Draft of my feature article.

In the past year HA4, the latest Indie pop sensation, have been touring the whole of the UK. This

new band consists of 3 boys from West London, Luke Jackson, Max Lloyd and Oliver Grove all 18

years old. They recently came into the spotlight over night when their YouTube videos went viral.

They’ve been friends since the age of 5 and know each other inside out. It was almost fate when

they could all sing and formed this band. With Max knowing how to play the guitar from a young age

and Oliver finding it very easy to pick up piano/keyboard playing, the pieces fit like a jigsaw. The

band officially formed in 2010 when they decided to upload a video of them performing a cover of

“The Kooks – Naive” which currently holds 12,000,000 views. Since then they have continued to

upload frequently and produced their first EP in 2012 called “#HA4” and included one of their smash

hits “Good timing”. They are called HA4 because it is the first 3 characters of all of thei r postcodes,

“We also didn’t want to argue on the name or order of our initials so settled for something which we

could all relate to” Max told us.

A few of the team members at InD spoke to HA4 after their first ever UK tour when things were a bit

calmer on their schedule. “We really have had the craziest year” Oliver told us while we sat in their

local cafe. “Yeah I mean it really has gone quick, feels like just 2 weeks ago we were sat on a bench

talking about what we were going to do with our lives and none of us had a clue!” Luke agreed.

These boys really did hit fame overnight as their YouTube channel attracted attention when a few

fellow youtubers like Alfie Deyes and Joe Sugg used their songs in the background of their videos.

This promoted them and they started gaining subscribers rapidly and before they knew it they had

gained 1 million! “We weren’t making videos for the viewers they just happened to love what we

were making, it was whatever came to mind and the editing and better quality videos came with us

enjoying the internet and technical side.” Luke blurted out over his phone ringing with and

embarrassing ringtone of Barbie Girl and claiming “It was a dare okay!”

After they had gained a huge fan base of 2 Million subscribers in 2011, Singer/songwriter Jake Bugg

asked HA4 to support him on his Europe Tour in the coming September of 2011. “This came as a

massive shock to us when we were asked” Max told us “Yeah, getting the phone call was surreal

even though we were good mates with Jake and went out drinking with him all the time just the

thought of singing in front of an expecting crowd was a bit daunting” Oliver agreed. “The first show

was the scariest obviously and we had only ever sung in front of small pub crowds to get a few pints

bought for us” Luke joked and followed up with a laugh. Their first gig supporting Jake Bugg went

down great even receiving a tweet from Arctic Monkey’s Alex Turner saying “@HA4 heard you

YouTube lads were great live, who’d of thought you could face the actual stage not a camera! Well

done can’t wait to see you lot live for myself;)”. Ha4 played a total of 36 shows supporting for Jake

and this lasted 6 months on the road. While they did this, other than checking out the local pubs and

drinking, the boys started writing for their first EP. This was released in January 2012 while they

were still on tour with Jake and was called #HA4. “We really do owe it to Jake for basically promoting

us for free! He put us out there to a massive audience and without that I mean we wouldn’t have sold

anything!” Max claimed. Their EP sold all over Europe and got to number 10 on the iTunes album

charts. This was a massive achievement for the boys and they celebrated with Jake and a few other

friends like ED Sheeran and George Ezra. Their first full album was released in May 2012 and got to

number 1 in the UK! “This was the craziest moment for us, no one we know has ever been through

this and it was honestly the best feeling in the world!” Oliver told us, “Reaching number one is

amazing and we couldn’t ever express how thankful we are to everyone” max agreed. “My Nan must

have bought 4 copies of our album, she’s mental! But year we really didn’t know what to do with

ourselves when our manager rang us!” Luke added.

After the boys finished the tour with Jake, they announced that they would be touring by themselves

in 2013/2014! The tickets went on sale on Saturday 17th October 2012, the tour being called “First

Time” and sold out within 4 hours! “The ticket sales were mental! I was getting tweets telling me

how they couldn’t get tickets because they were already gone!” Max told us, and after the tickets

sold out extra dates had to be added due to popular demand! The tour started in November 2013

and ended in March 2014. “Preparing for the tour was so strange, we would go to rehearsals and

mess around for a couple of hours and then sing for a bit.” Luke told us, “Yeah it was basically like we

were jamming most days, but then when it got closer to the tour we really did fix up and kind of get

serious” Oliver admitted. The boys didn’t want their tour to be too serious so didn’t have any dance

routine or anything that made them feel like a generic boy band, “We really didn’t want to feel like

we were a boy band, we just wanted to jam on stage and for people to enjoy it” Luke claimed.

The first night of the tour was in London and there were so many people attending the streets had

to be aligned with police after the event. “The crowd was crazy, I think because we had been on

stage before but this was OUR tour not just us performing for someone else.” Oliver said. Their first

show went down so well with the crown the boys decided to celebrate by going to the local pub with

a few of their fans for celebratory drinks. “It was so nice just having a normal night out with mates

and some great fans we met.” Luke said “I mean we are normal boys at the end of the day, I don’t

think we have changed at all. I still get told off by my dad and go to Sainsbury’s and budget my

money, it’s still a normal life, apart from the fact we go on stage sometimes.” The following nights

found the boys with the crowds screaming and chanting their names, a sign of a good show.

When it came to their 6th show, HA4 found themselves with a few familiar faces in the crowd. Their

buddy Jake Bugg had come to support them and was backstage before the show to talk to them.

Max told us “Having Jake there was so reassuring but at the same time we really felt an extra

pressure to put on a good show!” and Oliver agreed, “Yeah definitely, it was like having a parent

there to make sure we were behaving! But in reality he just wanted to come and get drunk with us

after so when the show was over we unwound with him and our manager to have a catch up.” “We

always speak to Jake on the phone and meet up with him, He’s like a big brother to us and we love

that” Luke said. HA4 also had company from other famous faces like Alex Turner, George Ezra and

lead singer of The Kooks, Luke Pritchard. “Knowing we have the support from there amazing artists

really was amazing and we are always so star struck to see them and even accept that they listen to

our music!” Oliver told us.

The next few shows flew by for the boys and before they knew it they were on their last tour date of

“First Time”. They ended the tour in Brighton and aimed to make it their best show they possibly

could. “Ending the tour was a bit emotional but the last show was crazy!” the boys all agreed with

Oliver. “We can’t quite believe it actually happened let alone came to an end”. HA4 performed in the

Brighton Centre, a huge venue for a huge show, and for the three of them they all agreed it was.

“Ending in that amazing venue was great, the real way to finish a tour” Luke admitted.

Their YouTube channel now has over 18Million subscribers with various music videos of their own.

“It’s been an amazing experience and we are looking to create a second album,” Oliver let us in on

their plans, “There’s no rush to make it yet but we do love touring, but the music has to all be written

and that’s what’s important to us.” “Plus we want to go on holiday and let ourselves go for a bit

because we have been sop stressed recently so drinks by a pool doesn’t sound bad – If we can afford

it!!” Luke added.

The team from InD wish the lovely boys from HA4 a great future and we know we will be seeing

them at the top of the charts soon, also well done for an amazing tour.