“We’re Just Light Beer Guys”: The Boys of Hovvdy Take Us Inside Their European Tour

What do Texas and Germany have in common? Beer, duh. When we caught up with Charlie Martin and Will Taylor of the indie pop group Hovvdy (pronounced “Howdy”), they were still on European time—and taking a much-needed break from European pints. “Back home, we’re just light beer guys,” said Martin. “We had to get accustomed, because in Europe, they take their beer really seriously.” After releasing their self-titled album in April, the duo brought their Southern sensibilities to stages in the UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. This fall, Hovvdy will be joining beabadoobee on tour stateside. So, for this week’s Tour Diary, we called them up to talk about the folk rock scene in Glasgow, combatting motion sickness in a sprinter van, and the man who’s responsible, at least in part, for their 90s aesthetic: Elliott Smith.

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CHARLIE MARTIN: What’s up!

EMMA STOUT: Hi, guys. Thank you both for being part of Tour Diary.

WILL TAYLOR: Of course.

STOUT: Charlie was just saying you guys got back from Europe.

TAYLOR: Yeah, we got back a few days ago. Still finding my feet a little bit, but all is well.

STOUT: Did you survive the jet lag?

TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean the day I got home, I went to bed really early and that was great, but I haven’t done the best job since.

MARTIN: Yeah, I think I caught some sort of cold or something on the travel day, so I’m struggling a little bit, but I’m good.

STOUT: Yeah. But you have a break until your next tour, right?

MARTIN: Yeah, but I’m actually moving to Nashville, which is where Will lives, so it’s straight to the next grind.

STOUT: No rest. So where’d your tour start in Europe?

MARTIN: In Scotland, in Glasgow.

STOUT: What was the folk rock scene like there?

MARTIN: Pretty alive and well.

TAYLOR: That show in particular was fun. It was one of the more rowdy shows. It was a good scene. We got to talk to some old fans. It stays light there very late, so it was a nice first city to hit. We weren’t feeling so crazy with all the jet lag stuff.

STOUT: Is the energy different at your North American shows versus the European ones?

MARTIN: Yeah, I mean, I feel like Glasgow is probably the closest to what we’re used to. Just a little bit rowdy, people singing along and not being shy. But certain shows… I feel like in the Netherlands, it was an amazing turnout and a packed-out venue, one of the bigger venues on the tour, but they were just so respectful, just dead silent in between every song. And so every city was kind of different.

STOUT: How did you get from place to place? What were the accommodations like?

TAYLOR: We had a tour manager named Benny P, and we were in a Mercedes Sprinter type vehicle. And it was funny, the back seats faced each other and there’s a table in between. So it was interesting. If you had any car sickness issues, you’re up front like Charlie. So Charlie was up front with Benny P the whole time, and we are in this back area where we’re tired of looking at each other.

MARTIN: Yeah, it was like party bus vibes, but not the time for it.

TAYLOR: No party allowed.

STOUT: And did you bring your kids on the tour, Will?

TAYLOR: No, we’re not quite at that point where I feel like it’s comfortable enough for everybody. Because it’s kind of a grind still, but I think the goal is to do that eventually. But we’ve dabbled in that in the past. Ben had his wife one time on an overseas trip, and we’ll do some meetups on the US tours and spend some time with them. But usually when it’s a bigger travel thing, it’s just kind of more cost-effective and makes more sense just to grind it out a bit.

STOUT: So how are you juggling being a dad and a touring musician?

TAYLOR: Some days and weeks are easier than others, for sure. It’s just a day-to-day thing. It’s just addressing it as time goes on and if it ever is not working, I feel like Charlie and Aubrey, our team, are great people to bounce ideas off of. It’s just something you figure out. And living in Nashville, I have gotten to meet a lot more folks who tour a lot, so it’s been nice to have been there a year and hear from them. I mean, you’ve just got to be as present as you can when you’re home and call a lot. It’s an ever-evolving thing.

