HUSH
Photography provided by the band
Leben Bleasdale started HUSH in 2016 as a solo musical endeavor, but it didn’t take long for it to turn into a group effort. Their sound is a synthesis of pop, R&B, and Motown derived influences, harkening the likeness of contemporaries such as Blood Orange (Dev Hynes) and Twin Shadow (George Lewis Jr.).
With only a handful of singles available and a few shows under their belt HUSH has already made definitive steps within its infancy, their first single ‘Easy’ was released in early 2017 and was cited as representing “the idea of innovation.”
Their newest single “Wasted On Me” was released in mid-July.
Interview with Leben Bleasdale
I want to start from the beginning. Where did you grow up? What was your childhood like? Was creativity a part of your childhood?
I grew up in a rural community in northern California, small place called Dixon in between the east bay and the Sacramento Valley. My childhood was relatively normal for someone my age (I’m 24.) Parents divorced when I was young, grew up between my grandmothers, my moms, and the homes of family friends. I suppose the most distinct factor in my upbringing was my adoption, I’m African American, my siblings are Japanese, my mother is Caucasian. I think that threw a lot of people threw a loop but since they were the only family I ever had our skin color never made much of an impression on me. My mom encouraged arts, for all of us. While I had no capacity for drawing or painting I did fancy myself an author at a young age. I wrote poems and stories from elementary school into high school. I remember my mom helping me mail in some of my work to publishers. To no avail of course, but she understood the importance of fostering that side of one’s childhood.
Tell me about your musical upbringing. When did you first become aware that music was going to be a part of your life?
My biological mother left me a standing piano when she passed and I found myself tinkering on it long before I understood the significance of an inheritance. The only relationship I had with her was through photographs, poetry, and songs she wrote. While she was never a professional musician music was certainly one of her passions. I have cassette tapes of her singing and playing piano. Without getting to Freudian, I think having these dated recordings of her singing as the only way to know or understand her by was what pushed me into pursuing music, subconsciously at least. I was eight years old when I first got my hands on those tapes.
What was your formal / not formal music education like growing up?
My formal education started in elementary school and continued through high school and college. It started with piano lessons and kinda segued into everything else- trumpet, trombone, drums, jazz bass, and later cello were all the classical training I got on actual instruments, but I feel like the real value of that education was the theoretical knowledge. Guitar and singing however, is a whole other story. I picked that up and taught myself by learning Smashing Pumpkins and Fall Out Boy songs, and I never looked back. I’ve been using a guitar to write songs ever since.
How did the band come together? Would you say it was an organic union, or were you all looking to start a band?
That’s an interesting question. I had left a band I was playing guitar for to start writing and recording songs I had written myself. I’ve always worked well with others but HUSH was always meant to be a solo thing, my songs, my show, but after a few studio sessions with Karp (our guitarist) I saw the potential in bringing in other musicians into the fold. Everyone in the band now I’ve either worked with in studio or done tours with in the past, so It was just fortuitous that they all were looking for something to dig their fingers into. Right place right time you could say.
What’s the biggest hardship that’s helped inspire your writing?
I look to relationships for a lot of my inspiration. Romantic, platonic, friendships, burnt bridges, the way people tend to fall in and out of each other’s good graces either by circumstance or something of our own design. When I started HUSH I was coming out of a relationship with someone I had been with on and off for the last seven years. In that span of time she had a child, we both had gone off to college, I had gotten the opportunity to travel and tour – I think the gravity of ending a relationship that had span such a significant portion of both our lives was a lot to reconcile. So the songs that are available certainly touch on that period of my life.
Although you only have a few songs out right now what has the writing process been like for the group? Where have you pulled the lyrics from? Where were you at physically, mentally when you wrote them? Was there an event or a specific timeframe where a large chunk of the lyricism came out?
Like you said we only have a few songs available, but in some form or another we have 20 or so songs that we put together in the studio. The writing process has no dedicated chain of command but typically starts with a chord progression, lyrics and melody I put together with the guitar and then soon after the guys take it out of my hands and turn it into something listenable, and actual song. They’re all talented musicians of a much higher caliber then myself so it typically takes no time for a song to start to coalesce. Lyrically I have to be honest. It’s all usually decorated in metaphor that fit the tone of the song, but I’m writing from direct experience, the references and setting are typically very explicit. It’s not only to bring the listener to that exact moment or state of mind, but to keep me accountable. Fiction I’ve found is easy, but being reality, and the honesty of your role in things I feel is a lot more difficult to put into frame then one would think. Since most of the songs are coming from a place of reflection the songs usually don’t come until much later after the fact. I think I mentioned earlier a relationship with a young mother? I was fortunate enough to be around during the majority of the pregnancy and was in the room during the actual birth. I was 20 and she was 21 at the time so that event in particular left an impact and I oftentimes find myself musing on the well-being of that child, I think that’s an easily identified theme in the songs, maybe less so in the two we’ve released but more obvious in some of the new stuff we’ll have out in 2018.
