. It makes me feel pretty proud. We almost never miss a show.

How have your album sales been doing?
We’ve just talked to the head of our label and he was really, really stoked because the sales have been going up every week. We definitely attribute it mostly to word-of-mouth, and it’s really cool. We’re doing everything we can to promote ourselves, and we’re working harder now than ever – promoting for shows and putting stickers and posters everywhere. It’s really paying off, and it’s awesome to hear that people are listening to it and passing it on.

You guys recorded all of the songs for this album yourselves, correct?
Yeah, we did, and the album was recorded in the exact order that you hear it. It was almost 100% live. We did that on purpose. It took a lot of pre-production and setting up. We were at a house in Santa Cruz with an amazing view, and we went through the album basically from beginning to end as if it were a show. We really wanted to capture our sound as a band playing together, because we’re not into tracking separately, and we’re not into auto-tune for vocals. We like a clean sound and a good recording, but something that feels alive and feels like it has a heart in it as well. A lot of recordings I hear today have an ultra-polished, super clean recording with dead-on vocals. It doesn’t feel like you’re listening to a band. It was pretty experimental and we didn’t know if it’d work, but we’re happy with it, because it captures what we sound like.

Anything else to add?
Hong Kong Six loves Seattle.