Hudson Taylor brother reveals how pandemic gave him the chance to bounce back from burnout

Along with his brother Alfie, Harry had spent a hectic decade putting Hudson Taylor on the music map, with their 2020 album, Loving Everywhere I Go, hitting number one.

They were at the peak of their game when Covid-19 swept through the world and led to the cancellation of all their live shows.

Looking back on that period, Harry tells Shuffle: "We had just released our second album the week before the lockdown and that did really well for us.

"We were delighted with the reception it got. It bagged us a number one, which is a nice accolade to have.

"And then the world shut down and all our tours, our gigs, everything was cancelled. And me and Alfie didn't speak to each other for the rest of 2020. We both went off into our own little bubbles and we emerged at the very start of 2021.

"For 10 or 12 years we had been constantly writing, constantly on the road touring, going to the studio or promoting something.

"We were constantly in the cycle, never taking a break - because you couldn't afford to. You just had to keep grafting away at it, trying to enjoy it but needing to do it because you become financially dependent on it as a means for making a basic living.

"In the lockdown Alfie and I got a chance in that year to learn to grow as individuals not living in each other's pockets metaphorically, and financially as well, and just being able to collect ourselves. I actually went off music entirely in 2020. I didn't really listen to anything new."

It sounds like you had burnout coming up to 2020? "I think so, yeah, definitely," Harry responds. "You are in denial when you are in it, you don't want to admit it. It's a whole mindset of 'oh things are going so well, you're playing this show and you're doing that'…and you just believe your own hype a little bit, and you forget to check in with yourself.

"It's easy to deny that you might be feeling burnout because, God forbid, you wouldn't want to be seen as not being grateful for what you're doing and how you're getting on.

"I just noticed that I wasn't being as aware and checking in with myself. So 2020 and 2021 for me was like inner self-worth growth and work on the mental health, just trying to reconnect to my deeper being and not be on this kind of buzz buzz, buzz all the time. Just sitting down being quiet, calm and just feeding into things.

"I spoke to Alfie about it and he seems to have a similar experience of breathing, take a deep breath and reflecting that that was an intense 10 years, while always being able to make reference to how bloody lucky were to get the opportunities that came our way during those years."

This week Hudson Taylor set off on a new Irish tour and have just released a new album, Searching For The Answers. It includes the single, Honest, which was a collaboration with Alfie's partner, the British singer-songwriter Gabrielle Aplin.

"We wrote most of album over Zoom and Dropbox last year and then we met and played the songs for the first time in the studio and wrote a couple more," Harry reveals.

"I love this new music and I'm super-proud of it. It's a different sound because it's not influenced by gigging, it's influenced by being at home and playing songs that are a different sort of style. It brought a bit of nuance to our sound, I think.

"I'm really excited about it getting to play new music getting to reconnect with the home crowd on this tour."

H HUDSON Taylor's new album, Searching For The Answers, is out now. For tour dates go to www.hudsontaylorband.com