Are you ever intentional when you sit down to write? Is there ever a “I’m going to write a song now” moment or is it more ephemeral, like you’ve been kicking something around in your head for days, weeks, months, and then suddenly it comes spilling out?
Definitely door number 2. Typically, it’s a melody that comes kicking around in my head and by the time it’s come to fruition I’ve already scribbled down a chord progression and lyrics on whatever nearest paper is available – bar napkins, parking tickets, and occasionally and actual notebook. I’ve found being “inspired” comes and goes when it will. I can’t force myself to put together a song I’m proud of it, it has to happen on its own.
Does traveling influence you as an artist? Are you inspired by the places you go, or do you think your work would sound about the same no matter where you created it?
I would say traveling definitely has an impact. I’ve long held the belief that your surroundings have a direct influence on your work. Whether that be the lyrical content or just the general vibe of the song, I think the time and place carries significance. Songs I’ve written in Los Angeles during a summer evening have a very different feel then songs I wrote in late winter in New York. Without being too cliché’, whatever it is that brought you to that place at that time also brought about the necessity to create, to sing that particular song, at that particular time.
When you first start writing a piece of music, is writing something you enjoy doing? Does the writing process come easy to you?
I really enjoy playing music. Like the actually sitting down and playing the instrument part. The writing and composing process, is a little more complicated…. It’s usually cathartic for me ya know? So in a lot of ways it’s painful. I have a tendency to get caught up in melancholy after writing a song, if not just straight up cry after its done. It’s a super satisfying feeling to have written a song but the road to completion is trying emotionally, physically. For me at least.
With your artwork, how did you interact with the artist/designer? Did you contribute ideas or remain hands-off? Was there a revision process?
I think a lot of musicians who are multi-faceted have a very specific concept or imagery that accompanies their vision of the music that makes the artwork side of it a lot easier. I on the other hand totally recognize the limits to my artistic abilities so I tend to rely heavily on the designer or in this case our photographer Alex Colmenares (he goes by LX or yrstrly). Usually I’ll present three themes that I want to be consistent in the end product/products and let him do his thing. We have a relationship where I can communicate pretty openly about when I do and don’t like how the artwork comes out even if I can’t specify what it is – I think working in that vague artist-to-artist territory and creating a product that were both pleased with is where the magic happens.
How important is it to you for the art that accompanies your music to represent the sound and the lyrics? Do you aim for a conversation between the two, or are you more interested in an aesthetically cool package?
I think if the music is good, it should speak for itself. That being said, if you can bring a visual aspect to the table that supplements the message, you elevate the two mediums. Obviously you want to have something aesthetically pleasing to both you and the listener, but I think the important thing is capturing the song/album/record in an image. We’ve definitely tried to create some consistency with our visual artwork whether it be show flyers promos or single artwork. There’s a visual theme present in all of the images that is actually taken from a line from one of our songs “Easy” involving a pickup truck, which is why that imagery is present across the board with a lot of our visuals. Small things like that I feel are a reward in its own sort to the listener, if he/she/they are so inclined to seek it out.
What is your perspective on how you want to be represented throughout your band’s visuals (press photos, music videos, album artwork)?
Honesty – I have always wanted a direct translation of who I am to be tangible in all the mediums. Like I said I never will write about something that isn’t true (though the truth is often relative) and I don’t want to present myself as something I’m not. We only use what we have for the visuals, we don’t have a crazy budget, I’m not in designer clothes, you’ll never see me flexin on top of a sports car. All our stuff is shot outside of run down liquor stores in the beat up parts of the suburbs because that’s where I’m spending my time when I’m working on music and that’s where I’m coming from. Nothing more nothing less. Definitely a take it or leave it mentality that totally stems from my own personal tendency to be defensive. I think it’s healthy to be honest with yourself too – don’t get me wrong there are virtues in the “fake it till you make it ethos” but I think the message would be taken wrong if listeners saw a different person then the one putting these stories from pen to paper and out into the world.
Have you had any mentors along the way?
Mentors, none so strictly speaking but I have had key people who were instrumental (excuse the pun) in my journey as a musician. Aaron Pauley is this really talented musician and engineer who lived a town over from where I grew up and was one of the first to encourage me to start writing on my own and ended up producing the first solo record I ever did. He sings for the band “Of Mice and Men” (https://ofmiceandmenofficial.com/) now. Valley Taylor is really talented songwriter who got me out on the road and taught me not by instruction but by living example what it really meant to be “inspired”. He sings for a band called “Higuera” (https://www.facebook.com/higueraband) and when he isn’t on the road is living in Mt. Shasta I think. Stephen Hines is another songwriter who was well known in the bay area music scene who took me under his wing and showed me that my ethnicity didn’t have to confine me to any particular style of music, which was huge for me. He lives in the east bay and plays for a band called “Slumped.” (https://slumped.bandcamp.com/)
