We wrote just lately about Greg Hoy’s newest single, ‘What, My Individuals?‘, and had been impressed by how the track implores listeners to step again and take a look at what is basically most essential. Greg tells us in his personal phrases about this new launch, and what impressed him to jot down it.
You’ve been making music for just a few many years now – how do you are feeling your type has developed for the reason that starting? How would you describe your present type?
One factor that’s actually modified is pondering any recorded and launched track ought to have the ability to be performed dwell by the trio. After 20 years of albums and songs at this level, however with solely 45 minutes or so for a dwell efficiency, a track actually has to hit me sq. within the photo voltaic plexus to make it to the dwell present’s set checklist.
And now that’s further true with the dwell horn part. My songwriting palette has actually opened up since that revelation. My final album ‘Yay For Effort’ was largely a piano-based recording, and the very last thing I wanna do is sit at a piano at a dwell gig! So we solely performed two songs final yr dwell off of it, and each of them have fallen off the set checklist this yr!
Are you able to speak about any challenges or breakthroughs you had whereas crafting the sound of ‘What, My Individuals?’ Did you at all times have a transparent imaginative and prescient for the monitor?
A number of months into recording, a pal loaned me this candy, analog microphone pre-amp. To not nerd out an excessive amount of right here but it surely simply made EVERYTHING sound SO a lot BETTER. I began doing these one hit snare and cymbal pictures on the drum equipment as soon as I had the mic cables routed by way of it as a take a look at for the sound. So these hits turned the start of ‘What, My Individuals?’ should you can simply think about it with none guitar or bass – enjoying this form of syncopated, upbeat drum loop. And in my head each time I hit the opened hi-hat, I used to be saying ‘What!’. Then the refrain triplet drum half was me testing the tom mic sounds. So then that complete train turned the blueprint for the entire idea!
As an artist who enjoys crafting “no-nonsense rock and roll” – what function does authenticity play in your music?
That’s a very nice query! My threshold for the ‘uncanny valley’ of issues like dwell lip-syncing, auto-tune on recorded vocals, and faux software program drum sounds is like zero level zero. There was a time from in regards to the mid 80s to the mid 90s when artificial know-how and dwell devices performed actually, rather well collectively – Tears for Fears, Blondie (RIP Clem Burke), 9 Inch Nails, even Huey Lewis had been utilizing drum machines over prime of their dwell drummer. The sense was that the texture and efficiency was real, crisp, and human even with drum packing containers and sequencers within the mixes.
The steadiness tipped significantly because the tech received higher and cheaper. Don’t get me fallacious – I like a dwell band whose sound is pushed ‘by’ the tech with the dwell component coming in on prime of it. I’m pondering like Depeche Mode or Duran Duran. However to have bands use instruments to cowl up, masks, or make up for a scarcity of actual expertise is rubbish.
Sorry to rant on this – it’s a young topic to me, Let me give a particular instance. Whereas on a tour, a canopy band invited me onstage to sing a track just a few years in the past. Omaha? Minneapolis? Unsure the place or the track. Perhaps it was Pearl Jam or Stone Temple Pilots… one thing 90s grunge. I’d had just a few tequila sodas, and the moon was full, so I assumed ‘Hey, why not?’
I get on stage and the singer arms me the mic. As quickly as I sang the FIRST NOTE of the verse, one thing was…off. Bizarre. that feeling of being in a rental automobile and once you get too near the white line in your lane the steering wheel strikes you straight once more? It was that, however with my voice! It was hijacked! I appeared all the way down to see an impact pedal the singer was utilizing on the mic – auto-tune and reverb constructed proper into it! It was deplorable. So I did what anybody in that place ought to do and sang the entire thing as out of key as potential to try to trick the software program. It was a really Cher second.
The music video has a retro really feel in plenty of methods—was this a purposeful strategy? How did you go about making a compelling visible with no full-budget manufacturing?
The retro factor is simply my regular modus operandi. Perhaps that goes again to the final query. There’s a lot faux stuff within the content material world, what we learn, see, and listen to. I’d simply somewhat dangle a cymbal from some hanging wire and name it a UFO than ask OpenAI to make me a flying saucer video.
