Hermitude

This weekend the world of surfing descends upon Manly. To close out the day with a punch and keep the high energy atmosphere flowing into the night one of the hottest electronic beat acts, Hermitude, will be performing a very rare free show.

Although neither Luke Dubbber (a.k.a. Luke Dubs) or Angus Stuart (a.k.a. El Gusto) are surfers themselves, they are excited to be performing at the Australian Open of Surfing.

“We’re really excited for this show,” said Luke. “Manly is a place that I spent a lot of time growing up. I have vivid memories of watching jazz there as a kid, hanging out at the beach and playing lots of gigs when I was coming up in different bands, so it’s going to be nice to be back there.”

Being able to return to familiar surrounds will be a drastic change of pace after the “crazy roller coaster ride” of the last couple of years for Hermitude. Following the release of their album Dark Night Sweet Light in 2015 the duo have been on a rapid rise both domestically and worldwide.

“It’s been crazy. We’ve travelled so much and covered so much ground. It’s been a lot of fun to break into the American scene but we haven’t really had a chance to catch our breath,” reflected Luke.

Following this special one-off show the duo are planning to head into “hibernation” for much of the year to work on their next record.

Whilst you might think they may be feeling an added level of pressure given the success of Dark Night Sweet Light, Luke rejects that notion: “We’re trying to take the different standpoint in the sense that now we have reached this point we have a great platform to share whatever it is that we want to share, and we’re just grateful to have such a massively loyal fanbase.”

For this show Hermitude will welcome fellow beat maker Elk Road to the stage to handle the opening duties. “I don’t think we’ve played a gig with him before but we’ve been keeping an eye on him as he’s been coming up. We like his music, it’s really cool so we can’t wait to see his show live,” said Luke.

For those readers who haven’t ever seen a Hermitude show, Luke explained it by saying: “We’re a hybrid DJ/band setup so we have a bunch of instruments on stage ranging from keyboards, to drums, synths and samplers on stage. Above all else though we just like to see people smiling, dancing and having a good time.”

Mar 4, 6:30pm. MTV Stage, Australian Open of Surfing, Manly Beach. FREE. Info: www.australianopenofsurfing.com