I have been nominated for a total of 9 awards by the Indie Music Channel, the premiere source for indie/alternative music in North America, and I'm going to talk about the songs that have been nominated. Now I will talk a bit about the final nomination and probably the longest of longshots to win: Album of the Year, for Hatey.
As mentioned in a previous post I had intended to fully write and record the EP in May of 2023, and while the writing got done the recording did not and as such the release of the EP got pushed back to mid July. It's a protest album from start to finish from the moody synths and sample of rioters on the opening track, to the moody, sweary punch in the face that is the 2nd track, to the environmental dancability of the 3rd track, to at last the slow burn attempt at some hope in the final track. The holw thing weights in at 4 songs and just under 28 minutes.
The EP opens with my very stark reworking of Nick Lowe's "I Love the Sound of Broken Glass". It's the exact same song, but every time Nick Lowe played a G Major chord I substituded E Minor. All of the riot samples come from the footage released by the January 6th committee of Congress. I didn't change a single lyric of the song, but producing it the way we did the song now becomes the Miscreant Badge of Honor instead of a song about displaced and frustrated youth. The only thing I really changed was the tone and the meaning completely shifts.
And yes, I do owe a debt of gratitude to Gary Jules' version of the Tears for Fears song "Mad World". His re-working of that song gave me the idea to do this in the first place. I also owe a bit of inspiration to Roger Waters' remake of his own song "Comfortably Numb". Despite what the man himself has degraded himself into, the new version is awfully damned good.
I've talked about WOKE AF and Ordinary Life in previous posts, but on this release I created a new mix of Elusive Green. I sampled video and audio from Green protests all over the world and added that into the mix of the song I made for the video, which until this point had only been in the video and not any official release.
I'm truly pleased with the results - I mean the guyzos really put a lot of effort into their parts and I'm pleased that I could release it at all given the struggles we went through to even get it finished. Is it the best indie album out this year? I don't know.
It's always struck me that if you think you've found the best of anything, then maybe all you've done is settle. There's always amazing stuff out there but you do have to go looking for it.
I was always going to call this project "Hatey". I no longer remember who said it, but I heard (or read) someone say that he couldn't stand it that the Governor of Florida was turning the State into Hatey. That struck a chord with me. As for the cover art, All I did was reverse and turn upside down a map of the USA. It has always struck me as funny that when English letters are positioned like in this way that it looks kinda/sorta Russian.
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Well, that's everything. My next post will come after the awards ceremony. I might win nothing. I might win big. I might some down somewhere in the middle. In any case it's an honor and quite humbling to be recognized by my peers in this way. I've been doing this music thing for a long time now and to be recognized for my work - our work - is special and gratifying.
Thank you all, and love to you all.
You can find Hatey at all the usual places, and you can even stream it right here.
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