When every sound counts…
It’s a pleasure to share with you this eclectic music set compiled and mixed by Andrew Lee — great guy, musician, singer, bandleader and composer from Vancouver, Canada.
I asked Andrew some questions about his new music project “Holy Hum”, about his plans for future and now you can read the whole interview.
So, if Holy Hum is not a band, why do you need an alias at all? And how did you come to it?
In the winter of 2011 I spent a lot of time in hospitals. My father was diagnosed with a very rare form of thyroid cancer and wasn’t given too long to live. So I stayed by his bedside until he eventually passed away. I had nothing else to do but sit in silence and it was the humming of machines that were keeping people alive that got ingrained in my mind. That sound and that feeling still kind of echoes in my mind. That’s where the name comes from — a Holy Hum — a type of sound that has a type of transcendent quality.
At the same time, it references such a dark time in my life. It was a time of many endings — many deaths. The death of my father, the end of my band In Medias Res, and the end of a year of being on and off the road. I was pretty lost. Holy Hum is a project born of that time and is something I’m still kind of figuring out to be honest.
I think by naming something, you are kind of giving it its own life. Whether you are naming your car, your tits, or a band — you give it a personality that may or may not be your own. There is a freedom as an artist to give your project a name other than you own and I kind of needed that at this point in my life. I needed an outlet for some of the dark stuff in my life to be exorcized.
Holy Hum for you is a state of mind or a result of some kind of an art process?
I would say it’s definitely a process. It’s more of a project than a band. Holy Hum has no official members other than myself and doesn’t operate like a band at all. I wouldn’t say it’s a state of mind because my brain is interested in different things everyday. And the project is not consistent in how it presents itself to me so it’s definitely more process based. I definitely do think of Holy Hum as an art project. Like I said it kind of has a life of its own.
Your first album is a solid, beautiful and thoughtful uncut one-hour record. How did you come to this concept? Do you use it [this concept] at your live shows?
Appendix C actually was never meant to be an album and I don’t really consider it to be one. I guess the best way to describe it would be to call it a composition.
I had just finished recording the first Holy Hum LP (that hasn’t been released yet) and had a lot of momentum and wanted to keep working on something. I started Appendix C one night and it ending up being 20 minutes long. I really liked it and I just kept going. I had no intention of it being any certain length. I just came out of the studio one day and the track ended up being an hour long. From that point I did a lot of editing. Despite it being 60 minutes I ended up taking a lot of things out.
I look at performing live as an opportunity to try new things. I generally won’t play the same song the same way twice. I feel too much like a cover band if I’m playing the same song over and over. By keeping things loose and also being open to changes I feel that I’m always learning something new about the song and also about performing. I suppose if you want to hear the songs as they are on the album you can just listen to the album.
Who are your biggest music inspirations?
I think I might have too many to list. I like different artists for different reasons. Like I really envy how Phil Elverum operates his own label and is able to also publish books all under the umbrella of Mount Eerie. He has a way of making his out put seamless.
I really respect artists like Spencer Krug or Sufjan Stevens for being really vulnerable in their song writing. At the same time I wish I could write music like Dan Bejar or Bob Dylan who’s lyrics are obscured a bit and allow you to write from a point of view that might not be your own.
Sonically I really like the work of Tim Hecker and Loscil. They are kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum. Tim Hecker, if I were to describe it, would be almost like electronic free jazz with elements of noise. Whereas Scott Morgan’s project Loscil is definitely rooted in ambient music that usually has some sort of rhythm.
I also have a lot of respect for artists who have had to cross a cultural divide. Artists like Alex Zhang Hungtai formerly of Dirty Beaches, Nina Simone or even someone like Mathangi Arulpragasam (M.I.A.) who acknowledge their cultural background in their work and yet are able to speak to a larger audience. Being a Korean dude in the very white indie music world, I don’t have a lot of models to emulate.
What are your goals (in music especially) in a short-time and long-time perspective?
My goals are more about my process. I would really like to have more discipline when it comes to my practice. I really need to create more time to work on my music. As long as I show up — something ends up happening. Whether it’s a song or even a new sound — I really need to be more disciplined about making the time for it.
A long term goal might be to make music my day job. But really even if I was working on an oil rig I would probably still come home everyday after a hard days work and make music. So really my long term goal is just to keep doing it and to not stop pushing myself artistically.
How do you see an ideal place and situation for your music?
I like the word situation. An ideal situation for my music would be where people are relaxed and are able to be quiet and still. Clubs and bars are not the best environments for that so Holy Hum usually performs more often than not in gallery spaces. I think a club is the last place I would go to on my free time so I feel hypocrite asking people to come watch me perform in those spaces.
What would you like to wish to your listeners?
I would like to wish them good health.
