| CD REVIEW Bunny & The Hype |
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Band : Bunny & The Hype “Bunny”, that’s one Nico Renson, born in the small but idyllic Belgian village Keerbergen, where he and his loviong parents lived on a farm, he started playing the keyboards and writing his own songs, using the nice things he grew up with in his lyrics. At 16 he moved to Brussels where he graduated as film director five years later. One day, chasing his musical dreams, he took the ferry across the channel to London…and never returned! Armed with a Telecaster guitar and a huge dose of belief in is musical capacities, he formed band after band, played every small venue twice, and simply had to live in squats on a string budget to survive. Eventually somewhat disillusioned from his dreams, he started putting his hardships into his songs’ lyrics. A traffic accident (he was knocked off his motorbike) was turned into a positive thing, when Nico bought a small home recording studio from the insurance payout. Laying down his tracks, he now had a demo he could shop around, and with success. He moved to a recording studio where he recorded several artists and made music for TV and commercials. In the meantime, the album’s worth of material was put aside on a shelf. But in 2006 a friend asked him to write a song for a children’s album and the record company, liking what they heard, asked Bunny whether he had more stuff like that. He just simply handed ‘em over the songs he’d recorded in his bathroom…and this became Bunny & The Hype’s somewhat melancholic debut album Play To My Own Tune. First single “Leave It” (picked up promptly by Studio Brussel as “Hot Shot”) became a small radio hit in Belgium, the follow-up single was also frequently heard on radion and the album got positive reviews. Time to form a band to promote the songs in live conditions. First choice was bassist Pete Cherry, whom Bunny had worked with from time to time over the years, playing the smallest venues but also occasionally 3,000 seaters. Pete met drummer Don Bannister at a now legendary session for Courtney Love. Guitarist Miles Pring had played with Bunny in his Punk/ Rock band. The Hype was born. As time moved on, Bunny found it difficult…and indeed didn’t want…to return to the melancholic state that had prompted him to write the material on the debut album. Then finally, while in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks he found the mood he needed : the sun, the shades, and a good bottle of Jack Daniels had brought him the inspiration. He put up his little Wurlitzer piano in his hotel room, and started writing the songs. By the time he had to go home, the material was finished. Back in London he called the other guys over to 2KHz Studios and they recorded the album. Bunny & The Hype describe themselves as “Heart felt Hi-Fi”, “…Melodic Pop songs with a sunny sound remenniscent of the Californian session sound of the mid ‘80s, but without the cheese. All time heroes include Robert Palmer, Steely Dan, Roxy Music, Hall And Oates, Doobie Brothers, Bill Withers, Steve Winwood, jackson Browne, Tom Petty, Bee Gees, Billy Joel, and many more…”, but I guess to know what B & TH really sounds like, you need to check out some of the band’s music, so why don’t you just visit myspace.com/bunnyandthehype, where you’ll find a total of 4 songs to listen to (including the debut album’s hit single, mentioned above). Representative enough, and while I can appreciate some of the softer songs (“Leave”, for instance, is just voice, piano, and strings)…sometimes…it’s only fair enough for me to admit to preferring the songs with guitar in it! Still, Bunny has a nice near-falsetto voice which he uses with some variety, and that’s what makes his songs a bit more delectable. 80/100 Tony. |