A worthy mention to our former West Country compatriots A Fine Day For Sailing (that’s them in the picture above) for giving The Hi-Life Companion the “thumbs-up” in a recent interview for Spanish indiepop fanzine Planeta Amarillo - written by our friend Rafa from The Yellow Melodies. You can read the band’s whole interview online in English – but this is the small piece that concerns ourselves. It’s wonderful to be listed alongside such other great names!

Can you name your favourite band/artist from each decade?

Favourite of the 60s: Beach Boys

Favourite of the 70s: Agincourt (just 70s – 1970)

Favourite of the 80s: Felt

Favourite of the 90s: Teenage Fanclub

Favourite of the 00s: Beulah

Favourite of nowadays: The Hi-Life Companion

This Bristol indiepop band debuted with a quickly sold out single in Cloudberry Records on 2008. Since then you can find them crafting gorgeous music. From The Beach Boys to Pavement, from Felt to the Velvet Underground, from Belle and Sebastian to The Go-Betweens… harmonies, hand-clapping, jangling guitars, wonderful and dreamy instrumentals…. The DNA of perfect pop music flourishes on the diverse and  rich “Say Yes”, their debut album, released last year. A record that should be in every shelf of all good music collector.

Yes, best wishes folks from the many members of the Hi-Life.

2012 should see the finish of our second record, ‘Our Years In The Wilderness.’ It has strings, it has horns, it has harmonies, and it has songs about half-forgotten Argentine tennis stars. It’s taken us ages and we really hope that you will like it.

We plan to play a few shows during 2012 and then not record anything else for at least 10 years…  

The Hi-Life Companion of 2012 might have a slightly different line-up, but rest-assured it will still have the same mix of rock and roll Troy Testosterone and the odd camp handclap. We’re looking forward to getting out there and just enjoying ourselves again. Our 2012 Tour might even take in a city outside Bristol!

Peace and Goodwill to all

Jon, The Hi-Life Companion, Dec 2011

One Man Team  was recently played on a radio show called Pink Lemonade which broadcasts on WNYU, New York, USA. You can catch it on Saturdays from 9am (EST)/2pm (GMT), DJ Leah plays 2 hours of the best indiepop from the last 30 years and she packs a lot of music into her show.

This week you can expect to hear songs from Rocketship, Hefner, Girls At Our Best, Vivian Girls, Camera Obscura, Best Coast, My Bloody Valentine, Josef K, The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Hi-Life Companion, plus many others. You can listen to it here and all the previous shows are archived with playlists for streaming at any time too.

Thanks to DJ Leah who also makes some wonderful mixes on 8tracks too.

A quick update on the latest recording. Half of the violin and cello parts were recorded last weekend – another recording session to complete these parts will follow soon. Meanwhile this weekend will see the colliery brass band parts being recorded for Cast You Down. It looks like the end is at last in sight for the Our Years In The Wilderness album recording sessions. Woo!

The word from Hi-Life Companion HQ is that the next album recordings will feature extensive violin and cello. Violin parts are being recorded over the next two weeks, followed by colliery brass band sessions which will eventually be heard on the song Cast You Down. In other news, a sandpit is being moved into the Troy residence to be positioned under the piano…wow! Keep a look out for photos from the sessions soon – meanwhile, to get you in the mood, here’s a picture of an old colliery band from The Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire.

Over at the lovely Bloodbuzzed blog they are compiling a list of bands that they would include in their “dream line-up” for the Primavera Sound 2012 festival in Barcelona. Over a couple of blog posts they have suggested the likes of The Stone Roses, Beirut, Feist, Dum Dum Girls, The Shins, Veronica Falls and The Very Most amongst others.

So it was a delight to see The Hi-Life Companion included in their second Primavera Sound 2012 list which you can find here. We are in good company alongside Beth Orton, Cat Power, The Decemberists, The Doves, Electralane, The Innocence Mission and Lambchop in a 20-strong list.

Thanks to Bloodbuzzed blog for their continuing support for ourselves and for our album, Say Yes!