#hduh

This is part 7 of a 13 part series where I discuss the meaning behind each song from our album I Understand.

Here is the link to this week’s song:

https://hunterdumpedushere.bandcamp.com/track/take-the-island

Take the Island was one of the last songs that we wrote for the album musically. It was Aslan, Preston and I in a basement trying to figure out what the last few songs needed to sound like musically that really birthed the jam/groove feeling of this song.

I like it very much, because it starts off sounding completing different from the standard HDUH sound but by the end of the song comes around to a much more post-hardcore feel.

This song tells a two-part story of surviving hardship, from the perspective of the same person. The first part of the song is about being physically assaulted and how that not only affected them at the time, but for years to come. They were beaten in public and lived in fear for some time that they would come face to face with their attacker again.

The second part of the story tells of being diagnosed with a mental illness/disorder as an adult, and comprehending/handling that information. When you go your whole childhood life figuring out who you are, it shakes your world to find that there is and has been something “wrong” with you the whole time.

But what this person discovered and came to peace with is that there was never anything “wrong” with them. Having a name or a diagnosis didn’t change who they had been and are as a person. It just explained why they operate the way they do.

You are not your mental diagnosis. There are numerous people living their daily lives with undiagnosed mental illnesses. I would even go as far as to say that I don’t think anyone is 100% mentally healthy. That doesn’t change who you are, and it does not mean that you will not succeed or that your life will come to an end if you seek help.

I enjoy the person this song is written for just the way they are, and they are a stronger person for overcoming what they have and continuing to be successful despite a diagnosis.

The analogy of taking an island represents conquering your mind. No matter what you have been told or what you feel about yourself, you are a beautiful human being an you WILL succeed in some form if you overcome your fears.

This is part 6 in a 13 part series where I explain the meaning behind each track from I Understand. This week we have Ornate and Carved.

Here is the link for this week’s track: https://hunterdumpedushere.bandcamp.com/track/ornate-and-carved

Ornate and Carved started off as a folky, acoustic singer-songwriter type song that I wrote really early on in the process of creating this album. I remember sitting in Oklahoma playing the song for family thinking about how it could be a much bigger song overall. Obviously it changed quite a bit since it’s conception.

In the studio we laid a lot of extra percussion and tracks down on top of the song we had already written. We definitely used a concert drum. The feel we went for for the end of the song was a chaotic circus-type feel. We got reviewed in Stencil Mag since the release and the reviewer of the album said that if felt circus-ey. Mission accomplished.

We got pretty experimental with this one and also used a bitcrusher on my voice for some of the song, and I’m very pleased with the atmosphere it created.

The song tackles the topic of self-harm and searching desperately for alternative coping methods to use when life gets heavy. The person who the story is based on was depressed and alone, dealing with outside stressors such as their parents’ strained relationship.

They turned to self-harm and pills as a way of coping with everything going on internally and externally in their life. I feel like so many people turn to self-harm in one way or another to cope with our problems. That’s not always manifested in cutting your body. It can manifest itself in excessive drug or alcohol abuse, food obsession, and verbal self-deprecation just to name a few.

This person ultimately found comfort through holding to their faith in God, and resolved to overcome their addiction to self-harm. They rose above the pain and succeeded. Never forget that there is a way out, and there is help for you if you need it. You can call 1-855-800-1239 in Iowa if you are experiencing thoughts of harming yourself.

This is part 5 of 13 in a weekly series where I (Gabe) explain the deeper meaning and backstory behind songs from our album I Understand.

Here is the link to stream this week’s track: https://hunterdumpedushere.bandcamp.com/track/ready-aim

I am a little late with this one and I am writing this from Nashville, Tennessee, where we have been since Wednesday night. We have been playing shows and making connections, and we are heading to Marietta, GA tonight to play at Swayze’s. Looking forward to it!

Ready;Aim was another song that really took shape very early into the writing process. Preston and I played it in my apartment and figured out harmonies and contrasting vocal lines. It’s kind of intended to be along the lines of Cave-in, an older song of mine, that is a sing-along acoustic-based ballad.

Fun recording fact - we were under time constraints especially when recording vocals in order to get the album finished within our timeframe, and Preston had a required work training during the week of recording. So he had one afternoon to record all of his vocal parts for the album. He did great, but as he progressed through the day he voice began to wear from singing all the high-range harmonies that he does. There was a certain line where his voice kept cracking out so I was the pinch-hitter and essentially pretended to be Preston for a short harmony line on the chorus. Bet you never noticed!

I wrote this song for a long-time supporter and friend of HDUH. They have supported me since I started playing music as this project and had a very powerful story that they were willing to share.

My friend grew up, like many other people, without a good father figure in their life. Their relationship with their mother was very strained which left them feeling basically alone as they grew up. My friend fended for themselves much of their high school years for housing and other necessities.

This song is a summary of surviving blow after blow that life dealt to them, despite the state of things at home. So many of us take for granted that when things get bad in the world around us, we have steady hands at home to hold us up. My friend didn’t have that.

The most powerful thing about this song to me is that when I wrote it, my friend hadn’t had a relationship with their father’s other children. The line used to be “You know that I’ve got beautiful sisters, it’s a shame that I have never seen them for myself.”

My friend, being the loving and caring person that they are, organized a trip in between that time an when the song was recorded and saw their sisters. The finished lyric now reads: “you won’t show them love so I will do that for myself.” My friend went on to take the fresh start that they needed by moving away from their hometown, and I respect them so much for that.

SHGDHJSAGLJDGJAGHDGASH DI WAS THERE I COULD BUT STUPID JAVA AND IT NOT BEING UPDATED SO I COULDN'T UPLOAD THE STUPID SHITTY ASSIGNMENT LIKE I WAS SUPPOSED TO. FUCKING TABERNACK AND THE LUCIFER HOLY BLEEDLY CALISS EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE SUCK MY CHODE.