NEW SINGLE: Smile Out Now
hiccup spent 2024 making plenty of noise—both on the airwaves and on stage. Garnering support from BBC Introducing East Midlands and BBC Introducing Rock on Radio 1, the duo released four singles, and now they’ve released their exciting fifth single, SMILE which has already been selected by Alyx Holcombe as her Track of the Week on BBC Radio One Introducing Rock. They had a blast performing this track on the road in a run of high-energy shows, including support slots for rising acts like Two Year Break and Glass Bridges.
For someone that is yet to discover you/your band , how would you describe your music?
Our music is unpredictable, honest and loud – it’ll make you feel seen and understood. We don’t really fit into just one genre, so if you are a fan of multiple genres or maybe you’re someone that is trying to find their ‘scene’, chances are you will love our sound!
What inspires you as an artist?
Finding new and unique music really gives us a hit of inspiration! We often write our best ideas in response to discovering songs we really love. BEESWAX – hard Life, Bad Day – Charlotte Sands, Dumbest Girl Alive – 100 Gecs are just a few examples! We also find a lot of inspiration in what is going on around us, we really use music as a way of expressing how we are feeling in the moment when we are writing. Our first single LIFE UPDATE, is probably the most obvious example of this!
What is your process for preparing to perform live? Do you have any Diva demands?
I don’t think we qualify for Diva status quite yet, but are looking forward to the day that we can make outrageous rider demands! We typically try to get some time just the two of us before going on stage so that we can try and find some calm and go over anything in the set that either of us needs clarification on. Jess will do a full vocal warm up and make sure she’s drunk a mug or two of hot water, lemon and honey before going on stage too. We definitely try to go on stage feeling very hyped up and excited, we always want to make sure we’re legitimately having fun on stage!
Where do you feel you fit into the music landscape?
Honestly, we can’t sit still in one genre or style. We agreed from the start that hiccup would be super eclectic with no barriers and that’s what keeps us motivated. This year fans will get to know us pretty well, the singles we have lined up are very authentically us! SMILE, which we released this month, is our heaviest track ever and after that?…spoilers.
What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you dislike?
We’ve really enjoyed DnB recently, our current rotation has been Lilly Allen, Linkin Park, Charli XCX and Poppy – but our go-to’s are Bring Me The Horizon, Twenty One Pilots, Taylor Swift and Waterparks. We try not to be too quick to judge a particular genre, they all have something to offer and all you need is one song by one artist in a genre that you don’t give much attention to, to get you hooked! It’s also quite easy for us, as musicians, to always appreciate the skill, time and creativity that goes into making music, whatever the genre!
Is There A Story Behind The Name Of The Band?
We were originally called ‘pickup’ but when we ordered a test run of stickers, we made our order over the phone, and whoever was on the other end obviously misheard us, the stickers were printed as ‘hiccup’ and we thought, ‘wow, that is so much better’, so we kept it!
What would you say is your greatest Strength as an Artist?
Writing what we want! We don’t ever want to change or bend a song that we love just so that it’s ‘on brand’ – the days of bands being demonised for changing their ‘sound’ is over. Uniqueness and evolution is so much more important than continuously pumping out the same tracks with the same vibes.
What would you say is your greatest weakness as an Artist?
We can be quite hard on ourselves creatively. We always want to feel confident that the music we are releasing is great, which can make us quite judgemental of our art. Sometimes, a track we’ve been working on for a significant amount of time can be shelved if we feel that it isn’t up to par which can be quite demotivating. Whilst being selective of our material is definitely not a weakness, taking it personally is.
What Can Fans Expect From Your New Single SMILE
As mentioned, SMILE is easily our heaviest track instrumentally and, maybe even more so, lyrically! Mental health is a theme within our music, and SMILE is probably the most honest our singer and lyricist, Jessica, has ever been. Being a loud, confident and jokey person, she has always feared that if she revealed her struggles, she wouldn’t be believed. Writing SMILE gave her the confidence to start opening up about her mental health, she even started to go to therapy and have wider conversations about her struggles. We really hope that fans can find some solace in this song, and that if they find it relatable it reminds them that their feelings are valid and that they don’t need to hide them!
Whilst the subject matter may be a little dark, SMILE is still at it’s core a very catchy, sing-a-long-able track with a crazy mix up of sections! It’s a heavy track with beatboxing, birds tweeting and a big ol’ sigh.
What Music Artist Would You Say Have Influenced Your Work?
The ‘Mantra’ that Bring Me The Horizon has, is what has inspired us most of all over the past few years! You don’t know what to expect from a BMTH track/album and we absolutely fucking love that – it’s 2025, people need to be challenged, sounds need to change and artists need the space to experiment and flourish!
Who would you most like to collaborate with artistically?
The tracks we’ve got lined up this year show our true colours in terms of what we’re capable of, so it would be awesome to see a remix by someone like Toronto Is Broken or Mazare. But an ‘in your dreams’ collab would be someone like Jordan Fish or Enter Shikari – their limitless creativity is outstanding!
What was the most difficult obstacle you have ever faced and how did you overcome it?
Before we created hiccup, we experienced a two year stint of writer’s block. It was horrible, neither of us really wanted to pick up an instrument or write any music at all. Lewis actually deleted Logic Pro from his computer and his guitar probably didn’t leave its case for a year and a half. Jess even trained in a different field as she was so sure that a career in music wasn’t going to happen for her. We never stopped listening to music though, we weren’t making it but we were still massive fans of it and ultimately, music is what pulled us out of our writer’s block. We listened to BEESWAX by hard life and it just sparked something, it made us want to create, we wrote LIFE UPDATE the same day and isn’t that just the power of music, we will always be grateful to hard life for giving us back our love for
creating.
What is your creative process when making music. Do you work with others or is it just
you?
Music is our fuel – when we discover a song that absolutely hits, we spam that replay button and drop everything we’re doing just to ride that lightning! We’re music enthusiasts at the end of the day and finding new music to listen to is such a passion. We don’t really have a set method for writing though it might start with a lyrical/melodic hook from Jess and then Lewis will interpret that instrumentally or vice versa Lewis might track a rhythmic guitar part and Jess will throw down some magic!
Its true what you’ve heard though, the best songs come out of nowhere and are done and dusted within an hour haha – some songs, like BRAINDUMP or SMILE, we were just SO in the zone that we can’t for the life of us remember how we did it!
Where do you see your musical career in 10 years?
In 10 years, we will have hopefully released our one hit wonder and then we can call it a day – thank you and goodnight!
