A proper family outfit from the Highlands, The Hudsons talk home jams, open mics, shared musical tastes and their Thursday evening set at Belladrum.
The Hudsons are a proper family band in the truest sense. Built around Mark, Mel, Mason and OJ, their story begins with open mics, home jams, live streams and a shared love of songs that feel good to play together. What started as music in the house has grown into stages across Moray and the Highlands, with the family now bringing their mix of country, punk, folk, ska, metal and good-humoured chaos to Belladrum.
They play the Trailer Trash stage on Thursday from 19:30 to 20:30, with a set that promises classic country tracks done their own way, plenty of laughs, and a family atmosphere at the heart of it all.
The Hudsons are a proper family band. How did playing music together first begin in your house?
So we’re a very busy blended family. Both of us grown-ups have full-time jobs, the kids, Mason, 11, and OJ, 10, are at school, and the time we have all together is very special as we also share their time with the kids’ other parents.
This all started really from the minute Mark, Dad, and Mel, Mum, met. Dad was running open mics in Nairn and the boys would come down with us most Sundays and get up on the stage with little to no fear. They took to it so easily, and we all had fun coming up with new songs we all wanted to try playing together, so it just developed from there.
Mason already played drums, Dad and OJ have sung together since he was a baby, and Mum has just been dipping her toe back into singing and playing instruments these last few years.We all love a vast array of music, so jamming together has been a blast these past few years. Getting to play for other people is a complete bonus.
At what point did it go from living-room jams to taking the band out onto stages across Moray and the Highlands?
We started live-streaming our home jams with the help of our best friends, Mike Robertson from Black Chakra Audio on sound, and Toby Michaels, local singer-songwriter, acting as compère.We brought in local guest musicians to feature, and I guess people enjoyed what we bring and the mixture of songs we play, so they started asking us to come play at their venues and we jumped at the chance.We’ve already had so many amazing opportunities to play to different crowds and it’s been awesome fun.
You have said you all have your own individual music tastes. What does each member of the family bring to The Hudsons?
OJ: I really love screamo music like A Day to Remember and Bring Me The Horizon, but my next best favourite is ska/pop punk like Less Than Jake and The Interruptors. But I also love all kinds of music.
Mason: I don’t have a favourite genre. I love all kinds of music, from Jamiroquai, to Twiddle, to System Of A Down and Slipknot, The Offspring, all sorts! I love to play all kinds of instruments too, although the drums are my ultimate.
Mel: I’m also a lover of lots of different kinds of music, anything from metal to folk to punk and all kinds of music in between. As the band harmony line though, I love anything I can pull a nice harmony out of, and anything that beautifully expresses my thoughts or feelings when I maybe can’t.
Mark: I too like a bit of everything, depending on the mood, but mostly I would have to say my roots are in punk. I also listen to a lot of metal, folk, dub, and a lot of all the genres attached to punk. When I’m playing though, it really is a mixed bag.
How do you decide which covers feel right for a Hudsons set?
That’s really by democratic vote. We all put forward songs we want to learn together, jam them a bit, see how they sit, and if we feel they’re a bop and we enjoy the groove, we then try the new songs out at different venues, open mics, and on our livestreams.When we know we have a set to build for a gig, we then consider the venue and the audience, what we think they would like to hear, but also, if we have something in particular that we want to say based on how one of us is feeling.
It’s like supportive group therapy. We let the songs say how we feel sometimes and that’s pretty important to us.
What is the best thing about sharing the stage as a family?
OJ: That we get to have a nice day out doing what we enjoy, and that we get to sing and play all together.
Mason: I like it because I’ve played alongside Dad/Mark for a while now and even if I don’t really know the song, if it’s new and we’re just jamming, I kind of know what he’s going to play and I feel comfortable jamming along.
Mel: Playing music with my husband, our kids, watching the boys grow in confidence and competence all the time, seeing how people react to the boys, those things really mean the world to me.
Mark: After several decades of playing with many different acts and people and saying “it feels like family”, it truly is something different and something special to be up on stage with your actual family doing the thing you guys love and all do so naturally. It makes for many different family adventures and opportunities.
You are playing Belladrum’s Trailer Trash stage on Thursday evening, from 19:30 to 20:30. How are you feeling about bringing The Hudsons to Bella?
We’re so chuffed we were asked to play Trailer Trash this year. Dad has been playing Belladrum for a long time now, and in previous years we’ve played on the Potting Shed stage.But this year, with Uncle Mike joining us on lead guitar, we get to play full band, and we’ve kind of country-fied our set a little, so that’s different.We have some awesome songs picked out and, as nerve-racking as it is going full band, we’re excited to put our own wee stamp on these bangers.
For anyone seeing you for the first time at Trailer Trash, what should they expect from your set?
They can expect a fun, family-orientated atmosphere, lots of laughing at ourselves if and when we fluff up, some classic country tracks done in completely different ways, and we just hope everyone who comes to see us has a blast.
There is something properly lovely about The Hudsons: a family band built on shared time, shared songs and the kind of easy chaos that only comes from playing music together because you genuinely enjoy it. With Mark, Mel, Mason and OJ bringing their own tastes into the mix, their Trailer Trash set sounds like it will be full of warmth, humour, big covers and a few country-fied surprises.
You can catch The Hudsons on the Trailer Trash stage at Belladrum on Thursday from 19:30 to 20:30.
