How did you all get into music?
I (Aksel) started playing drums in middle school and Hank grew up in the Nashville music scene as a guitar player.
Which artists were major influences?
Duster and The Story So Far are bands that we bonded over early in H@N history.
Nashville is kind of a music capital, how has growing up there influenced you? Musically and otherwise.
Definitely. I think it is easy to pigeon-hole Nashville as a country music hub only, but there is such a rich scene here for so many genres.
Homes At Night. How’d the name come about? Any special meanings behind it?
Homes At Night is the name of a photography collection by one of our favorite photographers; Todd Hido. We felt like the way these photos looked is how we wanted our music to sound.
How would you describe your sound?
Slowcore boyband haha.
What’s your process when it comes to crafting a song?
We will either write a song together or with a third person or one of us will start an idea by ourselves and then bring the demo to each other.
You two formed during the pandemic, how that’d happen?
We both had played music together a bunch in different bands throughout the years but never wrote together. Hank hit me up and eventually convinced me break out of my shell and start writing songs and then we wrote “Bonnaroo” and the rest is history.
Did the pandemic shift the way you viewed/thought about making music?
I think the pandemic taught us that when we had no responsibilities or obligations, all we wanted to do was create music. If anything, it made us more serious about making a body of work.
Congrats on the release of your EP! How has the response been to the project?
So far we’ve been really stoked to get to share these songs with everyone this year. The response has been really amazing and we feel very supported by our community here in Nashville.
What do you want listeners to take from the project? Any specific themes?
We really just want to make music that people want to listen to when they are going on a drive. I think the theme of longing and disconnection, while having some kind of hope is also a theme. “Sad” music isn’t really the goal.
What was the process like crafting the EP?
We started writing for the EP summer 2020 and had our friend JT Daly produce the EP. Making the record is one of our favorite parts about being in the band.
Do you all have a favorite song off it? If so, why? I’d say it’s a tie between “Wasted On You” and “Bonnaroo” for me, they definitely hit in the feels.
Those are good ones; “Bonnaroo” is the first song we wrote together and feels really special but we both really love “Tell Emma” since it was somewhat of an underdog on the record.
You all have such a nostalgic warm feel to all your songs on the EP that makes you feel a sort of sense of longing, was that intentional?
I think that is what naturally came to us at the time we were writing this EP. I think we both write songs together that feel like they are “reaching towards” something, rather than feeling content or static.
We like to say to be a creative and put yourself out there to the public eye that you have to be fearless. Do you agree with that?
Fearless, or at least be able to acknowledge that creating authentic art and displaying it is a very vulnerable process; and that fear is an inevitable by-product of doing something genuine and therefore a sign of something good happening hopefully 🙂
What can people expect from you in the future?
We currently making a new batch of songs and looking at touring mid-spring!
