Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Hallelujah the Hills - "Popular Anti​-​Depressants of the 21st Century"

Boston's Hallelujah the Hills have released a few Bandcamp Friday specials, but no real new music since 2019's I'm You. For this month's Bandcamp Friday, Ryan H. Walsh had inspiration. According to an email sent out to fans:

"I haven't written any songs in about a year and a half. I remember sitting at Nick's living room table in March of 2019 finishing 'The Memory Tree' and thinking, 'I think this is the start of a long break.'

Yesterday, though, I woke up and felt like I had one. Now, as you may have noticed, things seem pretty fucking dark right now. We all feel and live that, and some of us way more than others. I wanted to acknowledge that but find some small tiny way to place some hope in there as well. If we're still inside the prequel, that means the story hasn't even really begun yet, and that big changes are forward momentum are right around the corner. I hope that's true.

The idea for the song was accompanied by another instinct, too: what if this song was written and recorded in one day? Really capture the moment in every way. I finished it up, sent it to Nick, and by 3PM we were at our rehearsal space ('Puritan Garage') laying down the tracks. We sent a rough mix of the basics to the rest of the band and through out the day we received their overdubs remotely. We were all working on it at once in different locations. Pretty futuristic!

We finished mixing it at 1AM, which is technically Sep 4, today, but you get the idea.


The resulting song is "Popular Anti-Depressants of the 21st Century." It's on the mellower, nearly folky side of Hallelujah the Hills. For a song that was completely written and recorded remotely in less than a day, it's an incredibly organic, insanely well put together song. Nothing feels lo-fi or home recorded here. Even the vocal harmonies work together perfectly, especially for six people that were never in the same room at the same time.

You can listen to "Popular Anti-Depressants of the 21st Century" below. The song is currently available on Hallelujah the Hills's Bandcamp. Proceeds from the single are going to the Mainvest campaign to reopen Great Scott in a new location. For more on Hallelujah the Hills, check out their website.

No comments:

Post a Comment