Meet The Team At The Endless Hum – Interview | Louder Than War

Underground music is alive and well! Andy Brown interviews the team at The Endless Hum for Louder Than War.

BUY TICKETS FOR ENDLESS SPITE ON 7TH DECEMBER HERE

The Endless Hum is a fantastic night of music held in the small market town of Shipley in West Yorkshire. The night was set up by five likeminded music obsessives from various parts of the UK scene: Ben Holden, Tommy Davidson, Simon Glacken, Drew Millward and Matt Reid. I’ve been going since it all kicked off in 2022 and seen a tonne of loud, experimental and exciting underground acts. I caught up with Simon, Drew and Matt to find out what they’ve been up to!

LTW: Can you tell us a little about how The Endless Hum and how it came to be?

Matt Reid: Around 7 years ago, I visited Saltaire to catch up with some old mates and at the same time I was looking to move out of London and back up north to raise a family. Within days of being in Saltaire I quickly realised that it had a lot going for it. The whole area was a cultural hub of gigs, art markets, exhibitions and so it was a breath of fresh air to find something outside of a city centre environment that holds successful leftfield events. I started to regularly visit the Golden Cabinet nights and Meksummat markets and I was itching to contribute in some way having organised many gigs around Hackney and Leeds in the past. However, as we all know, the pandemic brought everything to a halt and subsequently it took a while before people began to pick things back up.

It felt as if the cultural hub of Saltaire had collapsed to a certain degree and so I wanted to reignite it in some way. I basically floated the idea of setting up a collective with the rest of the guys one night (over several beers) and surprisingly, everyone felt the same. We all contribute in different ways to the events. With everyone’s input, I organise a lot of the shows upfront and take care of bookings, Simon helps with managing press and funding, and Drew, Tommy and Ben all help with artwork, print, managing events on the night and general promotion too. Between us, it makes the process a little less stressful and more fun, which is what it’s all about.

2. Where did the name the Endless Hum come from?

Drew Millward: I think it involved quite a lot of brainstorming, via the group WhatsApp thread. We wanted something that wasn’t tied to any one genre or too specific sounding. Once The Endless Hum was thrown into the hat, I think we all gravitated towards that. A lot of the stuff we book tends to be loud, be that heavily distorted guitars or walls of electronic noise, so it just seems to fit quite well.

3. What are the challenges of running a DIY night of experimental music in 2024?

MR: I mean, you might expect it to be difficult getting enough people through the door in a remote part of Bradford for an evening of punishing hard techno or punk, but you’d be wrong. When we first started, we worried that people might find the artists we’re booking to be too leftfield, but in actual fact we’ve found the area to be very open minded and people generally have pretty broad tastes in music these days. So, that’s never really been much of an issue. The hardest part is organising and being prepared. We’re also not for profit, so we’re keen believers that ticket prices should be as reasonable and accessible as possible, which probably harks back to our days of promoting punk and hardcore shows at the Fenton and Packhorse back in the early noughties.

It can be a challenge sometimes as we often need to break a fairly high threshold to ensure we’re not in the red each gig, but thankfully, everyone in Shipley has been very supportive and we haven’t had to dip into our own pockets much at all. The cost of living crisis brought on by the last government hasn’t helped but generally speaking I think people like the fact they can attend a cool event on their doorstep and save a bit of money at the same time.

4. What have some of the highlights been since you’ve been putting on the night?

Simon Glacken: Well, I assume the first ever night was a real highlight as it’d sold out in advance too. However I had COVID so totally missed it. Since then though there’ve been a lot. Seeing Objections at our 2nd gig was special. Pretty much all of us are fans of Bilge Pump who are DIY heroes around these parts so seeing 2 of them in their new band, playing to an amazingly responsive audience was awesome to witness.

Coded Marking have played for us on 3 occasions now and every time they are so hypnotic. You can see the whole audience lock in with their music and become totally absorbed. Also putting on GNOD at the end of 2022 was amazing. They often switch around their line-ups for gigs but we ended up with the full-on rock version of the band with 2 drummers and it was a powerful performance.

