Chris Gregory - Lead & slide guitar, mandolin, banjo, lap steel, harmonica, backing vocals
Oli Murphy - Percussion, guitar
Karl Douse - Bass
With help on occasion from Al Jordan, Michael Kaiser, Richard Groom, Penny Stevens, Les Woods, Cherish Burk.
Influences
Many influences ranging far and wide collectively. Overall as a band we're influenced mainly by folk, Americana, alt-country and indie.
Okkervil River and Shearwater are HUGE inspirations for us. Others, in no particular order (and for various reasons, some of which might not be overtly obvious) are:
Radiohead, Elliott Smith, The Stranglers, Nick Drake, Otis Redding, Elvis Costello, Edith Frost, Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, The Be Good Tanyas, Sufjan Stevens, Dolorean, Hotel Alexis, Andrew Bird, Big Star, Leonard Cohen, Patrick Wolf, The Eels, Hank Williams Sr., Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, Mt. Egypt, Elizabeth Cotton, Blue Aeroplanes, Jeff Buckley, Vashti Bunyan, Ben Folds, Tori Amos, The Pixies, Belle & Sebastian, The Handsome Family, The Smiths, The Cure, Richmond Fontaine, Johnny Cash, Smog, Woody Guthrie, Bonnie "Prince" Billy/Will Oldham, Bright Eyes, Cat Power, Feist, Keren Ann, Chris Whitley, Neil Young, Mazzy Star, Cowboy Junkies, Gillian Welch, Violent Femmes, J Tillman, Margo & the Nuclear so and sos, Laura Veirs, Mariee Sioux, Murder By Death, Nick Cave, Old Crow Medicine Show, R.E.M., Ryan Adams, Skip James, Robert Johnson, Tom Waits, The Felice Brothers
Sounds Like
A melancholic, folk-a-fied, sylvan, celestial, transatlantic amalgamation.
"Anjy Hall's Hope Sandovalesque vocals are a trump card... Lincolnshire's Mazzy Star."
~Q Magazine (UK)
"...if you have a chequebook with a blank cheque, why not sign them up and win lots of Brit Awards and retire to a house in the country with a pink Rolls Royce.
~Rob da Bank, OneMusic BBC Radio One (UK)
"Lovely!"
~Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, BBC Radio Two (UK)
"Genius!"
~James Wickham, BBC Radio Lincolnshire (UK)
"Who would’ve thought that atmospheric almost shoe-gazey guitars can have a place in an alt-folk setting? It really does work and Hoax Funeral has cornered the market for it."
~Indie Music Chatter, Philippines
"...Hall’s voice shines in all its crystalline, dark beauty above an enchanted sound composed of a few harmonic lines and acoustic arpeggios blending with an almost ambient chord structure."
~Raffaello Russo, Ondarock (Italy)
"Hoax Funeral are one of the most complexly layered indie-folk bands I have come across... an album full of illustrious moments."
~Obscure Sound (USA)
"(the music) shines with a magic beauty."
~ Giuseppe Marmina, Good Morning Captain, Radio Lupo Solitaro (Italy)
"American singer/songwriter Anjy Hall leading the band through their international folk influences, and finding some interesting musical points from the UK/US traditions."
~Fresh Sides (USA)
"...evocative lyrics and a traditional sound augmented by strings."
Hoax Funeral is a UK based Anglo-American alt-folk band fronted by American singer- songwriter- guitarist Anjy Hall and playing a unique hybrid of folk (with influences from both sides of the Atlantic), indie and Americana.
Formed in 2005 when Hall and British multi-instrumentalist - songwriter Chris Gregory began playing sets at folk clubs in the villages around Stamford in the English East Midlands the band added Al Jordan (fingerpicked guitar, banjo, octave mandola, concertina) and Cherish Burk (percussion, keyboards, melodica, mandolin).
A well received demo featuring 7 tracks recorded in the band’s home studio received airplay in the US, Australia, Italy and on BBC Radio One’s One Music with Rob Da Bank was released last in 2005 and followed by a couple of home-recorded EPs in 2006. Hall provided guest vocals on the track “Leaving Dusty Footprints” by another East Midlands band, Pacific Ocean Fire on their critically acclaimed album “From the Station To The Church We Are Under The Same Stars”, meanwhile Hoax Funeral was playlisted by Folk Radio UK and appeared at Stamford’s Riverside Festival and in numerous other gigs.
The debut album “Pour Away The Ocean” was released in 2007 on the band’s own Scared Crow label. Recorded at the Sick Room studio in Norfolk, UK between August 2006 and March 2007 and produced by Magoo’s Owen Turner (whose previous production credits include Broken Family Band, Rory McVicar and Bearsuit as well as Magoo) the album features 13 original songs incorporating a wide range of styles and instruments culled from music shops and junk yards alike.
Comparisons with other artists have been plentiful but none quite captures the uniqueness of Hoax Funeral’s sound. Parallels have been drawn with artists as diverse as Mazzy Star, Shearwater, James Yorkston, Amandine, Cowboy Junkies and Monkey Swallows the Universe.
For more information, free downloads and videos please visit www.hoaxfuneral.com
Salutations. After this page having been up for so long, and having been so very blank, I am proud to finally announce that Sleepers has music. The player now contains two songs that I have written and recorded in the past couple of days, which will be on the upcoming album, which is still seeking a home. Enjoy, dislike - whatever you may please. Thank you.
Online Now!