STOUT: And are you guys recording and writing songs when you’re on tour?

MARTIN: Not really. I mean, I feel like me and Will are pretty similar where when we’re on the road we tend to have a lot on our plate and the travel is pretty much the whole day, and then you get to the venue. We’ll save that for when we get home.

TAYLOR: And being in a sprinter van or whatever, it’s not quite as attainable. Whereas if you’re on a bus or something, there’s more time and space to work on music. I’ve also heard that a lot of artists will bring the writers that they’re comfortable with or whatever on tour with them. I think it’s cool. But we have a small team, so we just kind of grind it out.

STOUT: Right. But you guys write all of your own songs.

TAYLOR: Correct.

STOUT: I was watching some of your tour videos and it seems like you guys really bounce off of each other’s energies on stage. Are you guys together pre-show?

MARTIN: Yeah.

TAYLOR: Yeah. Usually if there’s not one dressing room, there’s only two or whatever. So it’s not a huge situation. Spend time together, have a beer, and usually after soundcheck we’ll go and take some time and go on a walk or call family or go find a pub, and that’s some good alone time. And then meet up within the hour before the show, catch the opener, and just hang out. Sometimes, it’s a little bit more regimented. We’ll all gather in or listen to music, and other times we just kind of hop up there. I guess it kind of just depends on the vibe. There’s nothing that’s the same every time, but generally pretty predictable, pretty straightforward.

STOUT: Which one of you gets more nervous before the shows?

MARTIN: I don’t know. Neither of us get too nervous. I’ve definitely had some shows where I get more nervous. I probably get the most nervous for hometown shows, which would be Austin, because there’s just so many friends there and it’s way easier to perform to a room full of strangers than it is to look out and see a bunch of people you know. But I think we’re lucky. Neither of us get too nervous.

STOUT: But you also get more love in Austin because it’s your hometown, right?

TAYLOR: Yeah, that’s fair.

MARTIN: Yeah. But honestly, other places … Chicago is probably more hyped than Austin is.

STOUT: I saw the picture of you guys with two bottles of champagne backstage. Is that usually on your tour rider?

MARTIN: No, that was a gift from the venue in London. We sold a lot of tickets there and it was a celebration vibe and it was also our manager’s birthday, so only one of those was for us. But she doesn’t drink, so they were actually both for us…

TAYLOR: She’s like, “Spit it out.” Yeah, it honestly might start being a part of our tour rider because I kind of like receiving a bottle at the gig. But there were a few nights on tour where there just happened to be a gift from someone and it was a good vibe to pop a bottle and hang a little bit.

MARTIN: Oh yeah, someone brought us a bottle in Paris.

TAYLOR: Yeah.

MARTIN: One of Mark’s friends. Paris was kind of a drag because that was probably the hardest day of the tour. We had to go from Brighton to Paris and so you have to go under the channel in the van in a train for cars, but you don’t get out of your car. You just file into a train car. So you’re just in this train-type thing and it goes under the ocean and then through this channel to France. And then we had a broken tire when we got there, so we were three hours late to the show and it was just pouring rain and we basically just didn’t go to Paris. We just played the gig.

STOUT: Was the motion sickness worse under…

MARTIN: I was so scared leading up to it. It wasn’t bad at all. I had cooked up so many scary scenarios in my mind. I thought it was going to be dark. I didn’t know which direction we were going to be facing. I didn’t know if the windows could be down or up. I was just like, “This is going to be tough.” But it was chill. It was kind of fun. One of the pictures I sent was a selfie out the car window, and if you look out, there’s a window that’s just black. And that was when we were down under. It was crazy.

STOUT: In the photos you guys sent, your fits reminded me of a nineties Elliot Smith vibe. I think the music sort of reflects that, too. Where does that come from? 

MARTIN: I was born in 1990, so I sort of lived through that. And I don’t know, obviously the influence is there. Elliot Smith is a huge influence. It’s funny to see the style really come back around so strong. I think we’ve always been kind of rocking with that.

