HUNNY: The Natural Trajectory
Indie rock band HUNNY seem to embody the laid-back, Californian casual lifestyle that they come from, with their attitude always reflecting this. But, that isn’t to say that they don’t take making music seriously, and with less than a year since their last release, they’re right back at it with their latest album, Hunny’s New Planet Heaven. Speaking with vocalist Jason Yarger, with the backdrop of his home recording studio over video chat and surrounded by a variety of music equipment, he explains how quickly this album came about.
“We always say that we want to be putting shit out really fast, and in the Summer of 2022, we clocked in on this album for a couple hours a week, for a couple of months. Then we had to sit on it for a really long time, because it was done too fast. If it was up to us, I’d be putting out every single song that I write and record in here, I’d put it out tomorrow. But things don’t work like that unfortunately.”
While the band made a very conscious effort to not write songs about COVID, it was the fallout of the virus that ultimately inspired the writing of this latest album. As lockdown hit, HUNNY were in Brussels on tour, and they had to fly back home to America with pretty much no warning. The band were suddenly hit with a realisation: that they may not be able to keep doing the thing that they’d all worked so hard for. Despite all their commitment to keep an optimistic outlook, they couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the sudden anxiety of having the rug pulled out from underneath them. As they went in to record the album, Jason explains how collaborating with their friend Derek Ted, who he describes as a ‘shaman’, helped spin these feelings of anxiety into something more positive.
“He’s a really trippy, kind of stoner breh, he’s all positive energy, even though he’s like a swoop hair scene kid at heart. He would be like, let’s take this song about being depressed, and try to flip it, don’t stay in that headspace, don’t stay in your old ways.” Starting with Derek’s involvement, and the fact that they didn’t necessarily need to make an album at that time, the process ended up feeling really easy and enjoyable. Jason explains, “I’m 32 now, so the difference between 29 and 32, it doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal, but it really has been for me. I’ve started to let things go a lot. I don’t know if it’s a natural trajectory for me, or if it was because of COVID, but now I’m just like, whatever, shit’s gonna happen.”
Themes of spirituality, and the stars, are dotted all throughout the album, although Jason explains how this is all the influence of guitarist Jake Goldstein. “We’re all decently spiritual, but Jake is huge into it, he’s a student of the world.” While Hunny’s New Planet Heaven is made up of equal input from every member of the band, it’s clear that they all have their own, very different ways of writing, and Jason explains his personal process. “I just live in this zone. I’ll take this microphone, and sing in my gibberish, and it’ll end up making sense. Y’know, it’s the 101 Dalmatians thing. It goes melody first darling, then the lyrics. Sometimes you just have to trust that your brain knows what it’s doing.” Almost as if watching this process happen in real time, he starts to create a metaphor about his song writing method, describing catching butterflies in a net. They’re all different colours, but they’re all still butterflies. Just like he explained, he trusted his mind to figure out what he meant as he went along, and it all made sense in the end.
As they started to record the album, and experiment with new things that they were learning, it became clear that they wanted to focus on ensuring that they were happy with the foundations of the song, and nothing was relying on any particular part. This meant going back to their roots, and stripping each song back, playing it acoustically and deciding if they still loved it in its most raw form. “We had done that before, but not in a really long time, and I think that helped a lot, actually, so maybe we keep doing it. I don’t know why we ever stopped. Fools.”
Though the band are still riding the high of this latest release, it’s apparent that they’re already starting to get excited about what comes next. Jason explains that each member of the band is constantly writing, and there’s no shortage of songs already written that they couldn’t put into this album but aren’t ready to forget about just yet. On top of that, they’re starting to think about what they can do differently, and what else might be in store for them. “This one was more emo, and mellow, with a bit of bedroom pop. What we’ve talked about so far, is making this next one a little more. We want to get crazier, with fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy guitars, and maybe a little hyper pop influence. So I don’t know, we’ll see what happens.”
For many bands, this constant stream of making and releasing music could be overwhelming, but for HUNNY, it’s clearly nothing short of completely natural.
Hunny’s New Planet Heaven is out now via Epitaph Records.
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