The Gig Cartel - Artist profiles: The Hoosiers

2007 saw The Hoosiers explode upon an unsuspecting public with their debut album “The Trick To

Life”, which reached the top of the album charts and spawned the indie-pop classics ‘Worried About

Ray’ and ‘Goodbye Mr A’, which still pack out indie dance floors a decade later.

Never released on vinyl, the band will be selling a new limited edition vinyl pressing and expanded

2CD edition of their debut when they undertake a huge UK tour that will see them play the album in its

entirety, something they've never done before.

The multi-platinum success of their debut album raised huge expectations for its follow-up, not least at

The Hoosiers’ record label. The prophetically titled “The Illusion of Safety” was, all the band agree, a

troubled project from the start. Irwin suggests, “The word ‘hit’ is substituted for ‘good’. There’s an art

to writing under those conditions, but it wasn’t one that worked for us. It exacts a toll on too many

writers. You give up too much if you do that.”

“The News From Nowhere”, released in 2014, was an astonishing return to form along with 2015’s

“The Secret Service”, both self-released after the above troubles with labels. “Doing it on our own

terms,” says Irwin, “and actually having a proper say in it, felt wonderful. We had nothing to lose, but a

lot to prove.”

Tension, creativity, democracy, arguments, time apart, coming back together, and then songs. Lots of

them. Gone is the self-consciousness of the dog days around their second album; gone, too, the

self-doubt. In their place is a deeply rooted – and hard-won – confidence, and a determination to lock

back in to the freedom and joy of the early days.