So Sudden

And so sudden it was. With only a handful of months together, The Hush Sound was immediately picked up by Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance where they released their debut “So Sudden”. If that seemed sudden, you’d be surprised to know that their second album “Like Vines” is hitting the shelves only 3 weeks from now on June 6^th. We recently had the opportunity to sit down with the band: Bob, Greta, Darren, and Chris when they passed by our town during Fall Out Boy’s “The Black Clouds and Underdogs Tour”. Find out what day of the week the band favours in…

10 Questions with The Hush Sound

- by Mattias and Dave-Os -

1. Your new record, “Like Vines” is coming out in June. What can we expect from this?

G: Well, since we’ve recorded our first album, “So Sudden”, we’ve all started to listen to a ton of different music and we’ve had a ton of different influences. We started taking lessons just to improve at are instruments and we just worked really hard. I think that we learned how to play well together – like we’ve learned to play better together than when we did during our first album. It’s much more well crafted than the last album and it [has a] very wide spectrum of songs; There’s a very creepy kind of waltz and then there’s some very happy Motown influenced melodic songs and everything between.

Mattias: Now, A lot of Fueled By Ramen bands have guest vocals by other Fueled By Ramen artists on their albums. Can we expect any guest appearances on “Like Vines”?

B: Yeah, Patrick from Fall Out Boy is on one of the songs. He sings two lines – it’s pretty cool.

2. What was it about you guys that got Pete Wentz’ attention and subsequently got you signed onto Decaydance?

B: We recorded a bunch of demos and Ryan Ross from Panic! At the Disco heard them and told Pete to check them out. Pete was like “Whoa I didn’t know about this band and they’re from Chicago!” We had only been a band for about 2 and half months at the time so. He heard “Crawling Towards the Sun” and immediately sent us an e-mail and was like “Hey I wanna talk to you guys” and this and that. He was pretty much interested in [signing us] from the beginning. We liked the way that they worked over there at Fueled By Ramen, and everyone just had a good vibe so we went with it.

3. Alright this one’s for Bob, I read in Alternative Press that you really wanted to meet Saves the Day, then when you got the chance to talk to them, you were too nervous. If you were to say anything to them now what would you say?

B: I don’t know “I like your band…” or “I’ve liked your band for a long time…” *laughs*

I’d be real careful because people say things to me sometimes that are kind of weird – I usually think it’s pretty funny. I’d probably want to try and be like “Hey man I really like your band…” and this and that - try to be really cool about it.

C: You might say something like “You don’t suck too much.” But they wouldn’t get it.

B: Yeah, I’d probably be real sarcastic to him, then he wouldn’t get it, and probably just wouldn’t like me.

4. What is a Hush Sound, and what exactly does it sound like?

D: It’s the sound of breaking bones.

B: When it was just Greta and I at the very very beginning, I’m talking the first two weeks of the band, we were really a quiet acoustic piano [band], like a quiet sort of calm band so were like let’s be “The Hush” so then we made a website using TheHushSound, because TheHush was taken. Then basically we ended having to change our name to The Hush Sound because there was a rapper Detroit named Hush and we didn’t want to get into a lawsuit.

Mattias: What would you guys do now if he changed his name to “The Hush Sound”?

D: Sue him.

C: Yeah sue him.

B: And then after we got our money, we’d change our name back to “The Hush”.

G: And then we’d record another album with all the money.

C: I think we all dug “The Hush” as a band name a little bit more than “The Hush Sound” but we’ve definitely grown into it.
G: It just kind of became second nature. At first, not everybody was very into it but its just second nature now.

B: Sometimes people don’t understand what we’re saying because it’s “the huSH Sound” with two “S” sounds in the middle but it works out.

G: Yeah it’s very difficult to explain the name to people who have English as their second language. My Dad had friends in from Israel and they just did not understand the concept of our band.

5. It seems like all the Fueled By Ramen bands blow up and become the hottest band as soon as they get signed. Now that you guys are signed, do you guys feel any pressure to out-do or our-perform anyone now?

B: Whatever happens is going to happen; we just try to write the songs that we like to play.

C: I think they’ve got a pretty good track record though; they’ve got Fall Out Boy and now Panic! At the Disco is exploding. There’s a little bit of pressure because of the big legacy to live up to.

B: But I think that because those bands are blossoming, it’s making it easier [for fans] to keep their eyes on us and it’s giving us more attention. I think it’s definitely a good thing to be on Fueled By Ramen right now.

C: It’s also cool because they want us to be that big but they don’t demand it. They’ll be happy either way – They’re pretty down to earth.

6. So you guys were promoted by your label the same time as Panic! At the Disco and you’ll soon be touring together… What do you think about them?

G: We actually don’t know them.

C: Yeah we never got to meet them.

B: I met the singer for about 4 seconds. I was standing in the line-up with a bunch of screaming girls and I was like “Hey I’m Bob from The Hush.” And he said “Aww sweet I like your band.” Then I said, “I like your band too”. Then I left and I haven’t talked to them since, but I did talk to Ross over the Internet today.

C: I have a feeling we’re going to hit it off with those guys on the tour.

B: Or we’ll kill each other.

C: Yeah.

B: Probably the first one.

7. All right, time for The Lightning Round… Would you rather fight a swarm of bees or a pack of piranhas?

D: Pack of Piranhas.

Mattias: Why?

D: No reason.

G: Yeah piranhas – I’m allergic to bees.

B: Yeah bees.

C: I’d go piranhas because if they’d be out of water, I could just hit them with a baseball bat.

Mattias: When we wrote this question, we figured everyone would pick bees.

B: I went with bees, yeah, I’m the typical stereotype.

8. If you had to destroy an entire city (not including people), how would you go about it?

B: How would I do it? I don’t know that’s a terrible question.

G: Probably attack it with piranhas or bees.

C: I think I’d make some sort of mental-like-zombie thing for all the people where they all turn into zombies and destroy the city and then eat each other. So I guess I’d inadvertently kill people too.

9. What’s your favourite day of the week?

B: Friday!

D: Yeah Friday.

C: Oh definitely Funday.

Mattias: Funday? That’s my second favourite day of the week.

D: What’s your first?

Mattias: Monday. *laughs*

G: Actually I use to really love Mondays. Mondays would always be really great. Tuesdays would suck but Mondays would be awesome.

D: Mondays were awful as well as Sundays, because you know it was like “aww…school”.

C: I didn’t like Thursdays because I’d think “Man, two more days of life…until Saturday.”

G: I think Thursdays we’re good.

B: You’re weird.

G: I always had piano lessons on Thursdays.

10. Who would you like to see next on Band of the Day?

G: This is Me Smiling and Wax on Radio.

B: Definitely This is Me Smiling or Wax on Radio.

Mattias: Chicago bands, eh?

C: Yeah. That’s who I would say too.

D: Primus.

B: Yeah, screw those 2 bands. Primus.

And there you have it; for the most part the band likes Funday the best, with Friday as a close second. Thank you again to The Hush Sound and don’t forget to pick up Like Vines on June 6^th.

Reading is Power,

The BotD Team