If there’s one thing I know about music, it’s that it doesn’t hurt having a kick ass name for your band.  Every gamer out there should listen to these guys if only because of the name.

The Band – Hadouken

The Interview

Hadouken is probably the craziest yet most awesome name for a band I’ve seen in a while and I’m sure any gamer would agree.  Were you that big of a fan of Street Fighter or is there something else behind choosing the band name?

Yeah we were big gaming fans as kids and Street Fighter is obviously one of the classic titles. We picked it because we liked the game but also we just felt like the word itself suited our music. It sounds aggressive and energetic which is what we aim for in our tunes. 

I imagine with the name and popularity of the band, you’ve seen many sightings of Ryu or Ken at your performances or has that sail left the dock already?

I think for fans that have been into us for a long time they’ve kind of got so used to the name that they no longer associate it with Street Fighter any more but there are definitely still lots of people discovering us through the name, usually just by sticking ‘hadouken’ into Youtube and seeing a bunch of music videos come up instead of Street Fighter moves.

You seem to embrace the independence that gamers identify with in your music.  How do you keep consistent with that direction and not fall into the trap of doing what everyone else is doing or sounding like everyone else sounds?

I think we’ve always been careful to do our own thing and not become too associated with any sort of scene or genre. It’s impossible to be totally original and completely different to everyone else but we just try and make sure that everything we do is providing something a little different to what other bands are doing and is distinctively Hadouken. 

Whenever the band has time, does anyone hop on to a console to get some gaming on

Absolutely, we have a PS3 on the bus which is getting used exclusively for Fifa at the moment but we’ve all got Xbox’s at home which are usually dominated by COD, Assasins Creed.

Nice!  How excited are you about playing in the living room of some lucky fan and what type of furniture should the potential person throw out before you step into their living room?

We’re excited.  It should be a really fun show for us.  They should probably empty the whole place.

If the band mysteriously gets trapped on an island and could have only one song to play for the natives on that island…which song from the new album would you play?

I think Turn The Lights Out is probably the most song to play so if that was to be the last track we got to play before retiring to a life of sitting on a beach eating coconuts we’d probably crank that out one last time. 

What’s the routine for everyone to wind down and relax after finishing a live show

Usually just a few beers, or more recently, White Russians. 

There are people out there who’ll be listening to Hadouken for the first time after this, what would you say to them to prepare them for your brand of music?

We would say if you like hard and aggressive dance music with lots of bass then we will probably be up your street.  Pick up the new album, For The Masses, and play it LOUD.