An Interview With the Seattle Group, LOW HUMS On Their Latest Album and Much More!

Photo Credit- Mike Crop

The Seattle band Low Hums recently released their new single “Too Early to Tell,” which you can check out here: https://soundcloud.com/user-174172534/low-hums-night-magic-wine-06.

It is the first single off the band’s album NightMagicWine, which came out last month via Union Zero. The album was produced by the great Jack Endino (Nirvana, Tad, Screaming Trees). Since their inception in 2009, the band has played sweaty packed college parties, high desert roadhouses, regional festivals, dive bars, all ages bakeries turned into venues, beaches, generator parties and everything else in between, all while touring the West Coast & Southwest 5 times to date. Additionally, Father John Misty was a member of the band before he became “Father John Misty.”

Connect With Low Hums Here:

www.facebook.com/lowhums

www.twitter.com/lowhums

Learn more about Low Hums in the following All Access interview:

Thanks for your time! Where does this interview find the band today?

Hey! Well, we are in the middle of summertime. The Pacific Northwest sure is nice in the summer.
At this very moment I’m about 100% certain we’re all at our day jobs. Tonight we’re gonna meet up about 7 pm and have a practice cause we have a show coming up.

What are some words you would use to describe 2017 so far?

This year .” oh shit ! “.  hows that? Haha Well 2017 seems like kind of a wait and see year I think. With a Trump white house. I’m hoping it’s all smoke and mirrors and a lot of huffing and puffing and nothing much gets done on that front.

How differently did you all approach this year?

Musically, I think we’ve taken more time to woodshed songs and concentrate on getting our music out and heard.

Can you recall the moment you all met and decided you could start a band together?

Well, we’ve been playing for quite a while, and had different lineups,  but we sorta had that moment again recently .. Late career moment ! We recorded NightMagicWine as a trio .. like “oly” style … no bass cause our old bass player had another child so he couldn’t play. So we wrote and recorded the songs in kinda a fractured state. Then Miles went to baja, and I met Crystal and we started rehearsing. That was the first time I’d heard some of the new songs played live with bass ! Then Miles came home and by that time Mike, Crystal and I were well greased. So that first practice when we were all together with our new lineup was pretty stellar.

Can you elaborate on how you are all different and how that helps the band dynamics?

Well this is me Sanoj writing this so I’m kinda the ring leader maybe? I play guitar and sing and write some songs.. . I have to usually deal with the wheelers and dealers.. Hustlers you know. I gotta shake down the man every night so we get paid. I also do a lot of driving.  Miles plays guitar and cooks really well, so that is a big deal.  Mike sings and plays drums and writes some songs. He’s my backup if i need some muscle.  Crystal is our super laid back bass player.. She works part – time at a bakery and often brings shopping bags of fresh bread and rolls to practice.. Beer too! So between her and Miles we’re well fed and well uh watered. We all just get along really well. Mike aka  ‘Fingers’ ..  he’s got some great rolling fingers.. He can really roll a good spliff..

How did you come up with your name?

I woke up one morning from a dream, which was the sound of wolves howling and I wrote down ” low howls ” in my notebook. Somehow that became Low Hums. It’s the sound of wolves howling at night.

What other names were you considering?

Nothing good, nothing worth mentioning. Band names are always kinda difficult to think of .. I think.

I am always curious to know about a band’s sound and really their dynamics has been influenced by the city they all live and write their music. How do you think being from Seattle has affected this group?

Local influences ..  well for maybe one example I played and toured a lot with Earth for a couple years before Low Hums. They are from Seattle.. My favorite band since 1990!  After my turn with them, well…  i sure like playing in that style .. so epic ! So Low Hums do a few instrumentals.. Slower , repeating parts that kinda slowly change.. . Dylan showed me a lot about guitar so likely I picked up a few things just from that experience.. . I get to play with them every once in awhile which is awesome. I think that in it’s self is unique to the area. Kinda directly influenced by other regional bands.. Or bands from here. There was a big folk thing happening here for a while.. Fleet Foxes .. and the hundreds bands that copied them. So like for a while we had banjos and pedal steels and cello’s in the band.. Folk off mate! ..  Fuzz guitar was really unpopular! Haha.