What’s your favourite scene or visible component from the music video? The place did you get the thought for aliens enjoying in a rock band?
There have been a bunch of UFO sightings on the finish of final yr, particularly over New Jersey of all locations. I imply, no offense to the state – I used to be born in Woodbury NJ, in spite of everything, so I’m Jersey Sturdy — however is it actually that stunning that aliens would choose the NJ Turnpike hall to launch their invasion? Perhaps they’ve a delicate spot for Clara Barton’s legacy. We definitely have hit her relaxation cease heading out on tour from NYC many, many instances.
And don’t get me fallacious: Jersey is much, much more stunning than the tropes would have you ever consider! Significantly the northern components, in addition to the Jersey shore (shout-out to Hoy’s 5 & 10 in Ocean Metropolis!). It’s simply my hope that, if aliens landed there, they’d be extra into rocking out.
Would you contemplate ‘What, My Individuals?’ a wake-up name? What do you hope audiences will take away from the track?
There’s a bit little bit of hope each time I write a track in regards to the senseless nature of content material tradition – the thought of protesting by dancing on TikTok, or ranting on another social media channel about no matter the federal government of the second has carried out to fallacious you. Nothing is best than the positive, positive idiocrasy of Subsequent Door. Why fear about local weather change when it’s higher to waste time arguing about whether or not your neighbor’s canine doo-doo bag has the suitable to be positioned in your rubbish can?
I imply, I’m not hoping for a miracle, nevertheless if somebody hears my music and possibly loosens the grip on their clutched pearls just a bit bit, we’d all be higher off.
What’s one lesson you will have discovered in your musical profession up to now that you could go alongside to aspiring musicians?
I’m probably not a bible man, but it surely’s kinda just like the Foo Fighters or Journey, possibly – I just like the hits! Like this one by a dude named Matthew: ‘Do to others no matter you prefer to them to do to you.’ I’d even add try to give a bit greater than you are taking. Deal with your listeners, followers, and membership homeowners with respect. Ask a bartender and sound individual their identify, and bear in mind it (c’mon, you are able to do it!). Assist different musicians – that’s an incredibly huge one. Hearken to their music on-line. Purchase the T shirt or LP data. Stick their stickers someplace. Even should you didn’t like all of them that a lot. Perceive the large quantity of labor it takes to even exist as an artist in 2025, and right here you might be, in the identical room collectively!
We’re at a stage the place we e book most of our dwell payments each native and on tour – choosing favourite help acts, selling their work, listening to their music. I nonetheless love discovering new bands! Right here in northern California, I’ll take a look at the web sites of golf equipment we’ve performed – like Ivy Room, Kilowatt, Backside of the Hill, Winters Tavern, and see names of bands that I don’t know, then perform a little search on ’em in Bandcamp or Spotify. If I prefer it, we attain out, ask them to share a stage. Assist one another on this mess, you recognize?
And but…nonetheless, to this present day, I’m at all times kinda shocked that not everybody reciprocates or does the identical. We’ve had just a few opening acts actually pack up their gear as we’re tuning our guitars onstage, leaving after their set they only performed earlier than us. I’ve seen these bands don’t actually stick round too lengthy, nor do they appear to construct a lot of an viewers. You may inform quite a bit about how folks conduct themselves just by whether or not they’re gracious and attentive, and appreciative too.
What do you get pleasure from about taking this track on the highway with Greg Hoy and the Boys? Inform us a bit bit extra about your latest touring expertise.
‘What, My Individuals?’ is definitely the toughest track within the new dwell set. It’s on the prime of my vocal vary, it doesn’t have any horn components written (but), and each time we carry out it dwell, I recall my bass participant telling me it seems like ‘traditional’ Ozzy Osbourne. In order that’s the personae I attempt to carry to the mic on the dwell present.
Talking of authenticity, it additionally helps to snort a line of ants and chew the pinnacle off a dwell bat earlier than we play it dwell. Each creatures may be shockingly exhausting to seek out on tour in time for a gig, although, so I normally choose a strong ribeye with a glass of Cabernet.
Try the spacey video for ‘What, My Individuals?’ beneath, and discover out extra about Greg Hoy and his music on-line on his official web site, Instagram, and Twitter.
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