The Hails 'He Seems Upset' + Interview
☆ By Sophie Gragg ☆
Photos By Kat DeBarros
THE HAILS RETURN WITH A SOUNDSCAPE ECAPSULATING EVERYTHING. Their debut EP, He Seems Upset, is filled with tracks boasting full production, charming vocals and a refined sound reflecting the bands’ growth. Touching on themes from love and apathy to isolation and anxiety, He Seems Upset has something for everyone to connect to and find a temporary escape with. Opening with “Sippin on the Daylight”, the album quickly radiates a fun though heartfelt flow. Previous singles “Denial” and “Situations” rightfully gained the love of old and new fans alike, providing a sweet soundtrack for the summer.
The EP takes a raw and stripped-down turn with “Empty Castles”, highlighting The Hails’ ability ditch the fun production and instrumentals for a moment of pure emotion. The EP jumps back to the upbeat flow with “Heartbeat” for a brief moment before transitioning to “Heartbeat Pt.2”. “Heart Pt.2” brings a unique, almost experimental flavor to the project that effortlessly fits right in. Finishing up with an instrumental track “Flatlines (Interlude)”, and lastly “Younger” (a previously released track of The Hails), He Seems Upset takes the listener on a journey through well-versed sounds and emotions.
Moderated by the band’s publicist Madi Florence, The Hails hosted a press conference via Zoom and The Luna Collective is grateful to have attended and hear more about the album. Listen to He Seems Upset and read below to learn more about their creative process, their change in sound and more.
FLORENCE: What was the timeline of putting things together for the EP?
THE HAILS: The timeline of the concept for the EP started not until we met with our current managers Benji and Andrew, who we met up with last October. We had all graduated from college and written some songs, we rented an Airbnb in Virginia to write some more songs. They [Alex and Benji] met us in this Airnb, heard the music and agreed to work with us. They said we should do an EP and we were really excited by that because we had only released singles and we wanted to make more of a statement with music with a bigger body of work.
FLORENCE: How was the process of creating your first EP during a pandemic? What were some of the obstacles you faced?
THE HAILS: Working remote. A lot of it got strung together as we were in different cities. The wait time on getting mixes back always sucks. One of our producers, Matt, is in LA while “Heartbeat Pt. 2” was done by Franco on his own in D.C. , which was a last minute idea.
It also felt like we were adding more to it. Finally we reached the point where we had eight songs and it felt right. It never felt like it felt finite until we drew a line in the sand.
We got lucky in that we finished most of it, recording wise, by Januar. We had kinda been used to be apart anyway…we had been living a socially distant lifestyle [from one another] before we were forced to. So in a weird way we had been preparing for this before we had to.
FLORENCE: Why did you decide to start featuring Franco as a vocalist now?
SOLARI: It was definitely a shift in thinking what my role was in the band because before The Hails, Andre, Zack and I had a band since we were 12 years old up until our Sophomore year of college where I was the frontman. In the beginning, that and The Hails coexisted. So in my head, I was completely fine playing more of a supporting role and contributing, but then around the time “Younger” started doing what it do and I realized this was something people actually were caring about, I started feeling like “how can I make a bigger contribution” instead of just adding to it.
With the songs we’re writing now , we’re finding a much better blend in how we can use Robbie and me as a cohesive project.
FLORENCE: “Empty Castles” is a strong pause in the bouncy nature of the album - can you tell us about the making of this track and how it made it onto the final tracklist?
SOLARI: I had just boughten an amp and I was singing in my living room in my old house a few years ago. Everytime I get a new piece of equipment there’s something subconscious in me that tells me I have to write a new song. So I sat down and made it - I remember sending it to the guys wondering if they would like it, and I remember being self-conscious about the lyrics. When Benji and Andrew planted the idea of an EP we thought about how we could make this a holistic representation of who we are right now, and we felt like it worked in the flow.
KINGSLEY: It was a big live song for a moment too. It was something we had planted into our live set that was a great change of pace.
FLORENCE: As you’ve matured as a band, how do you think this maturity has translated into this EP and the new direction the band is head towards?
KINGSLEY: I think we’re a lot more focused.
MCCUE: Our process changing because we’re all in different cities has forced us all to explore different methods of songwriting individually and get more into the production side of things. I think that has helped the maturity of the sound. Also, I think we’ve all matured as people and the transition from college life to adult life and all the feelings that go with that impacted a lot of the lyrics in the EP. It’s a combination of new life experiences for all of us and just developing as musicians.
FLORENCE: Were there any risks or anything you hadn’t tried on previous songs that you tried on this EP? Were you nervous about it?
ESCOBAR: “In Denial” has an electronic breakdown section so we went a bit electronic on that. When you hear “Sippin” there are some new vibes. We just went in a different direction for this EP as a whole and it has a lot of influence from the younger electronic sounds like synth stuff. We definitely explored a lot of different sounds production wise.
FLORENCE: What lead to the decisions behind choosing this new sound?
MCCUE: We’ve all always loved that type of music. We all grew up playing instruments so that’s what we were comfortable making. We always appreciated the more electronic and synthy side of things and less guitar-oriented side of things. So we had a very “Why not” mentality about it. In the beginning, it was more about finding our sound and I don’t know if it’s about finding one single sound, but it feels like we’re honing in more on whatever that is.
FLORENCE: Why did you decide to release “Younger” with this EP?
KINGSLEY: It felt like a nice bow on the first era of The Hails. It was the one that gave us any sort of fighting chance as a band so let’s include it in on our first true project. I think it works really well. We had it remasted but it sounds the same. I think it works really well as an album closer.
FLORENCE: What do you want listeners to take away from this project?
KINGSLEY: I think the main goal has just always been hopefully we write good songs. It’s nice when you find something that speaks to you on a different level, like beyond a human level. So if anyone comes away with any strong feeling towards a song then that’s a big win.
MCCUE: I hope the lyrics and music resonate.
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