HS: You have mentioned in other press about your push to make a mainstream album with no ornate excess. Seeing as the recession, minimalism and modernism have been very influential to designers and artist alike for several years – would you say this album is a sign of the times?
H: Pop does seem to have directness about it now. I think it’s a sign of the times because I don’t think there will be any other records like it out. What you will find when you listen as a whole is it’s eclectic and not in an anti-eclectic way. More reflective of seamless music, everything is melted into one. It’s not just hip-hop or rock or pop. It has the stage presence and entertainment of pop, the production ethics of hip-hop and then a live band. Everyone (particularly the fans) gets the live feel of a performance with the street creed and crunk of a more urban sound and then there is the bands rocking away. And you’re like – this is amazing. I bit into this crazy cookie that’s an inch thick….
Second called stop for the cookie.
HS: What kind of cookie is it? Oatmeal? Sugar? Chocolate chip?
H: Um, I don’t know. It’s just a really thick cookie. It’s from the Bread Factory with a couple of blueberries on top….
(Back to the album)
Yeah, so it reflects the time. I’ve got some big, fat drums that 50 cent would be happy with. I’m playing banjo with a reggae baseline and some weird synths that Thom Yorke fans will be happy with and glitchy little high-hat patterns. Then Kanye starts rapping. Hopefully, you’ll be like wow, what the hell is this?
HS: Can you clarify the difference (if any) between Mr. Hudson and previously Mr. Hudson and The Library?
H: Sure. I couple of guys left and I couple of new people have come in, so we’re not ‘The Library’ anymore. The whole concept of The Library was about that first album; it was almost part of the album title. You could almost call the album Mr. Hudson and The Library, rather than A Tale of Two Cities. Then the live show was referred to as The Library and now a couple of guys left. I think particularly as I’ve done solo stuff over here with Kanye and Jay and so on, I’ve been my own entity. It just made sense, that this (new album) is a Mr. Hudson album. And who knows what the next one will be, you know.
HS: How did you link up with Kanye?
H: Rather like yourself, he stumbled across my record. Probably being online or whatever. He found that first album and when he was over in London promoting Graduation I heard he liked my stuff. I was obviously a big fan of him so I squeezed my way into a press thing he did promoting his first record. Luckily, I was standing by the doors as he left and got to chat with him very briefly. It all just stemmed from there. We kept in touch but that was around mid 2007. It wasn’t till the beginning of ’08 that I signed to him.
