Hammok has released "Seance," a preview of their upcoming debut album, "look how long lasting everything is moving for one." The song, accompanied by a dynamic one-take music video shot in vocalist Tobias Maxwell Osland's childhood home, showcases the band's direct and intense side. Clocking in at just over two and a half minutes, "Seance" features a hardcore chorus and a soundscape driven by a relentless drum machine and metallic synth bass. The lyrics evoke a dark and disturbing reality, drawing inspiration from horror films and occult traditions, depicting a protagonist trapped in their worst nightmare – haunted, persecuted, and terrorized – all within the context of a seance.
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
The band was formed during the pandemic in 2020. We all, Ferdinand, Tobias and Ole Benjamin, played in another band at the time when we decided to start up Hammok.
The band name does not necessarily mean anything special. The name originates from the word “Hammock” and is a short and precise name that is easy to remember.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
Vocalist Tobias and drummer Ferdinand actually started playing together in 2011 after getting to know each other through their school band. That year, we started the first version of Hammok. At this time we were four members and played punk and metal music. This project were shelved in 2017 when Tobias and Ferdinand moved from the small city of Horten to Oslo. During our first years in Oslo we got to know Ole Benjamin through another musical project that never really got anywhere, that’s when we decided to start up Hammok in the start of the pandemic.
First concert you ever went to?
First concert for Tobias and Ferdinand were in the summer of 2011. We saw the Norwegian band “Honningbarna” at a local punk festival called “Kanalrock” and we immediately knew what we wanted to do and achieve in our musical career.
Ole Benjamin’s first concert was a Green Day show in Oslo in 2010 which led him to dye his hair blue and start playing in a local punk band.
What's your writing process like?
Tobias is the main songwriter and usually comes up with the first ideas/demoes and brings them to rehearsal where we form the song together. Throughout the making of long lasting we ended up crafting a lot of the songs in the production, meaning not necessarily being in the room together but layering different parts together and using demo-takes. It felt exciting to keep the process and production open and free. Making a very band focused record without ever going to a proper studio was also very fun for us.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
For long lasting it was important to us that the sound and energy felt angular and at times digital, we wanted to put our brand of energetic hardcore in context with more aggressive styles of hyperpop and experimental music. The songs we chose goes from some of our favorite hardocre/metacore bands like The Chariot and Every Time I Die to the more digital pop side like Sophie (R.I.P) and Skrillex. The most important thing for these songs and artists is a sense of energy and originality, that's what we gravitate towards the most.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
First of all, studio and live are two very different settings and shouldn’t necessarily sound identical. If a track works the same way in a live setting we would keep it almost identical, but anything can happen at a Hammok show. For us, the shows are about creating a shared energy with an audience, where the band and crowd are completely in the moment and completely free in expression. It's both spontaneous and straight to the point.
What have tours and shows been like?
We started playing some shows in Norway around the release of our JUMPING/DANCING/FIGHTING EP. After playing a great spot at Eurosonic (ESNS) in January of 2023, a lot of opportunities opened up. Friendly Fire helped us big time with putting us in the lineup at Best Kept Secret and other great smaller festivals around the Netherlands. Bandwerk also helped out with playing Lokerse Feesten in Belgium. We also played ArcTanGent and Core fest in UK to mention a few.
Our best show yet was definitely playing the Casbah at Best Kept Secret. Insane response from the audience. We had never experienced anything like it before.
Worst show?
We never have a bad show. Believe us.
What's up next for the band?
We are doing our first EU headline tour in March with the release of our debut album “look how long lasting everything is moving forward for once” releasing March 1st. We are going to keep on touring throughout 2024 as much as possible.
J/D/F forever. look how long lasting everything is moving forward for once