Hands Up if you’re ready to enter the world of Portsmouth post-punk band Hallan

Playing plenty of support gigs, as well as a smattering of their own headline shows, and building a solid reputation as a great live act, things were going in the right direction.

But perversely, it's been since gigs dried up thanks to the pandemic that the four-piece have had their most successful year.

Speaking to The Guide with the whole band on a Zoom call, frontman Conor Clements says: ‘It's kind of awkward, but we reckon lockdown has actually done well for us. It is a bit weird.’

The band got signed to Nice Swan Records and their debut single for the label, Modern England was released in August and made record of the week by influential 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq before being playlisted by the station.

Their last gig was mid-March, supporting Sweaty Palms at Acapulco in Southsea.

‘That's where we got our management from as well, says guitarist Josh Ransley, ‘they were promoting it, and then they had a chat with Connor at the end and said they'd potentially like to look at managing us as well.

‘That led to Nice Swan, and then we had the management to help us look at the contracts. Everything sort of fell into place – but we were all stuck sat in our houses.’

Modern England had been recorded at the start of the year at Ford Lane studios near Arundel, with producer Rob Quickenden. Rob had contacted the band out of the blue to ask if they wanted to come down and record something.

‘We weren't going to record that song originally,’ says Conor, ‘and it also had different lyrics the night befoe we recorded it. We basically rewrote it the night before recording it.

‘So when the record company approached us asking if we had anything, we could say: “Yes we do!”

‘If we didn't have that track ready, we wouldn't have been able to record anything until September.’

Bassist Josh Tweedale adds: ‘We thought we'd go and see if we can get something out of it. And we got Modern England. It turned out pretty well!’

Coming to the attention of indie guru Lamacq was a long-held ambition of the band.

Conor explains: ‘When Josh Ransley and me were doing stuff before the other guys joined, we always said our goal was for him to get our record. He's probably got about 50 unopened emails of our demos from back in the day.’

Drummer Adam Mills recalls: ‘We got interviewed by Steph (Nieuwenhuys, host of BBC Radio Music Solent) and one of the boys said: “All we want in our lives is for Lammo to know we exist”.’

Josh Ransley adds: ‘And out of all of the 6Music DJs to pick up on us, it was him.’

The band now has a new single due out tomorrow. Hands Up is the first taste of their debut EP, Reporting Live From The Living Room Floor, due in July.

The band returned to Ford Lane when restrictions eased in September.

‘Where we had the contract with the label it gave us a bit more confidence that we were 'allowed' to go and do it,’ says Adam, ‘we weren't just a bunch of guys doing it for no reason, so we didn't feel as bad about getting in the studio together, but we were still careful.’

The songs on the EP will be new to all except fans at that last gig, where they played two of them.

Conor says: ‘We've had these songs for over a year, but we've not even played all of them live, which is the weird thing.’

The material also introduces the character of Gumshoe Boy, ‘an undercover operative in a satirical, parallel world where alternative music is outlawed.’

Conor explains: ‘Me and Adam have talked about concept albums, and I've always wanted to do something that had a bit more depth to it, so we came up with this idea of taking characteristics of people and places that we knew in real life, and turning them into a warped fictional version.

‘We've been reading and watching a lot over lockdown, so we've got into all sorts of weird dystopian things, like Brazil, 1984 and all that.’

Conor is also responsible for all of the band’s artwork, which ties into the narrative.

‘If you look at all of the Hallan artwork, it's all linked together, as well as in the tracks. It makes sense to us, but probably not to anyone else,’ he laughs.

Adam adds: ‘Everyone else thinks we're waffling nonsense – but in our heads there's a whole universe of characters and locations and maps.’

And Conor teases more to come: 'We've always said this EP is like a little prequel chapter, and there's already a lot more that we've worked on which is more accessible to understand the theme.

‘I write quite a lot, and we write in rehearsals. But where I've been home all the time, it's like times 10. There's probably about five Hallan EPs somewhere knocking about.’

J​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​osh Tweedale says: ‘Between all four of us, we've got a strong vision of how we think the band should be moving forward, and what we want our videos and artwork to look like, or the sound of the songs, and just how we present ourselves as a band in general.

‘Sometimes working with outside people, we can't quite get our vision across to them. I think it works out better when we have total control of the situation.’

For a band that lives to perform, they didn’t embrace livestreaming as many others have.

‘We thought about doing a livestream,’ says Conor, ‘but the problem is that a lot of people watching could be new fans, so they would never have seen us live before, and I don't think it's the right thing to be people's first experience of us.’

That said, they can’t wait to get out on stage again.

Adam says: ‘If we get the option to play a show somewhere, we've always played the show. If it's possible for us to do it, we'll do it because we're a live band and we love to play live.

‘You can listen to us on Spotify and iTunes or whatever, but I don't think you quite get the energy we like to bring to a live show.

‘It is frustrating that there are people who haven't that chance to see what our music sounds like live.’

Hands Up by Hallan is released Friday, February 5, available on all major streaming platforms