A Q&A with Youngblood Hawke

Monday, July 15 — Youngblood Hawke rolls into the Loft tonight as part of their worldwide tour. We caught up with lead singer Sam Martin for a phone interview when he was in London last week to learn a little about the California-based electro/indie pop rockers. Martin talked about the differences between audiences on both sides of the Atlantic and swimming with real sharks for the band’s first video, “We Come Running.”

Do you notice any differences between British audiences and American audiences?

I don’t know if there’s a lot of difference. They may be a little bit less reserved, maybe they drink more. We’ve been playing more bars (in the U.K.), so maybe their audience is a little bit looser. But I do find them very similar.

I read in an interview that you wrote over 100 songs experimenting for your debut album. Can we expect to see any of those songs on future records?

Oh, definitely. We just picked a handful of songs for this record because they felt cohesive. But we definitely plan on releasing some of those. Some of them are completely different styles of music. We did a lot of experimentation before we settled on what we felt was our sound and what would be cool to play live and the stuff that would really reflect ourselves.

How do you plan on topping the music video for “We Come Running?”

We have some ideas. Swimming with sharks was one of the most unique, terrifying, crazy experiences of our lives so we’re going to try our best top it. We have some stuff in the works. But for that experience we came out of the water completely different people. It felt like an alien universe down there. To be so close to these dangerous animals was very surreal.

What’s your favorite record of 2013 so far?

Probably Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid, m.A.A.d city.”

What can someone who’s never seen Youngblood Hawke live expect to see?

A really energetic show. We get up on stage and we leave everything there. We give 100 percent. We want the audience to have as much fun as we do. We really bring the songs to life. It’s a lot of sweat, energy and crowd involvement.

What’s next for Youngblood Hawke?

Touring. We’re doing a lot of U.S. stuff for the next month, lots of festivals. And then we’re heading to Australia to open for P!nk for a month and then we’ll go to the U.K. Just continuing to spread our music and write and grow as musicians.