Track By Track: Beyond Words – The Hue
As promised, we have another edition of Track By Track – the column in which an artist shares the story of each track on their latest album.
Midwest aggressive prog-rockers The Hue have only been together for two and a half years, but over that short period of time they have gained a slew of fans thanks to their masterful compositions, impressive improvisational skills and ability to get the crowd dancing. On Friday, the quartet will release their first full-length album, Beyond Words, and they’ll be taking the stage that night at The Bottom Lounge in their hometown of Chicago to celebrate.
On the eve of what seems to be the most important day in the band’s history, the members of the group share their thoughts on each of the tunes on Beyond Words…
Blackout by Brian Gilmanov
This song is about a person who drinks heavily and has the ability to conveniently erase mistakes they have made in life from their memory entirely, as if they never happened. It was inspired by an intense “friendship” with someone who pretended to be a different person upon meeting me out of shame for their past mistakes. I chose to convey this deception musically by throwing twists and turns into the typical song form, particularly in the middle of the tune where the second “verse” enters abruptly, has a different groove with a meter change, and starts getting more intricate harmonically. Another good example of this “musical deception” is the false ending where the intro chords also close the song, this was my first attempt at a “beginning is the end” structure and served as a taste of where my writing would go in the future. This song is full of surprises, rhythmically very intense, and easily one of my favorites to play live.
READ ON for more from The Hue about the songs on Beyond Words…
