Hermitude to accompany Keys N Krates on tour


Award-winning Australian hip-hop electro duo Hermitude will kick off their American tour in conjunction with Keys N Krates in Hollywood for their sold-out show on Feb. 20 at the Fonda Theatre. The duo, responsible for “The Buzz” — a track that received more than 7 million hits on Spotify — has recently released their new album Dark Night Sweet Light, featuring 11 new songs and four bonus tracks. Angus Stuart, also known as “El Gusto,” and Luke Dubber, better known as “Dubs,” have hit all the popular music festivals this past summer, some of which include HARD Fest, Lightning In A Bottle and Lollapalooza. This tour marks the first time Hermitude will be traveling across the United States on a tour bus.

The duo brings a vast set of experience to the table with former collaborations with Estelle, Luciano and Big K.R.I.T. In addition, they have had their song “HyperParadise” remixed by popular electronic music producer Flume. Fans can expect Hermitude to bring high levels of energy to the crowd keeping them on their feet at the concert next week — an element they hope to bring on the rest of the tour. In support of Canadian electronic duo Keys N Krates, Hermitude will join them and plan to play a mixture of tracks from their older and new albums. The show will also feature a full live setup and visual gears with the usage of GoPros attached to all the equipment to allow fans to see the performance in different perspectives and angles.

Dark Night Sweet Light,  released in May (and re-released as a deluxe version at the end of August), provides a different set of tracks from their previous albums such as “HyperParadise” and “Parallel Paradise.” Luke “Dubs” Dubber had a chance to explain that this record features a cohesive theme with more simplistic sounds and less overlapping drops.

“We basically were trying to write a record that was more minimal,” Dubber said, in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “In the past, we tended to crowd out the songs with lots of different sounds. It’s easy to keep layering stuff, until you get something you like, but it takes a lot of the time to write an album that is a bit more spacious and only has three or four parts to a song. This is a bit more difficult because everything is so out in the open, so it has to be a very solid part of the song and important piece of the puzzle.”

Electronic hip-hop, a relatively new genre for Australia, has filled the charts in America for quite some time. Hermitude was one of the first bands to restore the genre back to the Australian music scene, recently winning the Best Independent Dance/Electronica album award at the Jägermeister Australian Independent Records Association awards.

“Australia went from looking abroad for new sound, to creating a new sound, and now everyone is looking here for a fresh new sound,” Dubber said. “It’s been amazing to be a part of that.”

The duo gained high levels of popularity after their hit song “The Buzz” was released in 2015, though they initially did not expect to receive fame from that specific track but rather from “Through the Roof.”

“What is really awesome about ‘The Buzz’ is a lot of the time when you’re writing records, there’s always something in the back of your mind like ‘we need a song that’ll get caught on the radio and get us out there.’ ‘Through The Roof’ was what we thought was going to be the radio hit, and we put that song out and it did OK, but then we were deciding which single to put out next, and our record label wanted us to go with ‘Searchlight,’ but we wanted to go with ‘The Buzz,’” Dubber said.

Hermitude has always dedicated much of their time in ensuring that their records are dynamic.  Their most recent album definitely meets this criteria.

Hermitude’s upcoming show with Keys N Krates will take place Feb. 20 at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. Expect to hear raving reviews about their live set-up, high energy and visuals from critics and fans alike.