5. The night has a variety of different acts, how do you go about compiling the line-up?

MR: I think a bit of diversity is key in this day and age. My days of watching 6 similar sounding hardcore bands in one evening are long gone. Maybe I just don’t have the stamina anymore for it, but we like to keep our nights pretty varied as it ensures a higher likelihood of there being something for everyone. I also think people have pretty broad tastes in music these days too. Even Simon, who looks like your average, troubled black metaller likes jazz and ambient electronica. So we generally just try to avoid booking too much of the same on each bill. You’d also be surprised how many electronic artists enjoy playing alongside punk/hardcore/noise-rock bands too, as it’s a break from the usual run of the mill gigs.

6. The majority of The Endless Hum has been held in Shipley. Are there any plans to expand the empire?

SG: Well, we have already dipped our toe outside of Shipley and Bradford a few times now. Leeds International Beer festival invited us to DJ in one of their tents 2 years running which was a lot of fun. We put on an all dayer in Leeds at Belgrave Music Hall with our friends Dirty Otter last year which was headlined by Container. And then earlier this year Northern Monk Brewery wanted us to be part of their Patrons Project so over the next couple of years we are releasing a series of beers featuring bands we love. The 1st was Irked who are signed to Wrong Speed Records and the band played at the brewery as part of the launch. As part of this series, we’re hoping there will be more launch shows in 2025 and 2026.

Probably the biggest thing was working with promoters The Wave Before The Kick In The Chest to put on the legendary Japanese band Boris over in Settle. The theme for all these though seems to be collaboration so if someone in another city wants to work with us then I’m sure we can be tempted over.

7. What act have you not put on yet that you’d love to have at The Endless Hum?

DM: The beauty of doing this is the discovery of new stuff. We all throw a lot of links into the group chats and aside from anything else, it’s a great way to discover what we’ve all been listening to. That alone is worth it. Every band we’ve put on have been brilliant, so the discovery of new stuff is the fun part. A lot of the bookings we’ve wanted to make have happened or are playing in the near future. We’ve been incredibly lucky.

8. The posters and general Endless Hum aesthetic is always spot on. Tell us a little about the artwork for the nights?

DW: That’s kind of the beauty of having a bunch of artists and illustrators in the collective. It means we can, at the very least, make the posters look alright. It’s a fairly democratic set up, in which we take turns in making the artwork for the gigs. It gives the whole thing a visual variety, as well as sonically. Myself (Drew), Matt, Tommy and Ben are all practicing artists and designers, so it’s like an in-house design team. It’s only a matter of time until we convince Simon to get involved in the graphic side of things.

9. Seeing as you all clearly have great taste… What albums would you recommend from 2024?

DM:

High Vis – Guided Tour (Dais Records) 
Irked – EP (Wrong Speed)
Coded Marking – S/T (Self Released)

SG:

Lowen – Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran (Church Road Records)
Claire Rousay – Sentiment (Thrill Jockey)
Blood Incantation – Absolute Anywhere (Century Media)

MR:

Chat Pile – Cool World (The Flenser)
Jesus Lizard – Rack (Ipecac Records)
The Euro suite – Totally Fine (Human Worth)

10. What can we expect from The Endless Hum in the future?

SG: We have some ideas for more shows in 2025 but our next gig at the Kirkgate Centre, Shipley is probably our most ambitious one yet as we’re putting on 9 bands across 2 rooms. We’re teaming up legendary punk promoters Out of Spite for ‘Endless Spite’ which is on 7th December. The line-up features: Obey Cobra, Cowtown, Ox Scapula, Machiavellian Art, The Sex Maniacs, Weekend Faithful, Tiger Island, Cellar Messiah and The Breedling.

Cheers guys!

~

Photos from previous Endless Hum happenings by Jim Mumby | You can find him on Facebook and Instagram.

Artist photos in order of appearance: Care Home, Prey, AJA and Cold Comfort.

Tickets for Endless Spite – on Saturday 7th December – can be found HERE.

The Endless Hum website with news of any upcoming events can be found HERE.

All words by Andy Brown. You can visit his author profile and read more of his reviews for Louder Than War here.