Like the peanut M&Ms I was eating while writing this post, the four-person band Hands produces a sound that is full of dichotomies — sweet spots with salty balance, smooth moments counteracted by texture. Synesthesia, released in April and the Los Angeles group’s first full-length album, is a concoction of electronics and instrumentals that transition from rock to electro-pop to dance grooves, often within the same song. The sing-along quality to many of Synesthesia‘s tracks, particularly “Trouble” and “The Game is Changing Us,” make for an exceptionally enjoyable listening experience.
Founded in 2012, Hands originally began in Philadelphia as a two-person ensemble comprised of Geoff Halliday (vocals, keyboard) and Ryan Sweeney (guitar). Upon moving to the Silver Lake neighborhood of L.A., the band was joined by Sean Hess (drums) and Alex Staniloff (bass guitar). In the short time since their formation, Hands has garnered some serious attention. Time featured the quartet as one of their “11 Great Bands You Don’t Know (But Should)” in August 2012. More recently, ABC News blogger Mimi Wong listed Hands in her article, “SXSW 2013 Music Picks: 7 Emerging Artists on the Rise.”
I had the pleasure of speaking with lead vocalist Geoff Halliday, who assured me that Hands’ show this Sunday at The Frequency will be a killer concert-cum-dance party waiting to happen.
After your move from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, how did you and Ryan meet Sean and Alex, the other two members of Hands?
“We were looking for people to play music with but not really putting a huge amount of pressure on the situation, just because we tried doing that and kept playing with people who didn’t have the same ideas that we did. Sean had been going to school out in L.A., and our buddy Zander introduced us to our drummer. Lo and behold, I think a month later we had a practice space in Hollywood or something like that. It definitely worked out pretty well.”
It sounds like it was a pretty organic process.
“Yeah, for sure. It definitely wasn’t like [Ryan and I] sitting at a table holding auditions or something stupid like that.” (laughs)
I read in an interview that you were quoted as saying of the band’s union, “I met Alex, Sean, and Ryan and we all kind of had a big fist fight and then we had a slumber party and then we became a band.” Was this fistfight metaphorical or was there actually a physical altercation at one point?
“No, no… it was definitely metaphorical. However, there has been a flagrant amount of injuries in the band — mostly from our bassist and guitarist. So, it’s sort of like they’re in a fistfight with the world. The worst thing that happens to Sean and me is that we get allergies once in a while; the other guys are like breaking bones on street corners.”
But overall, you boys are less aggressive than I was envisioning.
“Yeah, we’re not mad men fighting each other with bejeweled knucklets or anything like that.”
You have to admit, that would make for pretty cool stories, though.
“Maybe we’ll save that for next time. Or, you know what, just write that.” (laughs)
Can you tell me about your experience at SXSW? Do you have any outrageous stories to share?
“SXSW was awesome. We definitely have some crazy stories. This year was kind of nuts. We played at this Red Bull stage that was completely oversized and huge and awesome — which was great because it had amazing sound, good turn out, and a cool crowd. But then at night, Red Bull was throwing these all-night ragers. So, if you played the Red Bull stage or were involved somehow, you could get a wrist band that would allow you to get on a shuttle bus that then took you to this weird, outside-of-the-normal Austin party zone. [Red Bull] basically turned a huge lot/barn area into a full drunken campus. They had all this trippy art and lava lamps, and it was a completely open bar. It was insane. I just remember at one point, we were all so wasted. We came back to try and get our guitarist — trying so hard. He was literally standing right in front of the van, we were screaming his name, and he was just too drunk. It was a good time. But, we woke up the next day and played three shows.”
You guys are champions. That’s very impressive. Let’s switch gears and talk about the album. What was the writing process for Synesthesia like?
“The lowdown on the record: we wrote some songs as early as practice number five, and some songs were capped off in the studio. So, it was definitely sort of a long writing process. I think the easiest way I could put it is that most of the songs are some individuals-in-the-band’s genesis. For instance, our drummer started a groove in the song ‘Kinetic’ that was a drum groove, and we built everything around that. Other songs are a little bit more dance-y, and some of those come from our bassist. He’d just have a dance-y song that wasn’t really a song yet, and that was sort of the writing process. One person would come with the skeletal version, and then we’d flesh it out a bit.”
