Nov 13th 1-2-3: The Refined Group Creativity - Hail the Sun ‘cut. turn. fade. back.’
Before we move along to the two most recent games from Hideo Kojima, i think right now is a good time to take another little break to briefly talk about a little band called Hail the Sun, and their most recent album.
Today’s going to be a short one, so without further ado, what’s the story behind ‘Hail The Sun’s ‘cut. turn. fade. back.”?
1: The Story Behind The Story ( 4 minute read )
Hail the Sun is a post-hardcore band from Chico, California, and the have been around since the 2009.
However from my perspective, I barely discovered their music more recently when investigating the additional acts on Between the Buried and Me’s Album release tour for ‘The Blue nowhere’.
In my ‘investigation’ I began listening to their most recent singles for their then ‘upcoming’ now ‘released’ newest album, and what I found was something that felt familiar.
I heard the angst, energy, and lyrical commentary akin to bands like My Chemical Romance and Pierce The Veil.
I felt progressions as well as harmonies and melodies that felt reminiscent to bands like old school Attack Attack!, or even Muse at times.
There was something that was, well produced yeah but still, very raw.
It took me back to being a young lad in high school being shown all these punk and metal bands that my brother found during his days in high school that seemed to have a particular catharsis that fit perfectly with the hormone fueled angst of being at those ages.
As an adult finding a band such as Hail the Sun, nostalgic reminiscence aside, the lyrics of their music happened to really speak to me, and without going to deep into that particular detail I think the simplest thing I could say is that I found a particular form of catharsis listening to lyric such as these coming from a ‘random’ band I had just discovered.
Overall what I found with Hail the Sun is a band that kept me internally saying “why have I only now heard about this band?”
It was like finding a band that was made to fit perfectly into my current listening rotation.
From Nostalgia to Analysis
The bands recently release album titled ‘cut. turn. fade. back.’ as a whole is a very well composed album, with songs that cover quite a lot of ground in terms of style, feel, and lyrics while maintaining a unity of the overall sound of the album.
From songs that are full of a rebellious and tangible energy, to songs that are drawing parallels between substance relapse and succumbing to a love affair.
There's even a song titled ‘Consumed With You’ that is, in short, discussing the strain the loss of a loved one can put on nearby relationships, and it is told with this almost 80s ballad type of style and progression.
The album as a whole was very impressive on first listen but at a much faster than typical pace, these songs began to get burned into my brain.
It’s am incredibly sticky album that is shockingly calculated in it’s overall album composition, individual song composition, as well as it’s production.
Which leads me to the next point, the production.
The albums producer is Johnny Kosich, a longtime friend of the band since they were all in college years ago.
Since their days in college, Kosich had built quite a lot of experience with sound engineering, and had the opportunity to work with some pretty huge artists and bands, such as Kendrick Lamar, Anderson Paak, Baby Keem, and even Fred Again.
To say this album is very well produced is kind of an understatement, its incredibly well produced and I find that that is no more apparent how a lot of the songs open up.
Now I’m well aware this might sound like a pedantic detail to point at and scream out ‘THIS IS THE SIGN OF MUSICAL GENIUS’ type of comments, but just bare with me on this one.
I swear the openings of some of these songs are specifically produced and almost ‘designed’ to stick in your head, and get you all excited on subsequent listens.
It’s almost like there’s an ingrained ‘signature’ within how they design the openings to some of these songs, It’s an effect that obviously Hail the Sun isn’t the only band to do but for some reason that was a small little detail that both stuck out to me and struck me as interesting.
And an important reason why I even mention this rather subtle, simple, and downright obvious detail is due to this albums producer Johnny Kosich being a man who has produced and won a grammy for working with Kendrick Lamar on his ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’.
I guess all I’m getting at with this point is that there is, on multiple listens, a striking amount of intentionality and forethought put into this album than I initially gave credit for.
Fluid Writing Form
Now I’m sure you may have noticed with this entry that it seems like I did no research into the actual ‘Story Behind This Story’ considering this entry is basically ALL my own analysis and opinion.
Which makes this the prime time for me to say that in my attempt at researching for this entry, what I found was that there wasn’t much to find about the story behind Hail the Sun’s latest release.
However what I did find was that the band wanted to return to a more sound that felt more akin to their live shows in terms of the collaborative approach that creates the effect and feel of a live performance.
Now in terms of writing the band has a very fluid approach and process to song writing where each member of the band writes on their own, at times maybe a couple members will write one song together, then after a while the band as a whole will get together in the studio and get to work.
The work within the studio entails all of the band members showing all the songs they’ve written, and then they discuss and refine all those ideas down into the select number of songs that actually make it into the final album that is released.
As the lock down on certain songs they’ll re-compose songs, change keys, change tempo, and really do whatever they have to to sculpt the songs into something that all members of the band are happy with.
In terms of their end goal with this album and its overall message, I think their lead singer Donovan Melero puts it pretty clear,
“It doesn’t matter if people take away the intended message from these songs,” says Melero, “and I’m certainly not going to police it, but we do, as always, want to encourage critical thinking. Fifteen years in, I love that we’ve been allowed this fan base to speak to. I feel very grateful and fortunate, and I hope that it keeps carrying us forward and continues to be the thing that we can sustain life from. -Donovan Melero
The album is a culminative product born from 15 years of Hail the Sun’s work and progress together as a band.
They have refined their craft as musicians and performers, and have done so with the same founding members that first started the band back in 2009, and with this latest album it shows.
They have deepened their bond togethers as friends and fellow bandmates, and have also refined their writing, recording, and producing process.
A process that is at it’s core founded on their individual aspiration to write for themselves, express themselves, and to have fun while doing it.
Personally….
I believe those are some of the most important takeaways from the making of this album, and the bands process as a whole.
2: Creative Prompts From Us (ex. Write a short story, a poem, a song, or draw a quick illustration of these! Let your imagination run free.)
I. Being a ‘critical’ or ‘perfectionist’ artist can seem like a boon in the right direction for your craft, but just always be aware of how that ‘critical’, ‘perfectionist’ lens works against you, or takes you away from your art. Never forget how you started. Never forget how to look at your ark through a ‘childlike’ lens to have fun doing what you love to do.
II. Throughout your studies, throughout your practice, always make time for play. Grow your skill, go slow to deeply ingrain what you study into your mind and into your hands, then have fun and let your creative curiosity take you away.
3: Quotes From Donovan Melero
I. “We write songs on our own, we write songs together, … The biggest standout on this one was … we reconnected [with producers] … So the sound in general is just a much bigger sound. … there’s soft songs, there’s heavy songs, arguably our heaviest songs, but it all has been the songwriting portion usually stays to the same formula as we do stuff on our own and then we bring it together and it gets completed as a whole.” — Donovan Melero
II. “It’s fascinating how [they] are able to justify the abuse in their own ways. … There are very intelligent leaders out there who, I would say, objectively abuse their power.” — Donovan Melero
III. “Regardless of how I may act or seem on the outside, like many people, I am very self-critical.” — Donovan Melero
Thank you so much for reading!