Theo David Hutchcraft (born 30 August 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer of the

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

duo Hurts.

Early life

Theo David Hutchcraft was born on 30 August 1986 in

Richmond, North Yorkshire Richmond is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, and the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is from the county town of Northallerton and situated on ...

Career

Bureau and Daggers (2004–2008)

Hutchcraft met Adam Anderson and Scott Forster in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

in 2004. Over the next few months they exchanged music and lyrics via e-mail, before forming Bureau in March 2006, along with Flick Ward and Jamie Alsop. They performed their first gig as a quintet in May at The Music Box in Manchester, and were shortly afterwards signed to independent record label High Voltage Sounds. They released their first

double A-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

single "After Midnight" / "Dollhouse" in November, which was made Single of the Week on

Xfm Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2 ...

. In 2007, Bureau disbanded, and soon after Hutchcraft and Anderson formed the band Daggers. They signed to

Label Fandango Label Fandango is an independent record label based in Highbury, London. Evolving out of parent companies Fierce Panda Records and Pointy Records, it has been releasing limited edition music singles since 2005. It is run by live music promot ...

and in October released another double A-side single "Money" / "Magazine", which despite failing to chart, was nominated for the

Popjustice Popjustice is a music website founded in 2000 by UK freelance music journalist Peter Robinson, who has worked for '' NME'', ''The Guardian'', ''Attitude'' and many others. It is composed of the work of editor Robinson, features editor Michael Cr ...

Twenty Quid Music Prize. Throughout 2008, Daggers continued to build a following, and began working with successful producers Biff Stannard and Richard X, but after a disastrous A&R showcase in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in September, Hutchcraft and Anderson returned to Manchester to reflect on the band's future. They recorded a mournful ballad called "Unspoken" together, and they immediately realised that this was the sound that they wanted to develop as a duo. After informing the rest of the band that it was finished, they went on a short break to

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

, Italy, where they claim they discovered the genre Disco Lento. Daggers announced on their Myspace page in January 2009 that they had split up.

Hurts (2009–present)

Now called Hurts, Hutchcraft and Anderson recorded an amateur

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

for a song called " Wonderful Life" with a female dancer who had responded to an advert in a shop window. After they uploaded the video to their

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel in April 2009, it quickly went viral. They were signed to

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

imprint Major Label in July. The video has since had over 21 million views on YouTube, putting it in the top 200 most watched videos on the website. Hurts finished fourth on the BBC's Sound of 2010 poll, and

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

premiered new song "

Blood, Tears & Gold "Blood, Tears & Gold" is a song by the British duo Hurts from their first album, '' Happiness''. The song was co-written with David Sneddon and The Nexus and was released as the fourth single from the album in Germany. Music video This is the s ...

" as his "Hottest Record in the World" soon after. Hurts performed their first gig on 22 January at the Michalsky Stylenite in Berlin, followed by a gig on 22 February at St Phillips Church in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, where they performed eight songs. This was quickly followed by gigs at

Wiltons Music Hall Wilton's Music Hall is a Grade II* listed building in Shadwell, built as a music hall and now run as a multi-arts performance space in Graces Alley, off Cable Street in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is one of very few surviving musi ...

, London, and in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

and

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

in Germany. Following massive success on Greek radio, Hurts were invited to perform at the

MAD Video Music Awards The MAD Video Music Awards is a Greek award show presented by the MAD TV. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, voted by the viewers of Mad television. Winners receive an authentic Mad designed award with the graphics of that ...

ceremony in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

in front of 11,000 people on 15 June. Also in June, it was announced that

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She is the highest-selling female Australian artist of all time, having sold over 80 million records worldwide. She has been recognised for reinve ...

was recording with the band. She recorded a verse and backing vocals for the song "Devotion", which was to be included on the band's album. Hurts recorded a performance of Kylie's 1994 hit "

Confide in Me "Confide in Me" is a song recorded by Australian singer Kylie Minogue, taken from her self-titled fifth studio album (1994). It was released as the album's lead single on 29 August 1994 by Deconstruction, Imago, and Mushroom Records. The track ...

" for newspaper '' The Sun''s website, and has since been a regular inclusion on their gig setlists. Kylie later returned the compliment by recording a performance of "Wonderful Life" in Radio 1's Live Lounge. Hurts' debut album ''

Happiness Happiness, in the context of mental or emotional states, is positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Other forms include life satisfaction, well-being, subjective well-being, flourishing and eudaimonia. ...

'' was released in September 2010, reaching the Top 10 in 12 European countries and selling over 1 million copies worldwide. Hurts have also sold more than 1 million singles worldwide. ''Happiness'' debuted at number four in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

, selling 25,000 copies in its first week on sale and making it the fastest selling debut album by a band in 2010. Hurts' fifth album, 'Faith', was released on Lento records in 2020. In 2021, he helped co-writing the songs ''Saturdays, Silver Tongues'' and ''She Is Beauty We Are World Class'' for

Louis Tomlinson Louis William Tomlinson (; born Louis Troy Austin; 24 December 1991) is an English singer and songwriter. He rose to fame as a member of the boy band One Direction. Tomlinson began his career appearing in television dramas before he auditioned ...

's 2022 album '' Faith in the Future''.

Discography

With Hurts

* ''

'' (2010) * ''

Exile Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...

'' (2013) * ''

Surrender Surrender may refer to: * Surrender (law), the early relinquishment of a tenancy * Surrender (military), the relinquishment of territory, combatants, facilities, or armaments to another power Film and television * ''Surrender'' (1927 film), an ...

'' (2015) * ''

Desire Desires are states of mind that are expressed by terms like " wanting", " wishing", "longing" or "craving". A great variety of features is commonly associated with desires. They are seen as propositional attitudes towards conceivable states of ...

'' (2017) * ''

Faith Faith, derived from Latin ''fides'' and Old French ''feid'', is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or In the context of religion, one can define faith as "belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion". Religious people ofte ...

'' (2020)

Songwriting credits

* '' By Your Side'' by

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter who has released six studio albums. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'', was released in June ...

and Tom Grennan (2021) * '' Save Disco'' by

PNAU Pnau ( ) is an Australian dance music trio originating from Sydney. The trio, a duo before 2016, consists of the musicians Nick Littlemore (vocals, production), Peter Mayes (guitar, production) and Sam Littlemore (production), with the latter j ...

(2017) * ''Saturdays'' by

(2022) * ''Silver Tongues'' by

(2022) * ''She Is Beauty We Are World Class'' by

(2022)

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hutchcraft, Theo 1986 births Living people English male singer-songwriters English rock singers People from Richmond, North Yorkshire RCA Records artists Place of birth missing (living people) Synth-pop singers 21st-century English singers 21st-century British male singers