TAYLOR: But on the other hand, I’d be lying to you if we didn’t sink into it a little bit. I mean, you look at pictures of us from 2017 and it looks like we’re in 2017.

MARTIN: Yeah.

TAYLOR: But the loose fits and the baggy pants, I feel like once that found its way, maybe not all the way back, but on the cusp of being back, there was no hesitation on our end just to dive into that.

MARTIN: Yeah. For sure.

TAYLOR: I mean, I feel like Charlie said it. We for sure lived through the nineties.

MARTIN: We both had older siblings too, so my brother was wearing JNCOs and listening to Limp Bizkit.

TAYLOR: Which is funny now, because you see 18-year-olds kind of adopt the nu-metal look like the full wallet chains, spiked hair, really baggy pants and a Marilyn Manson shirt or whatever. But yeah, I just feel like it just kind of sits on our bodies naturally and we mess with it a bit.

STOUT: It’s organic. You’re hitting New York in September, right?

TAYLOR: Yeah. We’re going out with Beabadoobee in September. It’s not like, a crazy amount of shows, which is fun. But yeah, I think the second New York show has been announced already. We’re there and kind of hitting a bunch of major cities around that month.

MARTIN: Whole U.S.

TAYLOR: It’ll be fun because it’ll be our first time kind of playing very big shows, which will be really cool. And we’ll have a tight, 30-minute set, so we’ll have to just take no prisoners.

STOUT: Have you whittled down a set list yet? Do you have an idea?

MARTIN: No, I think pretty soon. We’re going to have to be pretty calculated with it because those shows are going to be pretty massive, and it’s going to be a machine just to make the gig happen. It’s going to be down to the second. We’ve got to be on time.

STOUT: You do.

MARTIN: It’s fun, though. It’ll be a bunch of kids, thousands of younger fans that don’t know our stuff. And we’ve played tours like that, never quite at this scale, but I think it’s good for us to learn how to win over fans and get up there and be proper entertainers. It’ll be fun.

STOUT: Right. And that’s the main difference between headlining your own tour and opening for another artist. But I guess both have their pros and cons.

MARTIN: Yeah.

STOUT: Is the transition from one to the other a bit difficult?

MARTIN: They kind of compliment each other a little bit. But I would say with the headline shows, if a particular show didn’t sell well or whatever, it’s on us. Whereas when we’re supporting, we’ve got this nothing-to-lose-type energy and a little less pressure. But in other ways it’s like, if it doesn’t feel like people are really fucking with it, then that doesn’t feel good either. I think her fans will like us. There’s a lot of crossover.

TAYLOR: I feel like the team unity is potentially stronger when you’re opening for someone because you kind of gang together. Again, it’s a common thread to be like, “Let’s just crush it and we got to win these people over.” And it’s almost fun and funny in a way. Whereas on the headline, it’s a little bit more pressure.

STOUT: You’re like the substitute teacher. You can have fun.

TAYLOR: Yes, exactly.

STOUT: What are the spots you hit up in New York when you visit?

TAYLOR: I mean, I feel like it’s changed over the years. For a while it was for sure Baby’s. We had a bunch of friends that worked at Baby’s All Right.

MARTIN: Still kind of do. The last couple of times I went out when I’ve been in Brooklyn, there’s a dive bar called Turtle’s. You ever heard of this place?

STOUT: I haven’t, no.

MARTIN: It’s a great dive bar. I think that’s in Bushwick. They serve 20-ounce draft Budweiser’s in a kind of a plastic cup that you would get at a buffet or something.

STOUT: You guys are beer guys is what I’m learning.

MARTIN: We drink some beers. We have done that.

STOUT: What’s your go-to? An IPA, a Guinness?

MARTIN: I mean, we really had to get accustomed because in England and in the UK, Europe, they take their beer really seriously. But back home, we’re just light beer guys. Try to keep it low ABV.