What about the name for the album, Synesthesia. Where did that come from?
“The naming of the album was a weird process. We were just kind of sitting around trying to think of a non-direct way of expressing a lot of the conflicting feelings, emotions, everything that are present in the album. I don’t even remember who exactly, but we stumbled across this disorder called synesthesia, which is a condition where your brain can’t process sensory input normally at all. So we were kind of like, ‘This is the perfect name.’
“It took a second for me to sort of be OK with it because at first I was like, ‘Man, people are going to think we’re trying to be smart by having this crazy word.’ But then, I realized [the name] is too perfect. It works really well, and I think if people are asking what it means, that’s better in a weird way. It gives people a reason to go learn something and check out what it’s all about, as opposed to some silly name for an album that’s just a song off the record. That’s not as interesting for us.”
In less than a month you’ll have worked your way from one coast to the other, and halfway back again. Is touring exhausting?
“It definitely is. We just played in the U.K. before this tour, and the week in between was spent decompressing as much as we could… which wasn’t a lot because we ended up having to go to Las Vegas that week. There was just no real break in between. Yesterday was a day off, but the next nine days we have nine shows in nine different cities. I’m sure if you called me in ten days I might have a different answer for you.
“But, it’s exhilarating too, the amount of adrenaline you get from going to a city you’ve never been to, and having kids that are into it. You know, I remember how excited I got about bands when I was around 14 or 15, 16, 17 [years old]; I don’t think I get that excited about anything anymore! There’s just this weird youthful excitement that you have during those years when you find a band that maybe your friends don’t know about — it’s like gold. To be the band on the other side of that feels really good.”
I love the album cover. Can you explain how it was created or what the inspiration behind it was?
“We had a friend, our drummer’s buddy, in Los Angeles who’s a super killer graphic artist. We gave him the name of the record and the un-mastered version of the album. Two weeks later, he sent us back the beginnings of what the cover is. I think we were all kind of shocked at first — just like, whoa, this is insane. But it fits so perfectly and seeing it on a 12-inch vinyl is like, ‘That’s the cover of our album.’ And it’s real; it’s not a digital thing. I’m so — not tired of seeing digital stuff — but there are so many bands that know Photoshop and just throw a filter on an image. This, though, was a piece of art that he put an intense amount of energy into. He wasted some food obviously as you can see.” (laughs) “It definitely was much more of a project than Photoshopping something together and putting some text on there. This cover speaks for the album.”
Is there a song on the album that you’re particularly fond of or that you have a strong personal connection with?
“Definitely in some of the lyrics there’s some more personal stuff in there. I think lyrically, ‘House of Jars’ might be the one that I’m most likely to never talk about. There are some things in there that I don’t even know if I know about me. Musically, one of the most collaborative songs we did was ‘Elegant Road.’ It kind of went through a bunch of rumination. There was an original drum groove that was OK, but then our drummer filled in this syncopation and it just felt really good. We collaborated, and the end result felt like a product that was much more than the sum of its parts.”
What can attendees expect to see at Hands show on Sunday?
“A lot of dancing… and sweat. We want people to feel involved. I definitely think as a band we’re a group of guys that feeds off of the crowd and vice versa. We like people to come up front. You can look down and tell if people are into it or if they’re just standing there. I think — for the last few shows especially — people seem to get really into it, to the point where I’m almost like, ‘Why don’t you just get up on stage and just dance with us?’ We want to captivate people. I remember shows where you’d go home and you don’t even know how sore you are until the next day, but it was so much fun; that’s sort of what we want to present to people. We have this record — and obviously there are some content on there that’s not terribly dance-y lyrically — but we kind of want to underpin it with this atmosphere of a party. At the end of the day, you might as well dance it off.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard our previous material, but [Synesthesia] is a bit of a departure from our other stuff. But looking back, hindsight being 20/20, I’m so glad we did it.”