Hungry Kids Of Hungary

Hungry Kids of Hungary are an Australian five-piece indie pop band from Brisbane, Queensland. The band consists of Dean McGrath (lead vocals, guitar), Kane Mazlin (lead vocals, keys), Ben Dalton (bass guitar, vocals), Remy Boccalatte (guitars, vocals) and Ryan Strathie (drums, vocals).

Forming in mid 2007, the band appears to be the brainchild of drummer Ryan Strathie who had played in separate bands with both Kane Mazlin and childhood friend Ben Dalton. While Mazlin was living in London for a brief time, he kept in touch with Strathie sending him demos. Dean McGrath, Strathie and Dalton went to different local high schools and the boys became friendly playing in competing bands. When Mazlin returned to Australia, Strathie assembled the four for their first rehearsal. Armed with a cannon of McGrath and Mazlin originals, the band began to jam and quickly recorded their debut, self-titled EP after playing only a couple of local shows. They launched their EP at seminal Brisbane venue The Zoo in mid-2008 and quickly set out to play as many shows as possible.

They quickly garnered attention from industry folk, most notably that of Triple J’s Richard Kingsmill who played the songs «Lenny», «All You Need To Know» and «Set It Right» which would later go on to be added to high rotation.

Their profile rose rapidly and a showcase at the 2008 Big Sound conference in Brisbane.

In December 2008, the band were announced as the Queensland winners of Triple J Unearthed that entitled them to play the Gold Coast Big Day Out. They also went into the studio to begin recording of their next EP with Brisbane producer Matt Redlich.

The band embarked on the formative International Relations Tour with fellow Unearthed winners Philadelphia Grand Jury (Sydney) and Washington (Melbourne). The tour was a great success and sold-out nine of the 12 shows on the east coast.

Their second EP «Mega Mountain» was released into stores nationwide, along with their debut, in April 2009 via MGM Distribution and the radio success continued with their single «Scattered Diamonds» being another to reach high rotation on triple j, FBi, 4ZzZ and RRR. The single reached top 5 on the AIR Charts and the EP garnered favourable reviews everywhere. A second single «Old Money» was issued with a No Device remix of «Scattered Diamonds» which become a dancefloor hit at Purple Sneakers in Sydney.

The band has played with the likes of Tom Ugly, Fire! Santa Rosa, Fire!, Washington, Edward Guglielmino, Philadelphia Grand Jury, The Boat People and, most recently Bertie Blackman and Little Birdy. They have also played have played festivals such as Big Day Out, Sounds of Spring, Valley Fiesta, Blueprint Festival and, most recently over the Summer of 2009/2010, Woodford Folk Festival, Sunset Sounds, Falls Festival and Southbound Festival.

In September 2009, the band entered Electric Avenue studio in Sydney with producer Tony Buchen to record new material. A new single Let You Down was released digitally in October 2009 with b-side Study Hall and is the first taste of an album the band will record in January 2010.

In November 2009, the band embarked on their maiden headline tour around the country to launch the single. Supports on the tour included the likes of Deep Sea Arcade, Ball Park Music, Boy & Bear and many more.

On Wednesday, 20 January the band entered Massive Studios with producer Matt Redlich to begin work on a single with the working title of «Baby Eye». According to the band’s Twitter, the song was cut live in one take. As the band embarked on a tour with OK Go and their own headline tour (called The Air Sick Tour) with Ernest Ellis and Boy & Bear, Let You Down hit rotation on music cable channel Channel V and garnered high rotation on triple j.

On Saturday, 24 April the band, their manager and sound engineer and fellow-Brisbane band Drawn from Bees boarded a plane to Los Angeles for the debut shows on international soil with scheduled appearances at Musexpo US and UK as well as a slot at The Great Escape in Brighton. At virtually the same time, «a new taste of their debut album» called ‘Wristwatch’ was leaked to triple j and via the band’s Facebook page. Ryan Brockington of the New York Post also premiered it on his PopWrap blog. Despite not being an actual single, ‘Wristwatch’ was quickly added to high rotation peaking at number 3 on the AIR charts below two Powderfinger songs.

In September 2010, at a party for their label Stop Start, the band introduced a fifth member named Remy Boccalatte.

It was announced in August 2010 that Hungry Kids of Hungary had signed a two-album deal with new EMI offshoot label Stop Start for Australia and New Zealand and that their debut album Escapades would be released 1 October. ‘Coming Around’, the second single (after ‘Wristwatch’) was debuted on Richard Kingsmill’s 2010 show on Sunday, 5 August and was promptly added to high rotation Wednesday, 1 September. Their previous single «Wristwatch» also won Best Alternative and Song Of The Year (over Yves Klein Blue at the 2010 Q Song Awards.

Escapades was released on 1 October 2010 and peaked at #23 on the ARIA Album Chart and #4 on iTunes Album Chart. It was awarded triple j’s Feature Album of the Week and the band embarked on their album launch tour with Ball Park Music and Big Scary as supports soon after. They played the triple j Ausmusic Month show in Brisbane with John Steel Singers and Ball Park Music and invited guests Inland Sea and seja to cover Kylie Minogue’s «Can’t Get You Out Of My Head». They played shows nationwide and a string of festivals over New Year 2010/2011 including Pyramid Rock, Peat’s Ridge and more.

2011 saw another single from Escapades - «The Vacationer» - land on triple j rotation while «Scattered Diamonds» was added to rotation on commercial networks around Australia. In March, they embarked on another overseas tour - this time to include South By South West and Canadian Music Week. Following a tour with The Chemist and Andy Bull, Hungry Kids of Hungary announced that they’d be having a break from touring to work on their second album.