How do you think this group has grown over the years? What has remained the same since you formed in 2009?

I think we found our sound a couple of year ago. It took a  while. We started off being really ‘experimental’. Then we had a lot of folk instruments in the band, then we lost several  members and and finally stripped way down.  Peeled the onion you know.  2009 – 2014 were really learning years. People came and left. In 2009 Miles and I really started jamming a lot and playing music together. 2017 we still have that and I am very blessed.

Let’s talk about your album, “NightMagicWine” that you will be releasing in August. What was it like putting this collection together? What was it like working with the producer Jack Endino on it?

It was really easy. The songs came fast and we worked really hard on arranging them and getting rid of all the extra notes. Jack was a dream to work with,  we had such a cool time recording. We’d definitely do it again.

What was the inspiration for the songs on this album? How did your single “Too Early To Tell” come to be? Generally, how do you all go about putting a song together?

Inspirations kinda from all over.. There’s a song about death and remembrance, rain, political themes, madness, scenic us highways, religious wars, there’s a cover song about love and confusion, a bad ex girlfriend.. Just stuff that people deal with on the day to day.

“Too Early To Tell” is a political song about the elections and about the people that turned out. I was feeling it and wrote that song over morning coffee. It was the last song written for the album. Took about 15 minutes or so to write and demo into a iPhone.

Generally we bring a full song to the table. I usually start with a guitar riff or part and then write the words..sometimes the both come at the same time. Like with to early. Then I will listen to the riff a bunch and write a song about it, and bring it to the band. Mike wrote a song we do and since he lives in a studio he made a pretty complete demo of it, so we learned it from that. Sometimes we’ll just jam on stuff spontaneously.

What are your plans for this summer? Will you be playing out live at all? Can you describe what one of your live shows is like? What makes for an ideal performance for Low Hums?

We are playing out! Whenever we can that works.. Mostly around the pacific northwest.. We have some good club shows in the Seattle area and a few parties/gatherings. We just went down the west coast in May and that was our best tour so far. We’ve done it a couple times.

A ideal show for us .. hmm I think when you can feel the magic in the room? Like when the band and audience are really one and the same and we’re all having a rad time.  Could be were in some bar playing on the floor and folks are partying and having a cool time.

Who are some of your favorite artists? Who would you all love to work with in the future? What would be a dream collaboration for this band?

Favorite artists … Well, Earth of course, and they are good friends .. Dead Meadow, we’ve played with them and Jason a few times. Love those dudes..  I’m a friend of Randall Dunn and I love the projects he does. Would be great to work with him again at some point. He did our 2014  full length ‘Charm’ .  There are so many good new bands.  We hope to work with anyone who is good. Folks who book cool festivals would be nice to meet and work with. Folks who book bands in Europe would be really cool to work with!

What do you hope is the message of your music? What do you hope people continue to take away from your songs?

I like to hope that our music is fun and entertaining. I can’t get into stuff that is to heady you know. You won’t find any bummer head trips in our songs.  Maybe like some things question or poke fun at a serious topic.

I’d like our records to be able to be played in the morning or at night .. you know.. Wine in the morning and some breakfast at night. Ohhhh I’m beginning to see the light.. (to quote Lou Reed ) but that kinda sums it up nicely.  I try and end on the positive note.

What advice would you give to a band just getting started on this music path? Or even to someone young that is thinking of becoming a musician one day?

Practice practice practice and don’t quit!. Write songs, play shows as many as you can. Go to all the parties, go and see lots of shows. Embrace the DIY ethic.

Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers about yourself or your music?

Thanks for reading and checking us out! We’re on the webs so get in touch!