save everything / the new single from hands and feet + an interview with artist

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SH: How are you? Lockdown for a musician can be torturous. Are you missing live shows yet?

H&F: I've been doing okay for the most part.  Right before the lockdown I had to get a new computer cause the two weeks before COVID hit the US I played a show and my old computer died on stage.  So i got a new computer and I updated the recording software and midi controller so I have been spending most of my time relearning the recording program and figuring out all the tricks i can do with the midi controller.  I have also recorded a new EP that was released at the end of March.  I did a couple of remixes for a couple of people and collaborated on a few tracks. 

Do I miss playing live?  Absolutely.  I feel like I am missing a limb or something.  I've been playing music in front of people since i was 14 and to not be doing that is really emotionally hard.

SH: How long have you been creating and recording music? Why did you start?

H&F: I started playing guitar when I was 13.  I never got into sports.  I played soccer  and football  for a couple years when i was a little kid, but I was more into skating and punk rock. I really started writing my own songs when I was in highschool but it wasn't until the late 90's when I really found myself.

SH: Why haven't you stopped?

H&F: I have thought about it many times.  Like right now.  The opportunity to step out right now would make sense.  No shows, no venues, no label, why am I still doing this?  It's because like what I said before, it's a limb, or even deeper than that.  It's a part of my heart, my soul.  Also, I love the feeling of playing music. The way things ring in my ears, the way my fingertips feel when pressing down stings to the fretboard, the way drums and low bass tones feel on my chest, mixed with all of the emotions I am feeling at that time while playing, it make me wonder why more people don't write or play.

SH: Beyond your solo work as Hands and Feet, you are also in a band called Golden Curls. How much of your style and ideas flow between the two? Does one inspire or motivate the other?

H&F: I have never played in a band like Golden Curls before.  I have a feeling that the (now) four of us all have our place in that band.  Sarah Downen is the songwriter in the band.  She writes all the synths, vocals and beats then brings them to the band and the three of us (Philip Zahnd drums, Anthony Patten bass, and myself guitar and noise) write our parts around her.  Sometimes our open playing turns into songs.  We do (or did) a lot of improvising at live shows to open our sets or to add atmosphere in between songs.

So saying that I bring what I can from Hands and Feet over to Golden Curls and reverse.  I have spent a lot of time finding my sound and tone and I if want to or not bring that to every project I do.  I said before that I had to buy a new computer and upgrade my recording software and whatnot, I also recently fell in deep love with a type of guitar and it has made me look at guitar playing in a different perspective.  Seems silly to most i guess but i'm the kind of person who can get stuck in there own ways. 

SH: Beyond music, what are your greatest influences?

H&F: Film for sure.  I had a good friend who passed away a couple of years ago who got me into film and cartoons and making stop motion animation.  I used to film on Super 8 cameras, regular 8 cameras.  I taught myself film splicing and other cool camera tricks.  I stopped doing it cause it cost tons of money to keep it up and the amount of hours spent doing it was insane.

Nature, mother nature, and all of the elements are also a big influence.  The way weather can change the way a person feels emotionally has always interested me. 

I would also like to add the people I surround myself with influences me and my creativity.  Almost everyone I know is an artist of some kind, from music, to film, to being a writer, a sculptor, a photographer and so on.  I feel that creative people find each other and we look out for one another, or, thats how it is in STL anyway. 

SH: You have an undying relationship with cats. If you had nine lives, which one would you be on now?

H&F: I would have to say I am on my 5th life.  Not that I am this total badass dude who burns the candle at both ends or that I have lived a bad life, it's just that I have made a few sour choices in my time.  Having to restart your life the first time is a big deal, the second time not so much cause you have already been down that path, but the third time for me was the hardest cause I have already done it twice before and you start to wonder if you are a defective human who can't get it right. 

SH: Tell us a little bit about the exclusive track, 'Save Everything'.

H&F: I wanted to write something you could roller skate to.  It has this slow moving train-like feel even during the quiet parts that for me reminds me of couple skating then being interrupted by bully skaters and then being kicked out and back where the couples started but its not the same as it was in the beginning.  That's just the feeling I wanted to capture.  For me, "Save Everything" is about the idea that everything is ending.  No more going out to do what we used to do.  It's about keeping as many memories you can or even better, hyperthymesia.

I started this song as a session with Gary Schmidt.  We have been talking about music and I invited him over to check out what I got and what I have been working on.  I started making beats and I was messing around with his sounds.  I saved the session and came back to it later to find that my computer is too full to have any audio at the time so I kept the beats and re-recorded all the synths and guitars.  I was able to keep a small part of Gary's playing and for me, it totally makes the songs.

SH: It has a clear beginning, middle, and end with conflict and resolution. Do you create each sonic journey with a character in mind? Or do you rather follow the sound?

H&F: I kind of feel like that's how most of my writing goes.  For this one I had a couple of characters but from the memory or perspective of one them.  The memory or roller skating and being messed with by others.  A lot of my songs are kind of written like that by accident.  A lot of what I write also just flows.  my recent "live" set I did with Farfetched was all based on free form, looping, and beat making.  That is what turned into the Dreamwave (Alive) EP which was released earlier in the year under the PG collective label.

Take the record, "Kiki" for example.  All those songs were written with my old cat in mind.  During the recording of that record it was just her and I.  I would be trying to record a guitar line and during the recording she would start rubbing up against the mic, or I would be playing keyboards and she would put her paws on the keys.  It got to the point where I just started sampling her.

SH: Who are your heroes?

H&F: Anyone who can better themselves and pass along a positive influence to others.  Someone who is open minded, and works hard at their craft and can take in influence from anyone positive or negative and make it beautiful.  Someone who does fail and shows zero shame and learns from that.  Might sound corny, but those are my heroes.

SH: What advice do you have for the people?

H&F: The world is ending.  if it's not, act like it.  Do what you can, when you can which means now.  Wear a mask, wash your hands.  Friends and family, I love you.